Sap beetle
Temporal range:
Ipidia binotata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Cucujiformia
Superfamily: Cucujoidea
Family: Nitidulidae
Latreille, 1802

The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles.

They are small (2–6 mm) ovoid, usually dull-coloured beetles, with knobbed antennae. Some have red or yellow spots or bands. They feed mainly on decaying vegetable matter, over-ripe fruit, and sap. Some sap beetle species coexist with fungi species and live in habitats of coniferous trees. These fungi-dependent beetles are found in all across Europe and Siberia and are the biggest nutudulid species known in those areas.[1] Other species like the Australian Chychramptodes murrayi are known to feed on scale insects.[2] There are a few pest species, like the strawberry sap beetle that infest crops in Brazil between the months of August and February.[3]

Some common sap beetles include:

The oldest unambiguous fossils of the family date to the Early Cretaceous, belonging to the genus Crepuraea from the Aptian aged Zaza Formation of Russia.[4]

Classification

The family includes these genera:

References

  1. Audisio, P., Cline, A., Mancini, E., Trizzino, M., Clayhills, T., Cline, A., & Sabatelli, S. (2016).
  2. 1 2 Kirejtshuk, A.G.; Lawrence, J.F. 1992: Cychramptodini, a new tribe of Nitidulidae (Coleoptera) from Australia. Journal of the Australian Entomological Society, 31: 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-6055.1992.tb00456.x
  3. Moliterno, A., Martins, C., Szczerbowski, D., Zawadneak, M., & Zarbin, P. (2017). The Male Produced Aggregation Pheromone of a Strawberry Sap Beetle, Lobiopa insularis (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae). Journal Of Chemical Ecology, 43(6), 550-556. doi: 10.1007/s10886-017-0851-y
  4. KIREJTSHUK, ALEXANDER G.; NEL, ANDRE (2018-03-27). "Nitidulidae (Coleoptera) from the Paleocene of Menat (France)". Zootaxa. 4402 (1): 1–41. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4402.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 29690276.


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