Melyridae (family)

Soft-winged flower beetle at Dunlop, ACT

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Identification history

Melyridae (family)	27 Dec 2018	KimPullen
Staphylinidae (family)	13 Jan 2018	MichaelMulvaney
Staphylinidae (family)	12 Dec 2017	KenT
Unidentified	9 Dec 2017	Christine

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5 comments

KenT wrote:

13 Dec 2017

I think this is a rove beetle

KimPullen wrote:

28 Dec 2018

Genus is probably either Balanophorus or Carphurus.

KenT wrote:

28 Dec 2018

Hi Kim, can you give us a clue why this is Melyridae (aside from the bright colours)? From memory I was going by the short elytra and what I could make of the antennae they didn't seem to fit the Melyridae (e.g. Dicranolaius bellulus).

KimPullen wrote:

28 Dec 2018

Hi Ken, it's not easy to give some clear-cut features to separate the two. Melyridae have a relatively soft body, and in the ones that have short elytra (such as this one), those elytra tend to occupy about half the length of the so-called 'afterbody' of the beetle (everything behind the red head-and-prothorax of the species above). The abdomen is very soft in Melyridae, with the sides of each segment separately rounded. In typical Staphylinidae the elytra are clearly less than half the length of the afterbody, and the abdomen is harder, with the sides more or less straight, or evenly tapered to the tip. Staphylinidae often have large mandibles, Melyridae do not. Staphylinidae are an enormous group with thousands of species in Australia, although the vast majority are very small and inconspicuous (Paederus is one of the few genera with colourful species active by day). Melyridae have 350 Australian species, but are more conspicuous and mostly brightly coloured. I hope this helps.

KenT wrote:

28 Dec 2018

Thanks Kim, one often sees small elongate beetles with short elytra, I might pay them a bit more attention in the future but getting good clear images is a challenge as they are often moving and mostly I work from a tripod - much too shaky when hand holding a camera.

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