Sap_beetle
Sap beetle
Family of beetles
The sap beetles, also known as Nitidulidae, are a family of beetles.
They are small (2–6 mm) ovoid, usually dull-coloured beetles, with knobbed antennae. Some have red or yellow spots or bands. They feed mainly on decaying vegetable matter, over-ripe fruit, and sap. Some sap beetle species coexist with fungi species and live in habitats of coniferous trees. These fungi-dependent beetles are found in all across Europe and Siberia and are the biggest nutudulid species known in those areas.[1] Other species like the Australian Chychramptodes murrayi are known to feed on scale insects.[2] There are a few pest species, like the strawberry sap beetle that infest crops in Brazil between the months of August and February.[3]
Some common sap beetles include:
- the picnic beetle, Glischrochilus quadrisignatus
- the dusky sap beetle, Carpophilus lugubris
- the strawberry sap beetle, Stelidota geminata
- the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida
The oldest unambiguous fossils of the family date to the Early Cretaceous, belonging to the genus Crepuraea from the Aptian aged Zaza Formation of Russia.[4]
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