Overview

Colydiidae are common under bark, in rotten wood and in leaf litter, and most appear to be mycophagous. Some are associated with moss or lichens, and others feed on the fruiting bodies of pyrenomycetous fungi (Ascomycetes). Todima are found in the leaf bases or on the flower stalks of grass trees ( Xanthorrhoea ). The Melanesian Pseudendestes robertsi is known to prey on the larvae of platypodine weevils, and it is likely that the Australian P. australis has similar habits.

Description

Narrowly elongate to oblong or ovate and strongly convex to flattened, usually brown or black in colour, and subglabrous or variously clothed with decumbent or erect hairs, bristles or scales. Antennal insertions concealed; usually with well-developed frontoclypeal ridge which may be produced forward; lateral pronotal carinae almost always complete and often crenulate or dentate; prosternal process flat and not or only slightly expanded apically; tarsi almost always simple; articulations between ventrites usually similar, so that all ventrites lie on same plane.

Larvae elongate, cylindrical to somewhat flattened, and relatively lightly sclerotised, except for head and T9, the latter almost always with pair of urogomphi and often a sclerotised pit between them.

Distribution

Some of the more common Australian genera are Pycnomerus , Ablabus and Sparactus . Dryptops are particularly interesting in that they harbour an epicuticular growth of cryptogams, giving them a green colour (Samuelson 1966). [Carter and Zeck 1937; Lawrence 1980; Slipinski 1987b.]