tribe Amphidorini

Amphidorini is a tribe of darkling beetles often called the desert stink beetles, or the pinacate beetles. They are native to western North America and comprise of a total of about 230 species, all produce a form of quinone which is a deterrent to predators, many will stand on their heads to spray it. These beetles are quite common throughout their range, and can be found at any time of year, unless the temperature is near freezing. Recent revisionary works have greatly improved the taxonomy of the tribe, but Mexico still remains messy. The genus Coelocnemis of the subfamily Stenochiinae is sometimes confused with members of this tribe. The two can be distinguished by the two rows of golden setae on the inner margin of all of the tibias in Coelocnemis. I have decided to use the future names of all the species that will soon have name changes, as a result, the following taxa; Amphidora, Blapylis, Cratidus, Discogenia, Metablapylis, Steneleodes, and Tricheleodes are here considered genera, instead of subgenera within the genus Eleodes. Some synonymies and movements are also used here.

For a list of keys created for this group, click here

Diagnosis: From Johnston 2018 (unpublished dissertation), "Amphidorini can be separated from other members of Tenebrionidae by the following combination of characters: abdominal ventrites III-IV with visible membrane along hind margin; antennae lacking compound stellate sensoria; tarsal claws simple, not pectinate; penultimate tarsomeres not lobed beneath; paired defensive glands present between abdominal sternites VII and VIII, glands separate lacking a common volume, glands smooth, not annulated; female paraproct and coxite short, coxite 1-segmented, with short subapical gonostyle; elytra fused medially, hind wings reduced to small folds; mentum trilobed with mesal face more or less produced anterad, often concealing insertion of ligula; female with single, bursa-derived spermatheca."

Synonyms: 

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