Belongs within: Elateriformia.
The Dascillidae are a group of elongate beetles with serrate antennae whose larvae live on organic matter in the soil. Larvae are more or less C-shaped with a large head, resembling those of scarabaeids (Lawrence & Britton 1991). Adults are often found on grass stems in spring (O’Keefe 2002).
Members of the subfamily Karumiinae are relatively soft-bodied with a tendency for neotenic development (Bouchard 2014). The fore coxae are prominent and medially contiguous whereas in Dascillus they are separated by the prosternum (O’Keefe 2002).
Characters (from Lawrence & Britton 1991): Elongate, more or less parallel-sided, brown and clothed with decumbent grey or yellow pubescence usually forming narrow stripes on elytra; antennae eleven-segmented, serrate; pronotum strongly transverse with complete lateral carinae visible from above; fore coxae transverse, trochantins exposed, fore coxal cavities externally and internally open; mid coxal cavities narrowly separated, laterally open; tarsi pentamerous; abdomen with five ventrites, 0–2 connate. Larva more or less C-shaped, with large head, well-developed legs, and complex epipharyngeal and hypopharyngeal armature; labrum partly fused to clypeus; antennae appearing two-segmented with sensorium at apex; T9 with pair of minute urogomphi.
<==Dascillidae
| i. s.: Notodascillus sublineatusLB91
| PseudodactylusP92
|--Dascillus Latreille 1796 [incl. Atopa Paykull 1799, Petalon Laporte 1840; Dascillinae]O02
| |--D. brevicornis Macleay 1872M86
| |--D. cervinusB14 [=Atopa cervinaL02, Cebrio (Dascillus) cervinusG20]
| |--D. davidsoni LeConte 1859B14
| `--D. plumbeusB14
`--Karumiinae [Karumiidae]B14
|--Anorus LeConte 1859O02
| `--A. piceus LeConte 1859B14
`--KarumiaB14
|--K. estafilinoidesB14
`--K. staphylinus (Semenov & Martynov 1925)B14
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[B14] Bouchard, P. (ed.) 2014. The Book of Beetles: A lifesize guide to six hundred of nature’s gems. Ivy Press: Lewes (United Kingdom).
[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.
[L02] Latreille, P. A. 1802. Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière des crustacés et des insectes vol. 3. Familles naturelles des genres. F. Dufart: Paris.
[LB91] Lawrence, J. F., & E. B. Britton. 1991. Coleoptera (beetles). In: CSIRO. The Insects of Australia: A textbook for students and research workers 2nd ed. vol. 2 pp. 543–683. Melbourne University Press: Carlton (Victoria).
[M86] Masters, G. 1886. Catalogue of the described Coleoptera of Australia. Part IV. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (2): 259–380.
[O02] O’Keefe, S. T. 2002. Dascillidae Guérin-Méneville 1843. In: Arnett, R. H., Jr, M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley & J. H. Frank (eds) American Beetles vol. 2. Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea pp. 90–91. CRC Press.
[P92] Poinar, G. O., Jr. 1992. Life in Amber. Stanford University Press: Stanford.