The Trogossitidae are a small but phylogenetically ancient and ecologically interesting family of beetles within the superfamily Cleroidea. They represent a group of usually small to medium-sized beetles associated with wood and under bark; most species are either predatory (hunting the larvae of bark beetles and other small invertebrates) or saprophytic/fungivorous (living in wood-dwelling fungi, under dead bark). A distinctive feature of the family is its extraordinary morphological diversity – the body may be flat and broad or, conversely, long and cylindrical, often with a pronounced club-shaped tip to the antennae. In recent decades, there has been a significant re-evaluation of the taxonomic scope of the family: many groups have been separated from the originally broadly defined family into separate families (e.g. Lophocateridae, Peltidae and others), so that the current (narrowed) definition contains fewer genera and species than the historical conception. The family is well represented in the fossil record as early as the Mesozoic era, which attests to its ancient origin and early diversification. The world’s leading specialist on this family is the Czech entomologist Jiří Kolibáč of the Moravian Museum in Brno, who published a seminal global monograph on the family in 2013.

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Family Card

Calitys scabra

 

Nemozoma caucasicum

 

Nemozoma elongatum

 

Temnoscheila caerulea

 

Tenebroides mauritanicus