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CHECKERED BEETLES AND ALLIES

CLEROIDEA

T

he Cleroidea is a medium-sized superfamily

within Polyphaga, comprising just over 10,000

known species worldwide, in 13 families. However,

as with many beetle superfamilies, the species are

unevenly spread across the families. Four families,

Phloiophilidae, Metaxinidae, Phycosecidae, and

Acanthocnemidae, each has only a single genus with

one to four species, while Cleridae and Melyridae,

covered separately below, each include several

thousand and 90 percent of the species between

them. The third largest family of the Cleroidea is the

Trogossitidae, known as “bark-gnawing beetles,”

with about 600 species in 50 genera. Many of these

are predators found in the tunnels of bark beetles

and other wood-boring insects. Some are useful

biological control agents of forestry pests. One

species—“the cadelle,” Tenebroides mauritanicus—

was spread all over the world with stored products,

though it probably often eats other stored-product

insects rather than the crops themselves.

CLEROIDEA—Checkered Beetles and Allies

superfamily

Cleroidea

known species

10,500

distribution

Worldwide except Antarctica

habitat

Most habitats, particularly forests. Some

species in stored products

size

2–50 mm

diet

Many species are predators, while others

are flower feeders or feed on fungi

notes

The only member of the Phloiophilidae, the

European Phloiophilus edwardsii, is a small

beetle 2–3 mm long, attractively marked in

brown and black. It occurs on the fungus

Peniophora quercina growing on the twigs