Sap beetle Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
Ipidia binotata | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Suborder: | Polyphaga |
Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
Superfamily: | Cucujoidea |
Family: | Nitidulidae Latreille, 1802 |
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 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]