Polyphaga

Introduction

The suborder Polyphaga contains the majority of beetles, with about 300,000 described species.

Among the commonly encountered polyphagans are the rove beetles (Staphylinoidea), scarabs and stag beetles (Scarabaeoidea), metallic wood-boring beetles (Buprestoidea), click beetles and fireflies (Elateroidea), as well as fungus beetles, grain beetles, ladybird beetles, darkling beetles, blister beetles, longhorn beetles, leaf beetles, and weevils (all Cucujiformia).

Aquatic lineages have evolved several times within Polyphaga. The largest groups are found within Hydrophiloidea and Byrrhoidea.

Characteristics

Polyphagan beetles do not have the pleuron of the prothorax externally visible; instead, remnants of the propleuron are present internally as a "cryptopleuron" (Hlavac 1972, 1975; Lawrence and Newton, 1982). Because the lack of the pleuron in the external body wall, at most one suture (that between the notum and the sternum) is visible in the prothorax in polyphagans. In members of other suborders, two sutures (the sternopleural and notopleural) are often externally visible (unless secondary fusion between the sclerites obfuscates the sutures, as in the case of Micromalthus).

Female polyphagan beetles have telotrophic ovarioles, a derived condition within beetles.

References

Arnett, R.H. 1973. The Beetles of the United States (A manual for identification). The American Entomological Institute, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Arnold'di, L.V., V.V. Zherikhin, L.M. Nikritin, and A.G. Ponomarenko (eds.). 1977. Mezozoiskie Zhestkokrylye. Akademiya Nauk SSSR, Trudy Paleontologicheskogo Instituta, Vol. 161. Nauka Publishers, Moscow.

Arnold'di, L.V., V.V. Zherikhin, L.M. Nikritin, and A.G. Ponomarenko (eds.). 1992. Mesozoic Coleoptera. Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C. (English translation of Arnold'di et al., 1977.)

Boving, A.G. and F.C. Craighead. 1931. An illustrated synopsis of the principal larval forms of the order Coleoptera. The Brooklyn Entomological Society, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Caterino, M. S., T. Hunt and A. P. Vogler. 2005. On the constitution and phylogeny of Staphyliniformia (Insecta: Coleoptera). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34(3):655-672.

Crowson, R.A. 1955. The natural classification of the families of Coleoptera. N. Lloyd, London.

Crowson, R.A. 1960. The phylogeny of Coleoptera. Annual Review of Entomology, 5:111-134.

Crowson, R.A. 1981. The biology of the Coleoptera. Academic Press, London.

Hlavac, T.F. 1972. The prothorax of Coleoptera: origin, major features of variation. Psyche 79(3): 123-149.

Hlavac, T.F. 1975. The prothorax of Coleoptera: (Except Bostrichiformia - Cucujiformia). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 147(4): 137-183.

Kukalov?-Peck, J. and J.F. Lawrence. 1993. Evolution of the hind wing in Coleoptera. The Canadian Entomologist, 125:181-258.

Lawrence, J.F., and Britton, E.B. 1994. Australian Beetles. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria.

Lawrence, J.F., and A.F. Newton, Jr. 1982. Evolution and classification of beetles. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 13:261-290.

Lawrence, J.F., and A.F. Newton, Jr. 1995. Families and subfamilies of Coleoptera (with selected genera, notes, references and data on family-group names). Pp 779-1006 in Pakaluk and Slipinski (1995).

Lawrence, J.F., S.A. Slipinski, and J. Pakaluk. 1995. From Latreille to Crowson: a history of the higher-level classification of beetles. Pp 87-154 in Pakaluk and Slipinski (1995).

Pakaluk, J. and S.A. Slipinski (eds.) 1995. Biology, Phylogeny, and Classification of Coleoptera. Papers Celebrating the 80th Birthday of Roy A. Crowson. Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii PAN, Warszawa.

Information on the Internet

• Staphyliniformia
• Nicrophorus Central
• The Firefly Files
• Guide to Palearctic Flea Beetle Genera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Alticinae)