CEROPHYTIDAE  Latreille, 1834     Cerophytid Beetles

Recognition: Cerophytid beetles are immediately distinguished by having strongly serrate to pectinate antennae, a short body, a deflexed head with protruding frons, small metacoxae lacking plates, and relatively long trochanters that are approximately one third of the length of the femur.

 Habitus: Body slightly elongate, shallowly convex; length approximately 5-9 mm; color red yellow or red brown to black; vestiture moderately dense, dark. Head hypognathous, narrower than prothorax, deeply inserted into prothorax. Eyes large, bulging, coarsely faceted. Antenna 11 segmented, sexually dimorphic, strongly serrate (female) to pectinate (male); insertions moderately close on lateral portions of elevated frons; 1st segment long, flagellar attachment eccentric; 2nd segment small. Labrum articulate, transverse, visible. Mandibles slender, arcuate, acute at apex. Maxilla with palpus 4-segmented, apical segment subsecuriform; labium with mentum small, narrowed anteriorly, palpus 3 segmented, apical segment subsecuriform. Thorax with prothorax loosely articulate with mesothorax; pronotum transverse, hind angles short, briefly extended, lateral margins rounded; prosternum with a broadly rounded chin piece, extended posteriorly and broadened behind coxae, with narrow ventral process fitting into mesosternal cavity; hypomeron not delimited laterally; procoxal cavities open posteriorly. Scutellum moderately small, subtriangular. Mesosternums short, fused to metasternum; median with deep, narrow cavity to receive prosternal process ; mesocoxae widely separated. Elytra entire, rounded at apex; striae with deep window punctures; intervals flat to shallowly convex, finely punctured; epipleura broad basally, narrow apically. Metasternum quadrate; metacoxae approximate medially, widening laterally, not laminate, shallowly impressed. Metathoracic wing with radial cell triangular, long radial sector, medial field with wedge cell absent. Legs free; meso and metatrochanters elongate; femora fusiform, profemur excavate to receive tibia; tibiae slender, spinose; tarsi 5-5-5, segments 2 with vental setose pad, segment 3 shallowly emarginate and with short ventral spongy pads, segment 4 deeply emarginate and with large ventral lobate pad; claw pectinate. Abdomen with 5 ventrites; ventrites 1-4 connate. Aedeagus trilobed; penis subparallel, tapering apically, apex narrowly obtuse; parameres separate, each with large membranous apical lobe; basal piece reduced, forming a concave plate wrapped around penial base. Female gonocoxites lightly sclerotized, elongate, narrowly subtriangular; styli narrowly cylindrical, inserted eccentrically; baculi long slender, divergent.

 Larvae are lightly sclerotized, grublike; densely pubescent. Head small, prognathous, reduced, lacking epicranial suture; antenna 3-segmented, with large sensorium; single pair stemmata; mandibles reduced, flattened, styliform; maxilla with styliform mala, partially divided; palpus 3-segmented on large palpiger labium a 5-toothed plate fused to head capsule, palpus absent;. Prothorax with ventral supporting rods. Legs short, 5 segmented; front leg enlarged, with darkly sclerotized cleft tarsungulus. Mesothorax, metathorax, and abdominal segments 1-8 with distinctive pleural lobes, and tergal glands at posterior margin. Tergite 9 short, lacking urogomphi. Tergite 10 small, posteroventral. Spiracles biforous, on mesothorax and abdominal segments 1-8; closing apparatus present.

 Ecology: Little is known about cerophytids. Adults are usually captured in malaise traps, light traps, or netted in late afternoon flights in lowland and mid elevational forested environments. Larvae are associated with various angiosperm trees, apparently feeding in the laminated rotted xylem (Buysson 1910, Horion 1953, Mamaev 1978). Cerophytid adults have an ability to "jump," apparently much as do species of Elateridae, Throscidae, and Eucnemidae.

 Status of the Classification: The taxonomy of Cerophytum species seems stable and identification of described world species is possible with Soares & Perrachi (1964) and Golbach (1983). The most recent phylogenetic assessments position the family as the sister group to Eucnemidae+Throscidae+Elateridae (Lawrence 1988), or a subfamily of Eucnemidae (Muona 1995).

 Diversity and Distribution: There are 10 described species of Cerophytum, occurring in the nearctic, Europe, and the neotropics Only one species, C. fuscicorne is presently known from Costa Rica.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE COSTA RICAN SPECIES

Genus: Cerophytum Latreille, 1809

 Chorea Haldeman, 1846

Known Species: Cerophytum fuscicorne Bonvouloir, 1870

Provincial Records: Guanacaste, Alajuela

General Distribution: Bolivia, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

 BUYSSON, H. du 1910. Matériaux pour servir à l’histoire des insectes de l’aulne. Ann. Soc. Entomol. France, 79: 105-128

CHAMPION, G.C. 1897. Fam. Eucnemidae, supplement. Biologia Centrali Americana, 3(1): 667.

GOLBACH, R. 1983. Primera cita de la familia Cerophytidae (Coleoptera) para Paraguay, Bolivia y la Argentina. Acta. Zool. Lill.,

37: 131-139.

HORION, A. 1953. Faunistik der Mitteleuropäischen Käfer, Band III: Malacodermata, Sternoxia (Elateridae bis Throscidae).

Munich, 340 p.

HORN, G.H. 1890. Fam. Eucnemidae. Biologia Centrali Americana, 3(1): 210-257.

LAWRENCE, J.F. 1981. Coleoptera, pp. 482-553. In Parker, S.P., Synopsis & Classification of Living Organisms.

McGraw Hill Book Co., New York.

LAWRENCE, J.F. 1991. Cerophytidae (Elateroidea), pp. 409-410. In Stehr, F.W., Immature Insects. Kendall/Hunt Publ. Co., Dubuque.

LAWRENCE, J.F. and A.F. NEWTON, JR. 1995. Families and subfamilies of Coleoptera (with selected genera, notes, references and

data on family group names), pp. 779-1006. In J. Pakaluk & S.A. Slipinski (eds.), Biology, Phylogeny and Classification of

Coleoptera: papers Celebrating the 80th Birthday of Roy A. Crowson. Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii PAN, Warzawa.

MAMAEV, B.M. 1978. Morphology of the larvae of Cerophytum elateroides Latr. and the phylogenetic ties of the Cerophytidae

(Coleoptera) family. Dok. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., Zool., 238: 107-1008.

SCHENKLING, S. 1928. Fam. Cerophytidae. Coleopterorum Catalogus, 11(101): 1-3.

SOARES, B.A.M. AND A.L. PERRACHI. 1964. Sobre a presenca de cerofitidas no Brasil, com a descricao de duas nova especies

(Insecta: Coleoptera, Cerophytidae). Anais do Segundo Congresso Latino Americano de Zoologia, 1962, 1: 127-143.

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