A Study on Pitfall Trapping of Darkling Beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Diets of Darkling Beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Within a Shrub-Steppe Ecosystem

Cytogenetics of the darkling beetles Zophobas aff. confusus and Nyctobates gigas (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae).

Males of Zophobas aff. confusus and Nyctobates gigas (Tenebrionidae) collected in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, were studied through conventional staining, C-banding, silver nitrate impregnation (AgNO₃), and the base specific fluorochromes CMA₃ and DAPI. Z. aff. confusus was found to have 2n = 20 (9+Xyp) while N. gigas exhibited 2n = 18 (8+neoXY). Large pericentromeric blocks of constitutive...

New taxa of Baltic amber false darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Melandryidae)

The extinct representatives of family are known from the Upper Cretaceous (the Turonian: Pseudocuphosis tristis Nikitsky, 2002 and Archaeserropalpus cretaceus Nikitsky, 2002; the Cognac-Santonian: Archaeoxylita zherichini Nikitsky, 1977). Melandryid beetles are also known from Eocene ambers of Europe. One species was described from Ukrainian amber (Orchesia rasnitzyni Nikitsky, 2011). At least ...

Optimising Bait for Pitfall Trapping of Amazonian Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae)

The accurate sampling of communities is vital to any investigation of ecological processes and biodiversity. Dung beetles have emerged as a widely used focal taxon in environmental studies and can be sampled quickly and inexpensively using baited pitfalls. Although there is now a wealth of available data on dung beetle communities from around the world, there is a lack of standardisation betwee...

Cryptic female choice of mates in flour beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Sexual selection drives the evolution of diverse traits that provide an advantage in reproduction. In polyandrous species the traditional premating processes of male-male competition and female choice have as counterparts sperm competition and cryptic female choice (CFC) occurring during and after mating; these processes determine paternity shares of multiple males mated to the same female. I c...