Archostemata
Suborder of beetles
- 1 min read
- 2 chapters
Related on Lably
Through Flowering plant
The term "Archostemata" is used more broadly by some authors to include both modern archostematans as well as stem-group beetles like "protocoleopterans", which some modern archostematans closely resemble due to their plesiomorphic morphology. Genetic research suggests that modern archostematans are a monophyletic group. Some genetic studies have recovered archostematans as the sister group of Myxophaga. Archostemata have an external prothoracic pleuron, a character also found in Myxophaga and Adephaga. The apex of the wing is spirally rolled as in Myxophaga. The adults have movable hind coxae.
A 2009 paper argued that the poor diversity of modern Archostemata, compared with the staggering evolutionary success of most other Coleoptera lineages, could be due to the lower efficiency of the thoracic locomotor apparatus, the absence of cryptonephric Malpighian tubules, and competition with other beetles more adapted to angiosperms.
Taxonomy
There are five extant families and an extinct family.
- Family Crowsoniellidae Iablokoff-Khnzorian, 1983
- Family Cupedidae Laporte, 1838
- Family Jurodidae Ponomarenko, 1985
- Family Micromalthidae Barber, 1913
- Family Ommatidae Sharp and Muir, 1912
- Family Catiniidae † Ponomarenko, 1968
Sign in to keep reading
One more chapter is free with a Lably account.
Phylogeny
A partial phylogeny of Archostemata and early coleopterans, based on palaeontological data, from Boudinot et al. 2022.
According to Li et al. 2023; archostematan families are in bold.