Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Evolutionary history  





2 Subfamilies, tribes and selected genera  



2.1  Cantharinae  





2.2  Chauliognathinae  





2.3  Dysmorphocerinae  





2.4  Malthininae  





2.5  Silinae  







3 Reproduction  





4 See also  





5 References  





6 External links  














Soldier beetle






العربية
Asturianu
Башҡортса
Български
Català
Cebuano
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Diné bizaad
Español
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
Italiano
עברית

Қазақша
Кыргызча
Lietuvių
Magyar
مصرى
Nederlands

Norsk bokmål
Polski
Русский
Suomi
Svenska
Татарча / tatarça
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Vit
Winaray

 

Edit links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 




In other projects  



Wikimedia Commons
Wikispecies
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Soldier beetle
Temporal range: Albian–Present

O

S

D

C

P

T

J

K

Pg

N

Chauliognathus lugubris
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Elateriformia
Superfamily: Elateroidea
Family: Cantharidae
Imhoff, 1856
Synonyms

Chauliognathidae

Soldier beetle filmed in Hesse, Germany
Awrinkled solder beetle flies into an aphid colony, eating an aphid before being chased away by the ants.
Wrinkled solder beetle searching foliage

The soldier beetles (Cantharidae) are relatively soft-bodied, straight-sided beetles. They are cosmopolitan in distribution. One of the first described species has a color pattern reminiscent of the red coats of early British soldiers, hence the common name. They are also known commonly as leatherwings because of their soft elytra.[1]

Historically, these beetles were placed in a superfamily "Cantharoidea", which has been subsumed by the superfamily Elateroidea; the name is still sometimes used as a rankless grouping, including the families Cantharidae, Lampyridae, Lycidae, Omethidae (which includes Telegeusidae), Phengodidae, and Rhagophthalmidae.

Soldier beetles often feed on nectar and pollen as well as predating other small insects. The larvae are caterpillar like, dark colored, active and covered in fine hairs, earning them the name velvet worms. They feed on the ground and in foliage hunting eggs, small insects, snails and other small creatures. [2] [3]

Evolutionary history

[edit]

The oldest described member of the family is Molliberus from the Early Cretaceous (early Albian) aged El Soplao amber from Cantabria, Spain, belonging to the tribe Cantharini in the subfamily Cantharinae. Other described genera include 6 from the early Late Cretaceous (early Cenomanian) aged Burmese amber, with 5 belonging to Cantharinae and one to Malthininae, and Katyacantharis, from the Cenomanian aged Agdzhakend amber of Azerbaijan, suggested to belong to Cantharinae. Indeterminate specimens have been reported from the Aptian aged Koonwarra fossil bed of the Strzelecki Group, Australia and the Barremian aged Lebanese amber.[4][5]

Subfamilies, tribes and selected genera

[edit]

Five subfamilies are normally accepted:

[edit] [edit]

Dysmorphocerinae

[edit]

Malthininae

[edit] [edit]

Reproduction

[edit]

Large males of the soldier beetle exercise choice for larger females. Body size correlates with the abilities of males to secure females, and of females to evade males.[6]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Phillips, C., et al. Leatherwing (Soldier) Beetles. Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech and Virginia State University. 2013.
  • ^ https://bugoftheweek.com/blog/2018/10/18/friendly-velvety-home-invaders-soldier-beetle-larvae-chauliognathus-spp, Friendly velvety home invaders: Soldier beetle larvae, 'Chauliognathus' spp., “Bug of the Week”, October 22, 2018
  • ^ https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/soldier-beetles, Soldier beetles, “University of Minnesota Extension”, Reviewed in 2023
  • ^ Peris, David; Fanti, Fabrizio (November 2018). "Molliberus albae gen. et sp. nov., the oldest Laurasian soldier beetle (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) from the Lower Cretaceous Spanish amber". Cretaceous Research. 91: 263–268. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.07.003. S2CID 134003163.
  • ^ Kazantsev, Sergey V.; Perkovsky, Evgeny E. (2019-02-28). "The first Cretaceous beetle from Azerbaijan: Katyacantharis zherikhini gen. et sp. n. (Coleoptera, Cantharidae) from Cenomanian Agdzhakend amber". Palaeoentomology. 2 (1): 7. doi:10.11646/palaeoentomology.2.1.2. ISSN 2624-2834. S2CID 86634741.
  • ^ McLain, Denson K.; Pratt, Ann E.; Shure, Donald J. (June 2015). "Size dependence of courtship effort may promote male choice and strong assortative mating in soldier beetles". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 69 (6): 883–894. doi:10.1007/s00265-015-1900-6. ISSN 0340-5443. S2CID 253810679.
  • [edit]
  • Keys for the identification of British Cantharidae
  • Media related to Cantharidae at Wikimedia Commons
  • Data related to Cantharidae at Wikispecies

  • Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soldier_beetle&oldid=1232821025"

    Categories: 
    Biological pest control beetles
    Cantharidae
    Hidden categories: 
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
    Articles with 'species' microformats
    Commons category link from Wikidata
    Taxonbars with 2024 taxon IDs
    Articles with J9U identifiers
    Articles with LCCN identifiers
    Articles containing video clips
     



    This page was last edited on 5 July 2024, at 19:40 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki