Soil curculionidae (Coleoptera)

Abstract

Present knowledge of the blind soil Curcu- lionidac (Coleoptera) has been synthesized. All the genera living in the deep soil, belonging, so far as is known, to eight different sub-families out of a total of 73 attributed to the Rhyncho- phora, have been surveyed. For each the number of taxa has been reported along with zoogeographical and systematic notes. On the basis of the morphological, biological and ecological characteristics, a hypothesis is advanced of when and how the soil was colonized, at the same time stressing the importance of the Curculionidae as ecological « indicators » of the soil in addition to their place in pure research. © 1979 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.