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[[Category:Myxophaga| ]] |
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[[Category:Insect suborders]] |
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| Myxophaga
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| Sphaerius acaroides | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Myxophaga Crowson, 1955 |
| Families | |
Myxophaga is the second-smallest suborder of the Coleoptera after Archostemata, consisting of roughly 65 species of small to minute beetles in four families. The members of this suborder are aquatic and semiaquatic, and feed on algae.
There are four extant families in the suborder Myxophaga divided between two superfamilies,[1] containing about 65 described species,[2] and at least two extinct superfamilies of the suborder.[a]
Little about the fossil record of Myxophaga is known, with only two fossils being described from Cretaceous Burmese amber from Myanmar. The first was originally placed in a new family, Haplochelidae,[3] but latterly moved to the family Lepiceridae.[4] The second fossil specimen from amber was placed in the Sphaeriusidae.[5] No impression fossils of myxophagan beetle were described until 2012, probably because of their small body size and specialized habitat.[6] This fossil specimen, from the Yixian Formation in the Jehol Biota, dates from the Early Cretaceous and shows that the development of Myxophaga must pre-date this period.[6]
Myxophaga have several diagnostic features: the antennae are more or less distinctly clubbed with usually fewer than nine segments, mesocoxal cavities are open laterally and bordered by a mesepimeron and metanepisternum, the hind wings are rolled apically in the resting positions. Internally, they are characterised by the presence of six malpighian tubules and the testes are tube-like and coiled.[7]
Beetles of this suborder are adapted to feed on algae. Their mouthparts are characteristic in lacking galeae and having a mobile tooth on their left mandible.[8]
Only two myxophagan genera are found in North America: Sphaerius and Hydroscapha.[9]
Data related to Myxophaga at Wikispecies| Myxophaga |
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