Diversity of Color in Pleasing Fungus Beetles (Coleoptera: Erotylidae: Erotylinae)

Erotylidae, or pleasing fungus beetles, are a morphologically diverse lineage of Coleoptera notable for the variety of colors and patterns present on their dorsal surface. This study begins the characterization of this diversity and discusses patterns around coloration within Erotylinae. Using spectrophotometer data, we investigated the frequency of certain color motifs across erotyline tribes and discuss geographic patterns in these color motifs. The most frequently observed colors within Erotylinae are brown/black with orange/red maculations in the case of bicolored taxa. In terms of type of maculations, stripes were the most common pattern observed. When summarizing the diversity across major geographic areas, the Neotropical and Indomalay regions displayed the most color variation, followed by the Australasian region.