| Sap beetle
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Ipidia binotata | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Cucujiformia |
| Superfamily: | Cucujoidea |
| Family: | Nitidulidae Latreille, 1802 |
They are small (2–6 mm) ovoid, usually dull-coloured beetles, with knobbed antennae. Some have red or yellow spots or bands. They feed mainly on decaying vegetable matter, over-ripe fruit, and sap. Some sap beetle species coexist with fungi species and live in habitats of coniferous trees. These fungi-dependent beetles are found in all across Europe and Siberia and are the biggest nutudulid species known in those areas.[1] Other species like the Australian Chychramptodes murrayi are known to feed on scale insects.[2] There are a few pest species, like the strawberry sap beetle that infest crops in Brazil between the months of August and February.[3]
Some common sap beetles include:
The oldest unambiguous fossils of the family date to the Early Cretaceous, belonging to the genus Crepuraea from the Aptian aged Zaza Formation of Russia.[4]
The family includes these genera:[citation needed]
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