Under Construction

Niponiinae

Michael S. Caterino
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Containing group: Histeridae

Introduction

The Niponiinae is a very enigmatic group of histerids, containing only the single genus Niponius, with 22 known species (Mazur, 1997). As the name implies, a large proportion of the known species are Japanese in distribution. However, species are also known from scattered locations throughout southeastern Asia, from India to tropical Australia. The species are similar ecologically to the Trypanaeinae/Trypeticinae lineage. All are cylindrical in shape and are apparently specialized bark beetle predators (Gardner, 1930; Lewis, 1885), although Lewis asserts that they do not enter transverse galleries, but rather tunnel under bark.

Characteristics

While several other groups of histerids have cylindrical members, those of Niponius can easily be recognized by the large, elongate head bearing prolonged frontal processes and ventrally deflexed mandibles.

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

Relationships among the species of Niponius have not been examined.

References

Caterino, M. S., and A. P. Vogler. 2002. The phylogeny of the Histeroidea. Cladistics 18(4):394-415.

Gardner, J. C. M. 1930. The early stages of Niponius andrewsi. Bulletin of Entomological Research 21:15-17 +1 plate.

Lewis, G. 1885. On a new genus of Histeridae. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 1885:331-334.

Ohara, M. 1994. A revision of the superfamily Histeroidea of Japan. Insecta Mastumurana (N.S.) 51:1-283.

Information on the Internet

Masahiro Ohara’s Histeridae home page: Niponiinae
Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Niponius andrewsi
Location India
Specimen Condition Dead Specimen
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © 2002
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Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Page: Tree of Life Niponiinae. Authored by Michael S. Caterino. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Caterino, Michael S. 2002. Niponiinae. Version 07 March 2002 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Niponiinae/9382/2002.03.07 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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