Peltis is a genus of beetles found in
North America and
Europe, and the sole extant member of the family Peltidae, formerly included in the
Trogossitidae.[1][2][3][4] Members of this genus are dark, averaging from brown, to dark brown, to black. They are small, wide, and flat-bodied with wide, ridged
elytra. Fossil species of this genus are known from the Eocene aged
Florissant Formation of the United States, as well as the
Baltic amber of Europe.
Peltis larvae feed on fungal hypae growing inside rotting wood. Larvae grow for two to three years before becoming adults.[5][6]
^PROCHÁZKA J., KMENT P., NÉMETH T. & KOLIBÁČ J. 2017: New data on the distribution of Peltis grossa and P. gigantea (Coleoptera: Trogossitidae). Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae biologicae (Brno) 102(1): 25ñ33
^Kolibáč, Jiří and Leschen, Richard A. B.. "9.2. Trogossitidae Fabricius, 1801". Volume 2 Morphology and Systematics (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim), edited by Willy Kükenthal, Richard A.B. Leschen, Rolf G. Beutel and John F. Lawrence, Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2011, pp. 241-247.