Platerodrilus Explained

Platerodrilus is a genus of beetles of the family Lycidae. They commonly appear in the literature under the name Duliticola, which is an obsolete junior synonym.^[1] The females retain a larval form as adults (larviform females) and are about 40–80 mm in length. The females and larvae have a flattened, dark body with large scales over the head, resembling trilobites, hence the informal names trilobite beetle, trilobite larva or Sumatran trilobite larva. In contrast, the males are much smaller, 8–9 mm, resembling other beetles. Species are found in tropical forests of India and South-east Asia.

Although the females resemble the prehistoric trilobite, the trilobite beetle evolved approximately 47 million years ago, 200 million years after trilobites had gone extinct.^[2] As only the females have this appearance the search for the species' males remained a mystery until Swedish zoologist Eric Mjoberg published a research paper describing them in 1925.

Species

• "P. paradoxus group"
  • • • • • • =^{[3] [4]}
• "P. major group"
  • • • • • • "P. sinuatus group"
              • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Ungrouped
        • =
        • =
        • =
          • • • • =
    • =^[5]

External links

• • Video of a trilobite beetle in Laos
• Video of a trilobite beetle in Borneo

Notes and References

1. Bocak . Ladislav . Masek . Michal . The taxonomy and diversity of Platerodrilus (Coleoptera, Lycidae) inferred from molecular data and morphology of adults and larvae . ZooKeys . 2014 . 426 . 29–63 . 10.3897/zookeys.426.7398 . 25147457 . 4137290 . free .
2. Web site: 2016-10-27 . Bizarre-Looking Beetle Has an Even Weirder Sex Life . https://web.archive.org/web/20210307033540/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/rare-weird-insect-trilobite-beetle . dead . March 7, 2021 . 2023-03-16 . Science . en.
3. Mjöberg . Eric . The mystery of the so-called "trilobite larvae" or "Perty's larvae" definitely solved . Psyche: A Journal of Entomology . 1925 . 32 . 3 . 119–157 . 10.1155/1925/19784. free .
4. http://eol.org/pages/28540473/overview Duliticola paradoxa.
5. Wong. A.T.C.. 1996. A new species of neotenous beetle, Duliticola hoiseni (Insecta: Coleoptera: Cantharoidea: Lycidae) from Peninsula Malaysia and Singapore. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 41. 1. 173–187.