Checklist of - Entomological Society of Canada

Tenebrionidae
Family TENEBRIONIDAE darkling beetles
Y. Bousquet and J.M. Campbell
The family Tenebrionidae comprises over 1200
species in North America, but more than 8O7o of
them are restricted to the southwestern United
States. Only 135 species occur within the Canadian
and Alaskan borders. Many tenebrionids live in
semiarid areas and deserts, but in Canada most
species are found in rotten wood, in fungr, under logs
and stones, and under the bark of dead trees. A
number of species, such as those of Tenebrio,
Gnatocerus, Tribolium, and Polorus, are storedproduct
pests, some of which are the most important
in the country. Adults and larvae feed on plants or
plant material, including decaying vegetation, seeds,
roots, cereals and their products, and fungr.
The concept of the family used for the checklist
is similar to that of the tenebrionoid branch of
Doyen and Tschinkel (1982). Adults of all species
have paired defensive glands, with reservoirs opening
between the seventh and eighth sternites. The
lagrioid lineage, which is probably the sister group
of the tenebrionids, has been given family status;
these species lack defensive glands. Although the
limits of the family are now fairly stable, its higher
classifrcation is still poorly understood. Numerous
changes have been proposed recently in the classification
of the family (see Doyen and Tschinkel 1982),
and more are expected; the alleculids, for example,
are probably polyphyletic in origin. Rolf L. Aalbu
(personal communication) has provided the classifrcation
used here. There is no recent revision of the
Nearctic Tenebrionidae, and most genera that occur
in Canada have not been revised. Identifrcation is
often difficult, especially in large groups like
Eleodes.
AK (3); YK (3); NT (8); BC (69); AB (32); SK (22);
MB (32); oN (70); PQ (63); NB (16);NS (1a); PE (5);
LB (2); NF (7) . H (1);I (11)
Subfamily PHRENAPATINAE
Tribe Penetini
Genus CLAMORIS des Gozis
Phthora Mulsant
C. americana (Horn)
BC
Subfamily TENTYRIINAE
Tlibe Eurymetopini
Genus STERIPHANUS Casey
S. subopacus (Horn)
alutaceus Casey
Tribe Anepsiini
Genus ANEPSIUS LeConte
A. montanus Casey
AB
Tribe Coniontini
Genus CONIONTIS Eschscholtz
Coelotaxis Hotn
Coniontellus Casey
Coniontides Casey
C. ovalis LeConte
acerba Casey
alutacea Casey
anita Casey
arida Casey
breuiuscula Casey
coruina Casey
inepta Casey
oblita Casey
okanagani Boddy
parilis Casey
BC
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