Overview
All members of this family are ecoparasites of wood-boring beetles.
Description
This family is sometimes considered to be a subfamily of Cucujidae and was placed there by Lawrance and Britton (1991). Adults are elongate, parallel sided, cylindrical to moderately flattened, and glabrous, with a large head, reduced and concealed labrum, and well-developed, unequal tibial spurs (very long in
Ancistria
). First instars are active, well-sclerotised triungulins, which have fully developed legs; later instars are soft bodied, with reduced legs and minute urogomphi.