Melyridae

Melyridae (common name: soft-winged flower beetles) are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea.
Description
Most are elongate-oval, soft-bodied beetles 10 mm long or less. Many are brightly patterned in black and brown, yellow, or red. Some melyrids (Malachiinae) have peculiar orange structures along the sides of the abdomen, which may be everted and saclike or withdrawn into the body and inconspicuous. Some melyrids have the two basal antennomeres greatly enlarged. Most adults and larvae are predaceous, but many are common on flowers. The most common North American species belong to the genus Collops (Malachiinae); C. quadrimaculatus is reddish, with two bluish black spots on each elytron.
Four New Guinean species of Choresine (the more abundant C. pulchra, the less abundant C. semiopaca and the two infrequent C. rugiceps and C. sp. A, the latter as yet unnamed) have been found to contain batrachotoxins, which may account for the toxicity of some birds such as the blue-capped ifrit and hooded pitohui which eat them. The hypothesis that Phyllobates frogs in South America obtain batrachotoxins from related genera of the Melyridae (Choresine does not occur there) has not been tested due to the difficulty of field-work in Colombia.
Evolutionary history
The oldest fossil of the family are Sinomelyris and Juraniscus from the late Middle Jurassic (Callovian) Daohugou bed in Inner Mongolia, China. The oldest member of Dasytinae is Protodasytes from the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) aged Charentese amber of France.
Distribution
The family Melyridae contains over 100 genera worldwide, with ~520 species in 48 genera in North America, and 16 genera in Europe; the largest diversity is in tropical rainforests.
Subfamilies
Various authorities have, at times, treated each of the presently-recognized subfamilies as families, and a few tribes have been accorded family status, as well (e.g., "Attalomimidae"). The family Mauroniscidae was removed from Melyridae in 1995, and Rhadalidae in 2019.
Dasytinae Laporte de Castelnau, 1840
Malachiinae Fleming, 1821
Melyrinae Leach, 1815
Selected genera
Ablechrus Waterhouse, 1877
Amauronia Westwood, 1839
Amecocerus Solier 1849
Anthocomus Erichson, 1840
Anthodromius Redtenbacher, 1850
Anthomalachius Tshernyshev, 2009
Apalochrus Erichson, 1840
Arthrobrachus Solier, 1849
Astylus Laporte, 1836
Asydates Casey, 1895
Attalus Erichson, 1840
Attalusinus Leng, 1918
Axinotarsus Motschulsky, 1854
Balanophorus MacLeay, 1872
Byturosomus Motschoulsky, 1859
Carphuroides Champion, 1923
Carphurus Erichson, 1840
Cerallus Jacquelin Du Val, 1859
Cerapheles Mulsant & Rey, 1867
Ceratistes Fischer von Waldheim, 1844
Chaetocoelus Leconte, 1880
Chalchas Blanchard, 1845
Charopus Erichson, 1840
Clanoptilus Motschulsky, 1854
Collops Erichson, 1840
Colotes Erichson 1840
Condylops Redtenbacher, 1849
Cordylepherus Evers, 1985
Cradytes Casey, 1895
Cyrtosus Motschulsky, 1854
Danacea Laporte, 1838
Dasytastes Casey, 1895
Dasytellus Casey, 1895
Dasytes Casey, 1895
Dasytidius Schilsky, 1896
Dicranolaius Champion, 1921
Divales Laporte de Castelnau, 1836
Dolichophron Kiesenwetter, 1867
Dolichosoma Stephens, 1830
Ebaeus Erichson, 1840
Enallonyx Wolcott, 1944
Endeodes LeConte, 1859
Enicopus Stephens, 1830
Eschatocrepis Leconte, 1861
Falsomelyris Pic, 1913
Hadrocnemus Kraatz, 1895
Halyles Broun, 1883
Haplomalachius Evers, 1985
Hoppingiana Blaisdell, 1924
Hylodanacaea Pic, 1926
Hypebaeus Kiesenwetter, 1863
Intybia Pascoe, 1866
Laius Guérin-Méneville, 1830
Leptovectura Casey, 1895
Listropsis Blaisdell, 1924
Listrus Motschoulsky, 1859
Malachius Fabricius, 1775
Melyris Fabricius, 1775
Melyrodes Gorham, 1882
Microlipus Leconte, 1852
Nepachys Thomson, 1859
Nodopus Marshall, 1951
Pagurodactylus Gorham, 1900
Psilothrix Redtenbacher, 1858
Scelopristis Mayor, 2004
Sphinginus Mulsant & Rey, 1867
Spinapalochrus
Tanaops Leconte, 1859
Temnopsophus Horn, 1872
Trichochrous Motschulsky, 1859
Trophimus Horn, 1870
Vecturoides Fall, 1930
Notes
Fauna Europaea
Coleoptera.org
Polyphaga families
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