Overview
Adult Aderidae are normally collected on foliage or in Malaise or flight-intercept traps, while larvae have been collected in rotten wood, under bark or in leaf litter.
Description
Elongate, convex to somewhat flattened beetles, usually resembling smaller Anthicidae in having a narrow pronotum without lateral carinae, securiform maxillary palps, and the head abruptly constricted behind the eyes; they differ from anthicids, however, in having larger, more coarsely facetted eyes, internally open fore coxae, the first 2 ventrites strongly connate or solidly fused, the antepenultimate tarsal segment lobed, and the penultimate one reduced. Many species have bicoloured elytra, and the vestiture consists of erect and/or decumbent hairs, the latter sometimes forming a pattern. In males of some species, the hind femora bear setose secretory organs.
Larvae almost always narrowly elongate, parallel-sided, somewhat flattened and lightly sclerotised, except for tips of urogomphi. Mandible almost always with hyaline lobe at base of mola, median endocarina on head and armature on S9 absent.
Distribution
The Australian fauna includes
Pseudananca ruficollis
,
Syzeton
,
Syzetoninus
,
Syzetonellus
and many species described in
Xylophilus
(=
Aderus
) but belonging to several other genera.
Megaxenus
from North Qld and Melanesia (Lawrence
et al.
1990) differs from other aderids in its large size (usually more than 4 mm long), lack of a mandibular mola in both adult and larva, lack of larval urogomphi, and termitophilous habits. [Baguena Corella 1948; Lea 1917a, b; Watt 1987.]