Order: Coleoptera (Beetles, weevils)

Coleo- Sheath; Ptera- wing

Important characteristics:
 Most distinctive feature is the structure of wings. Most beetles possess two
pair of wings.
 The front pair is thickened leathery or hard and brittle/fragile. They usually
meet in a straight line down the middle of back and covering the hind
wings. The front wings are called elytra. (Singular- elytron). They serve as a
protective sheaths (covering).
 Prothorax is large, distinct and mobile.
 Mesothorax and metathorax are fused with the first abdominal
segment.
 A small part of the mesothorax known as scutellum remains
exposed as a little triangle between the bases of elytra.
Elytra

Elytra
 The hind wings are membranous and usually longer than the fore
wings. When at rest they are folded up under the front wings.
 Most beetles are hard bodied, with usually tough, thick
exoskeleton.
 The mouth part is chewing type both in adults and immature (Grub).
 Mandibles are well developed. The mandibles are stout and are used in crushing of food
materials.
 The beetles undergo complete metamorphosis.
 In some weevils the head is formed into a long snout, with mouthparts located at the
tip. Antenna lamellate type.
 There are different forms of larvae in different families. They may be campodeiform
(Slender, active crawlers) or scarabaeiform (Grub-like, fleshy, c-shaped body) and few are
elateriform (elongate, cylindrical, with a hard exoskeleton and tiny legs).
 Beetles found in almost any type of habitat- on plants, on the soil surface, in soil, in water,
inside seed and fruit.
 Most are phytophagous or predacious; some are scavengers, fungus consumers or
parasites.
 Many beetles are of value to human being because they destroy injurious insects or act as
scavengers.

Elateriform
Click beetle
Campodeiform Scarabaeiform
LBB Grub of scarabeidae
Importance: It is the largest order. It includes predators,
scavengers and many crop pests. They also damage stored
products.

Classification: This order is divided into two suborders, viz.,

Adephaga (devourers) and
Polyphaga (eaters of many things).
FAMILIES OF PREDATORS
1. CICINDELIDAE (Tiger
beetles)
 Head is usually wider than
prothorax.
 Eyes are fairly larger and
they have very keen vision.
 Mandibles are sharply
pointed, sickle shaped and
acutely toothed for
capturing the prey.
 Legs are long and tarsi
slender which enable to run
fast.
 Elytra have spots and
stripes.
 Larva excavates vertical pits
for prey capture.
 Both grubs and adults are
active predators.
CARABIDAE (Ground beetles)
 Adults are often black in
colour and some brightly
spotted.
 Some cannot fly because they
have fused elytra and
atrophied hindwings.
 Legs are suited for running.
 Larvae have caliper like
mandibles, well developed
legs and terminal cerci like
structures called urogomphi.
 They are nocturnal. Ground
beetles are voracious
predators both as adults and
larvae.
 They feed on soft bodied
caterpillars and other insects.
 Six spotted carabid : Anthia
sexguttata
DYTISCIDAE: (True water beetles,
Predaceous diving beetles)
 Body is long, oval, smooth and
shiny.
 Head, thorax and abdomen are
compactly joined.
 Antenna is filiform.
 In some male beetles the fore
tarsi are provided with cup like
suckers which are useful in
clasping the mate.
 Hind legs are flattened, fringed
with hairs and suited for
swimming.
 Air is stored beneath the elytra.
 Adults and larvae are aquatic Cybister tripunctatus
predators
GYRINIDAE (Whirling beetles)
 They swim in erratic paths on
water surface and exhibit
gyrating (rotating) motion.
 Compound eyes are
completely divided by the
front margin of the head into
an upper and lower half so
that the beetle appear to have
two pairs of compound eyes.
The dorsal pair is suited for
aerial vision and the ventral
pair is for aquatic vision.
 Forelegs are prehensile and
long.
 Middle legs and hindlegs are
natatorial.
 They are predators.
LAMPYRIDAE (Fireflies, Glow worms)
 They show sexual dimorphism.
 Male : head is concealed by the semicircular
pronotum.
 Eyes are well developed and contiguous
(adjoining)
 Forewings are soft and flexible. They do not
fully cover the abdomen.
 Photogenic organ is found in sixth and seventh
abdominal segments.
 Female : Head is hidden by pronotum.
 Eyes are very much reduced.
 Wings are absent and is larviform.
 Photogenic organ is present in seventh
abdominal segment.
 Larvae are with sickle like mandibles. They are
carnivorous and feed on snails. Extra intestinal
digestion is common in larvae.
 All life stages are luminous to varying degree.
The luminescence is produced by the
oxidation of a substance luciferin in the
presence of an enzyme luciferase. The
function of luminescence is to bring the sexes
together.
 Family: coccinellidae (Ladybird beetles)

The ladybird beetles are a well known group of small,

oval, convex and often brightly coloured insects.
 They are often tan, black, or red and spotted with
contrasting colours of yellow, white, black or red.
 Most of the ladybird beetles are predaceous both as
larvae and adults and feed primarily on aphids, scale
insects, spider mites.
 The larvae of ladybird beetles are elongate,
somewhat flattened and covered with minute
tubercles or spines (Campodeiform). They are
usually spotted or banded with bright colours and
are usually found in aphid colonies.
 The famous vedalia beetle, Rodolia cardinalis
imported and released as biological means of pest
management tactics to control the cottony cushion
scale, Icerya purchasi a pest of citrus crops in
California.
 An exception to the beneficial nature of ladybird
beetles is the Epilachna sp., which is an important
defoliator.
 Family: Scarabaeidae
(Scarab beetles, chafer beetles, horn beetles, dung rollers, root grubs))
 This family consists of a large number of insect species differ in size,
colour, and habits.
 The scarabs are heavy bodied, oval or elongate, usually convex beetles,
with the tarsi 5-segmented.
 The antennae 8-11 segmented and lamellate. The last three of the antennal
segments are expanded into plate like structure that may spread apart or a
compact club at the tip.
 Many species are dung feeders or feed on decomposing materials (Once
dung beetles find dung, they either begin to eat it, or they start rolling balls
of it away. The beetles stand on their front feet and push the ball of dung
with their back feet. These dung balls are often bigger than the beetle),
 They feed on plants. Plant feeding insects injure foliage, roots, fruits and
flowers.
 Larvae are soil dwelling and feed on, roots of plants sometimes used as
food by the adult stage.
 Some of these are serious pests of lawns, golf greens etc.

Common Indian dung beetle : Heliocopris bucephalus

 Family: Cerambycidae (Long horned beetles)

They are phytophagous in nature.

 Most of the longhorns are elongate and cylindrical
with long antennae and many are brightly coloured.
 The tarsi 5-segmented with third segment bilobed, the
fourth segment usually small and concealed in the
notch of 3rd segment, often very difficult to see.
 Most adult cerambycids feed on flowers, many are
nocturnal in habit and during day time may be found
under bark or resting on trees or logs.
 Most of the cerambycids are wood boring in larval
stage and many species are very destructive. The
adults lay egg in crevices in the barks and larvae
bore into the wood.
 beetles with very long filiform / serrate antennae atleast two thirds as
long as the body, capable of being flexed backwards and usually
inserted on prominent tubercles.

Grubs are tree borers with

powerful mandibles

Elytra usually cover the body

but sometimes may leave the
posterior one or two segments
exposed in few cases
 Family: Chrysomelidae
(Flea beetles, leaf beetles, pumpkin beetel)

Leaf beetles are one of the most important agricultural

pests.
 They are small insects closely related to
cerambycidas but are smaller and have much shorter
antennae.
 Many species are yellow or tan with black markings.
 Antennae short or of moderate length usually with 11
segments.
 Adult leaf beetles feed primarily on
flowers and foliage.
 The larvae are phytophagous. Some of
the larvae are free feeders on foliage,
Adults generally feed on leaves causing
numerous holes and also on flowers.

 Some grubs feed on

foliage, some are leaf
miners, some feed on
roots and some bore
into stems.

 In case of the Colorado potato

beetle both immature and adults
feed on plant foliage and flowers.
 Family: Bruchidae (Seed beetles)
 The members of this family are short, stout
bodied beetles, mostly < 5mm in length.
 The body is often somewhat narrowed anteriorly
and is usually dull grayish or brownish in colour.
 The elytra shortened and not covering the tip of
the abdomen.
 The head is produced anteriorly into a soft
broad snout.
 The adults generally oviposit on the seeds, but some
are oviposit on the flowers or young fruits.
 The larvae of most bruchids feed inside various seeds
and pupate inside the seeds.
 Some species develop in stored dry seeds. Species
attacking leguminous plants are serious pests.
 These are considered as serious pests of stored
grains.

Grub
 Family: Curculionidae
(Weevils)
 Weevils are an economically important group
of coleoptera.
 They have long snouts with chewing
mandibles at tips.
 The antennae of curculionids are attached to
the snout about halfway along its length.
Antennae geniculate and clubbed
 These weevils use the snout to feed internally
on plant tissues and notch (slash) out the egg
laying sites.

Antennae elbowed with a distinct club

 Immature weevils are light coloured, without legs and most feed within plant
tissues.
 Adults drill hole and feed in seeds, fruits and other reproductive parts; some
feed on leaves.
 Adults and larvae are phytophagous and stored grain pests. Larvae usually
apodous, curved with developed head.
 Most common pests cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis rice weevil,
Sitophilus oryzae