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PLEASING FUNGUS BEETLES

EROTYLIDAE

E

rotylidae, the pleasing fungus beetles, are

generally a tropical group, with the adults

and larvae feeding together on bracket fungi and

mushrooms. Their greatest diversity occurs in wet

tropical forests, where high rainfall, humidity, heat,

and abundant organic matter result in enormous

fungal growth, and many species of erotylid can

be found together on the short-lived

fruiting bodies of rainforest fungi.

Together with their fungal hosts,

Erotylidae play an important

ecological role as recyclers

of complex chemicals such

as lignin and cellulose

from decaying trees.

Erotylidae also

secrete chemicals

themselves, and their

bright warning colors

show that they are

distasteful to predators.

When threatened, they

“reflex bleed” by secreting

from their joints globules of

offensive fluid, which is repellent to

vertebrates as well as insect predators

such as ants. Like a lot of brightly colored

family

Erotylidae

known species

3,500

distribution

Worldwide but especially in the tropics

habitat

Anywhere that fungi grow, usually in warm,

wet forest habitats

size

1–20 mm

diet

Adults and larvae feed on the fruiting bodies

of various fungi. One group, the Languriinae,

feed inside the stems of living plants

notes

Some Erotylidae, like the South and Central

American genera Pharaxonotha and

Ceratophila, have a completely different

way of life from the others, being pollinators

of a very ancient group of plants called

cycads. They look unlike other erotylids,

and probably resemble the ancestral

EROTYLIDAE —Pleasing Fungus Beetles

below | Erotylus Members of

this genus are some of the most

colorful and conspicuous beetles

likely to be seen while walking in

the jungles of South America.