Belidae

Oberprieler, Rolf G., Marvaldi, Adriana E. & Anderson, Robert S., 2007, Weevils, weevils, weevils everywhere *, Zootaxa 1668, pp. 491-520 : 499-500

Belidae

Another small and evidently relict family, the Belidae number only about 375 species classified in 38 genera and occur predominantly in the southern hemisphere. They are divided into two subfamilies, Belinae and Oxycoryninae , with rather different distributions and habits. The Belinae , with about 155 species in 25 genera, are restricted to the southern hemisphere, occurring mainly in the Australian region (140 species in 21 genera) but a few also in South America. The Oxycoryninae , with 13 genera and about 200 species, have a worldwide but highly fragmented distribution ( Marvaldi et al. 2006). The larvae of Belinae are woodborers in stems and logs, the more primitive Pachyurini and Agnesiotidini (fig. 3) mostly in conifers ( Araucariaceae , Podocarpaceae and Cupressaceae ) but the Belini in angiosperms, especially acacias in Australia. Oxycoryninae (fig. 4) develop mostly in reproductive plant organs, of gymnosperms (araucarias and cycads) as well as of angiosperms, but also in stems or under bark (see Marvaldi et al. 2006). In Belidae and remaining weevil families, the female rostrum is transformed into a proper oviposition tool by the fusion of labrum and clypeus and the development of more advanced mandibles with long pharyngeal processes, enabling their eggs to be deposited inside firm plant tissues and their larvae to develop truly endophytically.

The unification of Belinae and Oxycoryninae into a single family is not universally adopted (e.g., Crowson 1955, Thompson 1992, Zimmerman 1994a, Zherikhin & Gratshev 1995), although the close relationship of these two groups has long been recognised and is well supported in phylogenetic analyses ( Kuschel 1995, Marvaldi & Morrone 2000, Marvaldi et al. 2002). The Aglycyderini , too, are sometimes treated as a separate subfamily (e.g., May 1993, Kuschel 1995, 2003) or even family (e.g., Thompson 1992, Zimmerman 1994a), but recent phylogenetic analyses ( Marvaldi 2005a, Marvaldi et al. 2006) place them firmly inside Oxycoryninae . With phylogenetic analyses recently conducted on all the genera of both Belinae ( Kuschel & Leschen 2003) and Oxycoryninae ( Marvaldi et al. 2006), the Belidae are the only weevil family for which comprehensive generic phylogenies are available.