Cleridae
This week’s insect is a member of the family Cleridae, commonly referred to as the Checkered Beetles, so-called because of the differently coloured square shapes on the abdomen seen in some species. Most clerids are predators feeding on adults of other beetles, especially word-boring beetles and cleridae have had some success in the biological control of pests of pine trees. Some species patrol flower heads and attack other visiting insects, and there are reports of the possible importance of clerids as pollinators. The fossil record dates Cleridae to the mid-Jurassic, about 165 million years ago, so they’ve had plenty of time to evolve into the many different species (ca. 3500) that are distributed throughout the world. Cleridae are regularly captured in Malaise traps and icipe’s Biosystematics Unit has a representative collection of specimens of this family.
