Minute marsh-loving beetles

Code QC359999

A family of Polyphaga - the large suborder of beetles in which the prothoracic pleuron is entirely concealed and the hind coxae are motile.

Limnichidae are small to minute (1-4.5 mm), oval and moderately convex beetles. Most are covered with hairs and these may be decumbent or erect. The head is deflexed, the antennae are 11-segmented and usually slender. Tarsal segmentation is 5-5-5 or 4-4-4.

On the underside: The prosternum extends well in front of the procoxae (except in one genus, Pseudeucinetus ). There is a transverse suture on the metasternum. The hind coxae possess cavities to receive the hind femur.

One genus ( Paralimnichus ) lacks the transverse metasternal suture. In this genus the third tarsal segment carries a membranous appendage and all five visible sternites are connate (fused).

Limnichids (Polyphaga, placed in Byrrhoidea by Australian authors, Dryopoidea by American authors) occur on intertidal coral reefs and in a variety of riparian situations where the larvae live in sand, mud or leaf litter. Adults are found on or in mud at the margins of ponds and streams. Around 30 species, few of which have been formally described, occur in Australia.

Reference:

Lawrence, J.F. and Britton, E.B. (1991) Coleoptera. pp. 543-683. In: CSIRO, Insects of Australia. Volume 2. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria.