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- ›Water, Rove, Scarab, Long-horned, Leaf, and Snout Beetles
- ›Elateriform Beetles
- ›Pill, Water and Toe-winged Beetles

Riffle Beetles
Elmidae
Elmidae, commonly known as riffle beetles, is a family of beetles in the superfamily Byrrhoidea described by John Curtis in 1830. Both adults and larvae are usually aquatic, living under rocks in fast-flowing shallow areas of streams, such as riffles, feeding on algae and biofilms. There are more than 150 genera and 1,500 described species in Elmidae. The oldest record of the group is Cretohypsilara from the Cenomanian aged Burmese amber.
15 branches of this family, most-observed first

Elminae
subfamilyElminae

Larainae
subfamilyLarainae

Stenhelmoides
genusStenhelmoides

Peloriolus
genusPeloriolus

Leielmis
genusLeielmis

Xenelmis
genusXenelmis

Helminthopsis
genusHelminthopsis

Pseudancyronyx
genusPseudancyronyx

Elpidelmis
genusElpidelmis
Ctenelmis
genusCtenelmis
Tolriolus
genusTolriolus
Helminthocharis
genusHelminthocharis
Lobelmis
genusLobelmis
Tropidelmis
genusTropidelmis
Rhizelmis
genusRhizelmis
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 Elmidae 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 85753.