Tenebrioninae
| Tenebrioninae | |
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| Red Flour Beetle (Tribolium castaneum: Triboliini) | |
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| Subfamily: | Tenebrioninae Latreille, 1802
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Some 20, but see text | |
Tenebrioninae are a large subfamily of the darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae), containing among others the flour beetles.
Many of these robust and usually mid-sized beetles have elytra with some sort of corrugation on the upperside. They are usually colored blackish, dark brown or grey, and often have a satiny sheen; they are generally not glossy (some are outright matte) and few are metallic. The body is shaped like a medical capsule or like a bullet; the legs can be shortish and stout or long and spindly. They eat both fresh and decaying vegetation as well as vegetable produce, and several are commercially important pests e.g. of flour and other cereal products.
Tenebrioninae are eaten by large invertebrates and small vertebrates, such as birds, rodents, and lizards. The larval stages of several species are cultured as feeder insects for captive insectivores, and include mealworms and mini mealworms.
Notable species
The Mealworm Beetle (Tenebrio molitor) is commonly used as food for terrestrial amniotes kept in terraria. Other Tenebrio and Tribolium species are also bred as animal food. The Red Flour Beetle (Tribolium castaneum) is a popular genetics laboratory animal and model organism, especially in studies of intragenomic conflict and population ecology. Several species of Tenebrio and Tribolium (e.g. Confused Flour Beetle T. confusum, or T. destructor) and other genera (e.g. Gnathocerus cornutus) are pests of cereal and flour silos and other storage facilities.
Systematics
The Tenebrioninae are traditionally divided in some 20 tribes. The exact delimitation and validity of several of these is disputed however. Molecular phylogenetic studies have yielded highly inconsistent results, perhaps due to any or all of hybridization, horizontal gene transfer by Wolbachia bacteria and insufficient taxon sampling obfuscating the information contained in DNA sequence data.[1]
In some treatments, the Pimeliinae are included as yet another tribe. This may be correct, but as far as can be told they are a closely related but well distinct lineage of Tenebriodidae[1]. The Crypticini and Pentaphyllini are sometimes placed here, but more commonly in the Diaperinae
The tribes (and some notable genera) are:
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Alphitobiini Reitter, 1917 (sometimes included in Triboliini)
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Bolitophagini Kirby, 1837
Dendarini Espanol, 1945 (sometimes included in Pedinini)
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Helopini Latreille, 1802
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Heterotarsini LeConte, 1862
Leichenini Leng, 1920
Opatrini Brullé, 1832[verification needed]
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Palorini Matthews, 2003 Pedinini Eschscholtz, 1829
Platyscelidini Lacordaire, 1859
Scaphidemini Reitter, 1922 Tenebrionini Latreille, 1802
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Toxicini
Ulomini Blanchard, 1845
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In addition, the genus Aphtora is of uncertain placement in this subfamily.
Footnotes
References
- Angelini, David R. & Jockusch, Elizabeth L. (2008): Relationships among pest flour beetles of the genus Tribolium (Tenebrionidae) inferred from multiple molecular markers. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 127–141. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.08.017 (HTML abstract)