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- ›Arthropods
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- ›Insects
- ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
- ›Beetles
- ›Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf, and Snout Beetles
- ›Staphyliniform Beetles
- ›Hister and False Clown Beetles
Hister Beetles
Histeridae
Histeridae is a family of beetles commonly known as clown beetles or hister beetles. There are more than 410 genera and 4,800 described species in Histeridae worldwide, with more than 500 species in North America. They can be identified by their shortened elytra, which leave two tergites exposed, and also by their elbowed antennae with clubbed ends. These predatory feeders are most active at night and will fake death if threatened. Hister beetles occupy almost any kind of niche throughout the world. They have also been useful for estimation of time of death during forensic investigations. Also, certain species are used for controlling houseflies and livestock pests that infest dung.
29 branches of this family, most-observed first
Histerinae
subfamilyHisterinae
Saprininae
subfamilySaprininae
Dendrophilinae
subfamilyDendrophilinae
Abraeinae
subfamilyAbraeinae
Haeteriinae
subfamilyHaeteriinae
Tribalinae
subfamilyTribalinae
Onthophilinae
subfamilyOnthophilinae
Chlamydopsinae
subfamilyChlamydopsinae
Nasaltus
genusNasaltus
Trypanaeinae
subfamilyTrypanaeinae
Trypeticinae
subfamilyTrypeticinae
Niposoma
genusNiposoma
Niponiinae
subfamilyNiponiinae
Eopachylopus
genusEopachylopus
Microsaprinus
genusMicrosaprinus
Neosantalus
genusNeosantalus
Euxenister
genusEuxenister
Renclasea
genusRenclasea
Asiaster
genusAsiaster
Eulomalus
genusEulomalus
Santalus
genusSantalus
Anaglymma
genusAnaglymma
Scapicoelis
genusScapicoelis
Pilothris
genusPilothris
Spathochus
genusSpathochus
Trypobius
genusTrypobius
Gomyopsis
genusGomyopsis
Thaumataerius
genusThaumataerius
Troglosternus
genusTroglosternus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Histeridae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 68869.