Mordellidae
Murder Ella aculeata
The tumbling flower beetle ( Mordellidae ) are a family of beetles with about 2,000 species worldwide. In Europe, they occur with 264 species. Many species are commonly found on flowers and make tumbling movements.
Features
The usually dark-colored beetles are 2-15 mm long. The sting beetles are characterized by strong hind legs, a curved body and often a long extended abdomen. In the larger forms the apex of the abdomen ( pygidium ) is pulled into a long point. Body flat arched top, bottom with much stronger curvature, oblong, narrowed to the rear.
The larvae live in rotting wood or anbrüchigem, which is penetrated by sponges or nate in stems. Some species also cause a galling. The beetles are found on old wood, rotten bridge railings, or, as the genus Mordellistena, usually very numerous on flowers and flowering shrubs. They are very lively and make the arrest was violent, tumbling movements.
This seemingly tumbling movements are made up of a series of very fast single jumps ( each jump duration about 80 msec. ). They result from the efforts of beetles, to bring up from the supine or lateral position again in a new departure position. The solo jump can be interpreted as an exaggerated flipping, which is carried out with a leg of the third pair of legs ( metapodials ). Depending on whether the left or right Metapodium is used as Stemmbein, results in a change in the jump direction. Bounce Energy is variable because it is due to direct muscle work. The results are different jump distances and heights with rotation frequencies of up to 48 measured U / s ( Mordellochroa abdominalis ) around the centroid of the longitudinal body axis. An additional rotation about the transverse axis ( lower frequency ) ensures screwed Salti ( tumbling ). The sting ( pygidium ) is meaningless for the jump. Weaker, but technically similar jumps are found in the beetles of the neighboring families Melandryidae ( = Serropalpidae ) ( genus Orchesia ) and Scraptiidae ( genus Anaspis ), phylogenetically leave a more general origin of ability to undertake this Lokomotionsform suspect, so do not specifically apply only to the Mordellidae allowed.
Types (selection)
- Glipa Glipa hilaris
- Glipa oculata
- Murder Ella marginata
- Murder Ella signata
- Murder Ella quadripunctata
- Murder Ella holomelaena
- Murder Ella aculeata
- Mordellistena andreae
- Mordellistena cervical
- Mordellistena Convicta
- Mordellistena fuscipennis
- Mordellistena neuwaldeggiana
- Mordellistena ornata
- Mordellistena pubescens
- Mordellistena pustulata
- Mordellistena scapularis
- Mordellistena hebraica
- Mordellochroa abdominal
- Tolidomordella discoidea
- Tomoxia line ella
- Tomoxia serval
- Tomoxia bucephala
- Yakuhananomia bidentata
- Paramordellaria triloba
- Variimorda fasciata
- Variimorda villosa