Overview
Phalacridae are primarily mycophagous and most feed on spores of various kinds; however larvae of
Litochrus
have been collected in rotten stringy bark and in rotten wood at the base of a living eucalypt.
Phalacrus uniformis
is known to feed on the spores produced on the galls of
Uromycladium
(Basidiomycetes: Uredinales), and
Phalacrinus
adults may be collected in numbers by beating dead eucalypt leaves. [Lea 1932; Steiner 1984; Thompson and Marshall 1980.]
Description
Broadly ovate, strongly convex, glabrous and shining beetles, in which lateral portions of prothorax and elytra are broadly explanate and deflexed. Head short, broad and deeply inserted into anterior prothoracic emargination; antennae relatively long with large club; tibiae with conspicuous setal comb at apex; tarsi with first 3 segments lobed and setose below and claws toothed or appendiculate.
Larvae elongate and subcylindrical to flattened, usually narrowed posteriorly, and lightly sclerotised, except for head, protergal plate, apex of segment 8 and urogomphi or entire T9. Head broad and somewhat flattened, with short antennae and usually with median endocarina; mala blunt; hypostomal rods long and diverging; 8th spiracles located dorsally near posterior end of tergum; S9 and segment 10 more or less concealed.
Phalacrus
larvae are unusual in lacking an endocarina on the head and in having the antennal sensorium on segment 1, rather than 2.
Distribution
The major genera in Australia are
Phalacrinus
,
Phalacrus
,
Litochrus
and
Parasemus
.