Drilini

Drilini
Drilus flavescens (male)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Coleoptera
Family:
Elateridae
Subfamily:
Agrypninae
Tribe:
Drilini

Blanchard, 1845
Genera

Drilini is a tribe of beetles known commonly as the false firefly beetles, in the family Elateridae.[1]

Biology

Drilus larva

Adults of drilines are sexually dimorphic. Driline larvae feed on land snails, and are covered with bristly protuberances, unlike other types of elaterid larvae.[2]

Systematics

Drilini were historically treated as a family ("Drilidae"), but evidence began accumulating that the group might actually belong in Elateridae. In 2011, analyses revealed them as nested among Agrypninae in Elateridae, and the group was transferred to the family Elateridae as the tribe Drilini.[3] Some genera, such as Pseudeuanoma and Euanoma, were moved to the click beetle subfamily Omalisinae.

A 2019 study presented the first densely sampled molecular phylogeny of Drilini based on nuclear and mitochondrial markers, recovering 5 major clades well supported by morphology along with several new genera and species.[2]

References

  1. ^ Watson, L. and M. J. Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Drilidae. Archived 21 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine British insects: the families of Coleoptera. Version: 25 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b Robin Kundrata; Ladislav Bocak (2019). "Molecular phylogeny reveals the gradual evolutionary transition to soft-bodiedness in click-beetles and identifies sub-Saharan Africa as a cradle of diversity for Drilini (Coleoptera: Elateridae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 187 (2): 413–452. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz033.
  3. ^ Kundrata, R. and L. Bocak. (2011). The phylogeny and limits of Elateridae (Insecta, Coleoptera): is there a common tendency of click beetles to soft-bodiedness and neoteny? Zoologica Scripta 40, 364–78.