Overview
Mycterid larvae occur under bark of trees or in leaf axils or dead fronds of various monocotyledonous plants.
Description
Elongate to narrowly elongate and slightly to strongly flattened beetles, yellow to brown and clothed with small to minute, decumbent hairs. Eyes prominent and non emarginate; lateral pronotal carinae absent; and at least the penultimate tarsal segment lobed beneath. Except in
Hemipeplus
, which is narrowly elongate, strongly flattened and yellow in colour, the mesepisterna meet at the midline and there is a densely pubescent secretory patch on ventrite 2 in the male.
Larvae elongate, parallel-sided, strongly flattened and lightly sclerotised, with broad head and an articulated, terminal plate formed by T9. Head without median endocarina (except in
Hemipeplus
); mandibular molae usually reduced and sub-basal; legs short and widely separated; with paired rows of asperities forming incomplete rings on T2--T6 and S2--S6; S9 forms distinctive U-shaped sclerite, enclosing segment 10.
Distribution
The Australian fauna includes
Hemipeplus australicus
(Hemipeplinae), which breeds in the leaf axils of
Lomandra banksii
(Xanthorrhoeaceae) and the Lacconotinae, most of which belong to
Trichosalpingus
.
Loboglossa australica
is our largest species, with close relatives in Chile. [Champion 1916b; Crowson and Viedma 1964; Thomas 1985.]