Oedemeridae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Coleopterida
Ordo: Coleoptera
Subordo: Polyphaga
Infraordo: Cucujiformia
Superfamilia: Tenebrionoidea

Familia: Oedemeridae
Subfamiliae: Calopodinae - Oedemerinae - Polypriinae

Name

Oedemeridae Latreille, 1810

References

Latreille, P.A. 1810. Considérations générales sur l'ordre naturel des animaux composant les classes des crustacés, des arachnides, et des insectes : avec un tableau méthodique de leurs genres, disposés en familles. Paris: Schoell, 444 pp. BHL Reference page.
Arnett, R.H., jr. 1950: Generic names of the beetle family Oedemeridae and their type species. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 40(7): 217–225. BHL Reference page.
Bouchard, P., Bousquet, Y., Davies, A.E., Alonso-Zarazaga, M.A., Lawrence, J.F., Lyal, C.H.C., Newton, A.F., Reid, C.A.M., Schmitt, M., Ślipiński, S.A. & Smith, A.B.T. 2011. Family-group names in Coleoptera (Insecta). ZooKeys 88: 1–972. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.88.807 Open access. PMC: 3088472 Open access. Reference page.
Arnett, R.H., jr. 1950: Generic names of the beetle family Oedemeridae and their type species. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 40: 217–225.
Hudson, L. 1975: A systematic revision of the New Zealand Oedemeridae (Coleoptera, Insecta). Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 5: 227–274. BUGZ
Lawrence, J.F. 1991: Oedemeridae (Tenebrionoidea). Pp. 534-535 in: Lawrence, J.F. (coordinator) Order Coleoptera, in: Stehr, F.W. (ed.) Immature insects, 2 . Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Iowa, USA.
Lawrence, J.F.; Ślipiński, A. 2010: 11.18. Oedemeridae Latreille, 1810. Pp. 674-681 in: Leschen, R.A.B.; Beutel, R.G.; Lawrence, J.F. (volume eds.) Coleoptera, beetles. Volume 2: Morphology and systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim). In: Kristensen, N.P. & Beutel, R.G. (eds.) Handbook of zoology. A natural history of the phyla of the animal kingdom. Volume IV. Arthropoda: Insecta. Part 38. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3110190753 ISBN 9783110190755
I.Löbl & A.Smetana (eds). 2008 Catalogue of Palearctic Coleoptera. Vol. 5: Tenebrionoidea. Apollo Books, Stenstrup, Denmark
ISBN 87-88757-84-6, p. 353
Švihla, V. 1983: Contribution to the knowledge of the Palaearctic Oedemeridae (Coleoptera). Entomologica basiliensia, 8: 334–341.
Švihla, V. 1987: Contribution to the knowledge of the Old World Oedemeridae (Coleoptera). Annotationes zoologicae et botanicae (Bratislava), 181: 1–27. [not seen]
Szawaryn, K., Kubisz, D. & Sontag, E. 2022. The first described fossil Oedemeridae (Insecta: Coleoptera) from Baltic amber. Journal of Paleontology 96 (2): 375-378. Reference page.
Vázquez, X.A. 2002: Fauna of European Oedemeridae. Argania editio, Barcelona, 178 pp. ISBN 84-931847-4-8

Additional references

Ghahari, H., Vázquez, X.A. & Kubisz, D. 2017. Annotated checklist of the false blister beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea: Oedemeridae) from Iran. Zootaxa 4237(2): 321–334. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4237.2.6. Reference page.

Links

Oedemeridae in SYNOPSIS OF THE DESCRIBED COLEOPTERA OF THE WORLD
Atlas of false blister beetles (Oedemeridae) of Russia

Vernacular names
català: Oedemèrid
Deutsch: Scheinbockkäfer
English: False blister beetles/Polle-feeding beetles
français: Oédémérides
日本語: カミキリモドキ科
lietuvių: Laibavabaliai
русский: Узконадкрылки
中文: 擬天牛科

The family Oedemeridae is a cosmopolitan group of beetles commonly known as false blister beetles, though some recent authors have coined the name pollen-feeding beetles. There are some 100 genera and 1,500 species in the family,[1] mostly associated with rotting wood as larvae, though adults are quite common on flowers. The family was erected by Pierre André Latreille in 1810.

Characteristics

Oedemeridae may be defined as slender, soft-bodied beetles of medium size found mostly on flowers and foliage. The head lacks a narrow neck, the antennae are long and filiform, the pronotum lacks lateral edges and is much narrower than elytra, the tarsi are heteromerous with bilobed penultimate segment, the procoxal cavities are open behind and the procoxae are conical and contiguous.
Natural history
Oedemera nobilis

The larvae of most genera are xylophagous, boring tunnels in spongy, damp wood in an advanced state of decomposition; thus they have little economic importance, with the exception of one species, the "wharf borer" (Nacerdes melanura), that is ever known to attain pest status, as its larvae bore into wet wood in coastal areas; larvae can also bore into wood located in the tidal zone so at times are submerged by seawater, and can damage docks, wharves, and pilings. Larvae of the genera Oedemera and Stenostoma develop in dead stems of herbaceous plants.

Adults contain the toxic cantharidin in their corporal fluids as a defensive mechanism; several species show brilliant and metallic blue, green, gold or coppery, often combined with yellow, orange or red, aposematic colourations. In temperate regions, adults are mainly polyphagous pollen and nectar-feeding, and diurnal in activity. In tropical areas, most are nocturnal and are attracted to light.
Evolutionary history

The oldest known member of the family is Darwinylus from the Albian aged Alava amber from the Escucha Formation, Spain, a basal member of the subfamily Oedemerinae.[2] Unlike living species of the family, the specimen was found with gymnosperm (suspected to be cycad) pollen on its body, suggesting that the family had a gymnosperm associated prior to switching to flowering plants.[3] Species of the extinct genus Ditysparedrus and extant genus Sparedrus belonging to the subfamily Calopodinae, are known from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber of Myanmar.[4][5]
Oedemerid on parsley
See also

Blister beetle dermatitis
List of Oedemeridae genera

References

Vázquez, X. A., 2002. European Fauna of Oedemeridae. Argania Edition, Barcelona, 178 pp. ISBN 84-931847-4-8
Peris, David (June 2017). "Early Cretaceous origin of pollen-feeding beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera: Oedemeridae)". Cladistics. 33 (3): 268–278. doi:10.1111/cla.12168.
Peris, David; Pérez-de la Fuente, Ricardo; Peñalver, Enrique; Delclòs, Xavier; Barrón, Eduardo; Labandeira, Conrad C. (March 2017). "False Blister Beetles and the Expansion of Gymnosperm-Insect Pollination Modes before Angiosperm Dominance". Current Biology. 27 (6): 897–904. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.009. ISSN 0960-9822.
F. Vitali and S. Ellenberger. 2019. Sparedrus archaicus n. sp., the first false blister beetle (Coleoptera, Oedemeridae) from Burmese amber. Baltic Journal of Coleopterology 19:23-27
Vitali, Francesco; Legalov, Andrei (2020-10-15). "A New Fossil Genus of False Blister Beetles (Coleoptera: Oedemeridae) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber". Biosis: Biological Systems. 1 (3): 109–115. doi:10.37819/biosis.001.03.0063. ISSN 2707-9783.