Fauna Sinica: Insecta, Volume 75: Coleoptera: Histeroidea, Sphaeritidae, Synteliidae and Histeridae [Chinese]

About this book

Language: Chinese with English summary and scientific nomenclature

The present work studies the taxonomy of the superfamily Histeroidea of China. This is a very important superfamily of the Polyphaga beetles in the order Coleoptera and represents a special clade of Staphyliniformia. Histeroidea currently includes three families: Sphaeritidae, Synteliidae, and Histeridae; the last one is very speciose with 4400 species worldwide. Most histerid beetles are predatory, saproxylic or xylophagous, living on fungi or decaying plant or animal material; some are also myrmecophiles, living together with ants. Many studies focus on the evolution and phylogeny of Histeridae; some entomologists want to find out how to use histerid beetles as natural enemies in pest control; ecologists have tried to use these beetle species as bio-indicators in wood decay and forest management.

This book is a comprehensive study of the taxonomy and systematics of Chinese Histeroidea and includes the results of long-term studies on this beetle group. Based on the taxonomic revision, the authors include in this work all the known species of the superfamily Histeroidea recorded in China up to 2017. This encompasses three families (Sphaeritidae, Synteliidae, and Histeridae), 67 genera, and 303 species. The Histeridae is a very large taxon compared to the other two families and is composed of 10 speciose subfamilies. This family forms the major part of the Chinese histeroid fauna. This work includes keys to species or other higher taxa, descriptions of all families, subfamilies, genera and almost all species found in China. All species and higher taxa are revised with complete citations; details of specimens observed are also included; species geographical distributions are also updated. Morphological characters are displayed in 228 figures and a total of ca. 2000 line drawings, which will benefit identification. In a very brief review text, this work includes also the following contents: a perspective on taxonomic studies, the morphology of adults, eggs, larvae and pupae; systematics and changes in the taxonomy of histerid history; geographical distributions in the different regions of China; other details on biological and ecological features, etc. This work includes also new species and revisions published by the author's team members.

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