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COLEOPTERA, Melyridae (= Malachiidae) (Leach 1817)

Melyridae is a moderately sized, cosmopolitan family with ca. 4,000 species known as of 1993. Important morphological characters of these "soft-wing flower beetles" include antennae 11- (rarely 10) segmented, serrate or pectinate; clypeus prominent, trapezoidal; maxillary palpi 4-segmented; pronotum usually wider than head, oval, exlanate, surface punctate; tarsal formula 5-5-5, (rarely 4-5-5 in some males); tarsal segments slightly lobed beneath; claws with a fleshy appendage beneath; scutellum small, oval or triangular; elytra apically rounded; abdomen with 6 visible sternites. The fore- and mid-coxae are prominent and conical; hind coxae are transverse. Protrusible vesicles are present at the side of the prothorax and basal abdominal segments.

Most species of Melyridae are predaceous as larvae and adults, but some adults feed on pollen and fungi. Larvae of many species may be found under bark, feeding on wood-boring insects, and in the galleries of scolytid beetles. Some adults of the genus Collops have been found in agricultural fields feeding on the larvae of alfalfa weevils and on the larvae and pupae of the alfalfa caterpillar. Some species are scavengers on dried carrion. No attempts have been made to deploy malachiids in biological control.

There is a considerable number of species in the genus Collops that prey on a variety of insect pests. Collops quadrimaculatus F. feeds on leafhoppers and has been found to be an extensive predator of eggs of the chinch bug, although it does not attack nymphs or adults. Collops bipunctatus Say preys on larvae of the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica Gyll., and on the eggs of the grain bug, Chlorochroa sayi Stal. Collops vittatus Say feeds extensively on both living and dead larvae and pupae of the alfalfa caterpillar, Eurymus eurytheme Boisd. Collops bipunctatus is regarded as a very effective natural enemy of the grain bug.

References: Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [ Additional references may be found at: MELVYL Library ]

Balduf, W. V. 1935. The Bionomics of Entomophagous Insects, p. 161-62. John S. Swift Co., Inc., St. Louis. 220 p.

Greiner, J. 1937. Col. Cat. Pars. 159: 1-199.

Marshall, M. Y. 1946. Canad. Ent. 78: 183-95.

Marshall, M. Y. 1948. Ent. Americana 28: 113-44.

Marshall, M. Y. 1951. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 27: 77-131.

Marshall, M. Y. 1954. Col. Bull. 8: 69-82.