Overview

There are four subfamilies. The Anommatinae includes the introduced Anommatus duodecimstriatus , which occurs in soil and leaf litter, and the Xylariophilinae is represented by Xylariophilus (2 spp.), which feed on the fruiting bodies of pyrenomycetous fungi in rainforests of Qld. The Teredinae are known to inhabit the tunnels of ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Platypodinae), but their larvae are not of the predacious type and probably feed on the yeasts cultivated by their hosts; there are several species of Teredolaemus in Australia. Bothriderinae feed on larvae and pupae of wood-boring insects, particularly Coleoptera (Buprestidae, Bostrichidae, Anobiidae, Cerambycidae, Curculionidae). These predacious or ectoparasitic forms construct silken cocoons or waxen chambers for pupation. Species of Sosylus appear to be restricted to the tunnels of ambrosia beetles and are known to have triungulin-like 1st instars and ectoparasitic late instars (Roberts 1980). Other bothriderine genera include Deretaphrus (the largest and most commonly encountered genus), Dastarcus , Aeschyntelus and Pseudobothrideres . [Carter and Zeck 1937; Lawrence 1980, 1985b; Pal and Lawrence 1986.]

Description

Oblong to narrowly elongate, subcylindrical to flattened beetles, usually subglabrous, but sometimes clothed with decumbent and erect hairs or rarely ( Dastarcus ) scale-like setae. Adults are superficially similar to some Colydiidae, from which they differ in having exposed antennal insertions and a cucujiform or ring-type aedeagus. Antennae relatively short, usually with a compact, 1- or 2-segmented club (weakly 3-segmented in Deretaphrus ); frontoclypeal suture usually present (sometimes indistinct); tibiae with expanded and spinose apices and sometimes enlarged and unequal tibial spurs; trochanterofemoral articulation strongly oblique, so that portion of femur is in contact with coxa (heteromeroid type), and in most species trochanter reduced and more or less concealed by femoral base.

Larvae of Xylariophilus , Anommatus and the Teredinae are typically cucujoid with a granulate or tuberculate upper surface and well-developed mandibular molae and urogomphi; those of Bothriderinae have no molae and minute or no urogomphi, and are either lightly sclerotised, physogastric ectoparasitoids or minute, fusiform triungulins.