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ROVE BEETLES AND ALLIES

STAPHYLINOIDEA

STAPHYLINOIDEA

superfamily

Staphylinoidea

known species

62,220

distribution

Worldwide except Antarctica (but found

on sub-Antarctic islands)

habitat

Almost all environments support some

Staphylinoidea, from mountaintops to

the seashore

size

0.325–50 mm

diet

Most Staphylinidae are predators, while

some other families are fungivores (Ptiliidae,

some Leiodidae) or carrion feeders (some

Agyrtidae, Silphidae, and Leiodidae)

notes

Most Staphylinidae have the wing-cases

(or “elytra”) shortened, giving them their

characteristic shape and making the body

T

he vast superfamily Staphylinoidea includes

more than 60,000 named species in six

families, although 90 percent are in one

hyperdiverse family, Staphylinidae. Families

Leiodidae (3,700 species) and Hydraenidae (1,600)

are fairly large, while Ptiliidae (650), Silphidae

(200), and Agyrtidae (70) are comparatively small.

The Ptiliidae include the tiniest known beetles,

down to 0.325 mm long for Scydosella musawasensis,

which was discovered in 1999 in Musawa,

Nicaragua. They feed on fungus spores, and are

almost certainly overlooked by collectors because

of their minute size and often specialist habitats.

The smallest beetle in Europe, 0.5 mm long but

rejoicing in the name Baranowskiella ehnstromi, is

found on only one kind of fungus, and was only

right | Scydosella

musawasensis

(Ptiliidae) At

0.325 mm long,

this ptiliid may be

the smallest known

adult insect. It lives

in fungi in South

and Central

American forests.