Dascillidae

Dascillus cervinus, copyright Udo Schmidt.

Belongs within: Elateriformia.

The Dascillidae are a group of elongate beetles with serrate antennae whose larvae live on organic matter in the soil (Lawrence & Britton 1991). Members of the subfamily Karumiinae are relatively soft-bodied with a tendency for neotenic development (Bouchard 2014).

Characters (from Lawrence & Britton 1991): Elongate, more or less parallel-sided, brown and clothed with decumbent grey or yellow pubescence usually forming narrow stripes on elytra; antennae eleven-segmented, serrate; pronotum strongly transverse with complete lateral carinae visible from above; fore coxae transverse, trochantins exposed, fore coxal cavities externally and internally open; mid coxal cavities narrowly separated, laterally open; tarsi pentamerous; abdomen with five ventrites, 0–2 connate. Larva more or less C-shaped, with large head, well-developed legs, and complex epipharyngeal and hypopharyngeal armature; labrum partly fused to clypeus; antennae appearing two-segmented with sensorium at apex; T9 with pair of minute urogomphi.

<==Dascillidae B14
    |  i. s.: Notodascillus sublineatus LB91
    |         Helodes M86
    |           |--H. atkinsoni Waterh. 1877 M86
    |           |--H. australis Erichs. 1841 M86
    |           |--H. distincta Lucas 1846 E12
    |           |--H. maculatus Waterh. 1877 M86
    |           `--H. vicina Lucas 1846 E12
    |         Notiocyphon B70
    |--Dascillus Latreille 1802 L02 [Dascillinae B14]
    |    |--D. brevicornis Macleay 1872 M86
    |    |--D. cervinus G20 [=Atopa cervina L02, Cebrio (Dascillus) cervinus G20]
    |    |--D. davidsoni LeConte 1859 B14
    |    `--D. plumbeus B14
    `--Karumiinae [Karumiidae] B14
         |--Anorus piceus LeConte 1859 B14
         `--Karumia B14
              |--K. estafilinoides B14
              `--K. staphylinus (Semenov & Martynov 1925) B14

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B14] Bouchard, P. (ed.) 2014. The Book of Beetles: A lifesize guide to six hundred of nature's gems. Ivy Press: Lewes (United Kingdom).

[B70] Britton, E. B. 1970. Coleoptera (beetles). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers pp. 495–621. Melbourne University Press.

[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.

[L02] Latreille, P. A. 1802. Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière des crustacés et des insectes vol. 3. Familles naturelles des genres. F. Dufart: Paris.

[LB91] Lawrence, J. F., & E. B. Britton. 1991. Coleoptera (beetles). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers 2^nd ed. vol. 2 pp. 543–683. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Victoria).

[M86] Masters, G. 1886. Catalogue of the described Coleoptera of Australia. Part IV. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (2): 259–380.

Last updated: 10 December 2020.