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Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal species; [2] new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting ...
Polyphaga is the largest and most diverse suborder of beetles.It comprises 144 families in 16 superfamilies, and displays an enormous variety of specialization and adaptation, with over 350,000 described species, or approximately 90% of the beetle species discovered thus far.
The Carboniferous insect species Stephanastus polinae has been interpreted by some authors as the sister group of Coleoptera and Strepsiptera (as its own extinct order, Skleroptera), but this interpretation has been disputed and it has been alternatively suggested to be a member of the extinct order Protelytroptera (a stem group of the modern ...
Adult Dermestidae are generally small beetles (1–12 mm long), rounded to oval in shape, with hairy or scaly elytra that may form distinctive and colourful patterns. [3] [4] Except in genera Dermestes and Trichelodes, there is a single ocellus in the middle of the head.
This article classifies the subgroups of the order Coleoptera down to the level of families, following the system in "Family-group names in Coleoptera (Insecta)", Bouchard, et al. (2011), [1] with corrections and additions from 2020, [2] with common names from bugguide.net.
Scarabs are stout-bodied beetles, many with bright metallic colours, measuring between 1.5 and 160 millimetres (0.059 and 6.3 in). They have distinctive, clubbed antennae composed of plates called lamellae that can be compressed into a ball or fanned out like leaves to sense odours.
The elytra of this cockchafer beetle are readily distinguished from the transparent hindwings.. An elytron (/ ˈ ɛ l ɪ t r ɒ n /; from Ancient Greek ἔλυτρον (élutron) 'sheath, cover'; pl.: elytra, / ˈ ɛ l ɪ t r ə /) [1] [2] is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true ...
The probability of a beetle guarding is dependent on both the sex ratio and the size of an individual. A larger beetle is more likely to guard than a smaller beetle because smaller beetles require more energy to maintain guarding and are thus unable to compete with larger beetles, so the smaller beetles get little marginal benefit by guarding.