Ochodaeidae

A species of the genus Ochodaeus

The Ochodaeidae are a family of beetles ( Coleoptera) from the superfamily Scarabaeoidea. The family is distributed almost worldwide and is missing only in Australia and New Zealand. It comprises two subfamilies with 10 genera and about 80 species. The focus of the distribution lies in the Holarctic region, southern Africa and Madagascar. In Europe so far eleven species were detected.

  • 4.1 Notes and references
  • 4.2 Literature

Features

Beetle

The beetles are 3-10 mm long and have an elongated and convex physique. They are yellow, brown, red-brown or black in color, some species are also provided with two of these colors. The head is not directed downwards. The compound eyes are undivided, their ommatidia are fully developed ( eucon ). The face plate ( clypeus ) is either developed normally or carries on the front edge tubercles. The labrum is striking extended beyond the edge of the end plate, and often has a double lobe and is indented. The nasopharynx is variable and either has a rounded tip, square, slotted or has a double lobe, arranged with a fringe of loose or dense, fine or strong bristles. In most basal taxa of the family crests are formed laterally. The sensors are zehngliedrig usually and have a tripartite wedges. Only in the Chaetocanthini they are neungliedrig. The mouthparts are adapted very variable. The sclerotized, pointed mandibles are strikingly drawn out and over the apex of the labrum. The Maxillarpalpen are four members in general, in the genera Namibiotalpa and Codocera and some species of the genus ' Ochodaeus they are five-membered. The labial palps are four members in general, at Ochodaeus Odontochodaeus and they only have three members.

The pronotum is convex, almost square and point- usually structured, and hairy, or smooth. On the rails ( tibiae ) of the middle legs is a single brushed ( pectinater ) or rounded brushed ( crenulater ) spur. A Empodium missing. The wing covers ( elytra ) are convex and can have longitudinal grooves in some species. Often they are point-like textured or granulated and hairy, sometimes smooth. The spiracles on the abdomen are all functional. The first to sixth is located in the Pleuralmembranen, the seventh and eighth on the tergite.

Larvae

The larvae are up to now only by Pseudochodaeus estriatus known whose larva was described in a paper by Carlson and Ritcher from 1974. It has a C- shaped curved body, which is whitish in color with the exception of the abdomen end. The antennae are four members, on their last two members sense organs are formed. Simple eyes ( ocelli ) are missing. The Frontoclypealnaht is regressed. The Tormae of the nasopharynx are fused and symmetrical. The Galea and lacinia are clearly separated. The Maxillarpalpen are tripartite, both on them, and on the mandibles stridulating organs are formed. The legs are well developed and have five members. You have two strong, bristled claws and lack stridulating organs. The spiracles are sieve-like ( cribriform ).

Way of life

Little is known about the life of Ochodaeidae. The adults can be found usually on approach to artificial light sources, especially in semi-arid, sandy areas. From a few species is known that they are diurnal. The species with the spread in the New World evolve in detritus in the nests of leaf-cutting ants of the genus Atta. There is a presumption of Woodruff in a work from 1973 that during the day hide the Imagines in hiding under the earth, and that they feed on fungi. At least in a kind of stand fungi spores were found in the digestive tract. This led to the conjecture of Lawrence et al. that both the beetles and the larvae feed themselves from the year 1999 by growing underground fruiting bodies of fungi.

Taxonomy and systematics

Lawrence & Newton presented in a paper from the year 1982 on the assumption that the Ochodaeidae are closely related to the Hybosoridae and Ceratocanthidae. Since then, this hypothesis was confirmed on several occasions and is also confirmed by Bags & Leschen ( 2005). Of these, closely related to the Ochodaeidae distinguished by the absence of the canthus to the compound eyes, the formation of two pairs of spiracles on the abdomen on the tergites and the lack of Stridulationsorganen on the legs of the larvae. The formation of a single combed ( pectinaten ) or rounded combed ( crenulaten ) spur on the rails of the middle legs established the monophyly of the family.

The following table lists the subfamilies including genres, as well as the European species:

  • Subfamily Ochodaeinae Ochodaeus, more than 60 species from the New World, Africa, Madagascar, the Palearctic and the Oriental Ochodaeus alleonis Fairmaire, 1884
  • Ochodaeus chrysomeloides ( Cabinet, 1781)
  • Ochodaeus cornifrons Solsky, 1876
  • Ochodaeus cychramoides Reitter, 1893
  • Ochodaeus graecus Petrovitz, 1968
  • Ochodaeus inermis Reitter, 1893
  • Ochodaeus integriceps Semenov - Tian- Shanskii, 1891
  • Ochodaeus montanus Fuente, 1912
  • Ochodaeus pocadioides Motschulsky, 1859
  • Ochodaeus thalycroides Reitter, 1893
  • Codocera ferruginea ( Eschscholtz, 1818)
  • Chaetocanthus, 3 species from Africa south of the Equator
  • Synochodaeus, 3 species from the south-west Africa
  • Namibiotalpa, 1 species in the Namib
  • Pseudochodaeus, 1 species from the western United States of America

Documents

613296
de