Brentidae

Brentidae
A brentid from the Western Ghats
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Suborder:	Polyphaga
Infraorder:	Cucujiformia
Superfamily:	Curculionoidea
Family:	Brentidae Billberg, 1820
subfamilies
Apioninae Brentinae Eurhynchinae Ithycerinae Microcerinae Nanophyinae

Brentidae is a cosmopolitan family of primarily xylophagous beetles also known as straight-snouted weevils. The concept of this family has been recently expanded with the inclusion of three groups formerly placed in the Curculionidae; the subfamilies Apioninae, Cyladinae, and Nanophyinae, as well as the Ithycerinae, previously considered a separate family. They are most diverse in the tropics, but occur throughout the temperate regions of the world. They are among the families of weevils that have non-elbowed antennae, and tend to be elongate and flattened, though there are numerous exceptions.

Holotrichapion pisi is a European member of the subfamily Apioninae

The subfamilial classification of the family has been reorganized by several different authors within the last 20 years, and is not yet stable; the most recent, and conservative, classification (Oberprieler et al., 2007) accepts only 6 subfamilies, with many familiar subfamilial taxa (e.g., Antliarhininae, Cyladinae, Cyphagoginae, Myrmacicelinae, and Trachelizinae) now relegated to tribal groups, primarily within the subfamily Brentinae.

References

• Oberprieler, R. G.; Marvaldi, A. E.; Anderson, R. S. 2007: Weevils, weevils, weevils everywhere. Pp. 491-520 in: Zhang, Z.-Q. & Shear, W. A. (Eds) Linnaeus tercentenary: progress in invertebrate taxonomy. Zootaxa, 1668: 1–766. [1]

External links

• Images of Brentidae species found in New Zealand
• Brentinae - primitive Weevils of Florida on the University of Florida / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Featured Creatures website
• Data related to Brentidae at Wikispecies