Byrrhidae, the pill beetles, is a family of beetles in the superfamily Byrrhoidea. They are generally found in damp habitats within cooler-high latitude regions of both hemispheres. Most byrrhids feed on moss, lichens and algae, though some species feed on vascular plants.Maier, Crystal A., Lawrence, John F. and Leschen, Richard A. B.. "Byrrhidae Latreille, 1804: Coleoptera, Beetles". Handbook of Zoology Online, edited by Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2016. The oldest undoubted record of the family is Lidryops from the earliest Late Cretaceous Charentese amber of France, with other less certain records going back to the Middle Jurassic, but these possibly belong to Byrrhoidea. There around 500 extant species in 40 genera.
Environment Byrrhidae are known to thrive best in disturbed environments, specifically post-fire environments. The population increase of byrrhids in fire-ridden areas has lead some to use them as an indicator of the magnitude of disturbances.
Taxonomy There are about 450 species in this family.Lawrence, J. F., Slipinski, A., Jaeger, O., & Pütz, A. (2013). The Australian Byrrhinae (Coleoptera: Byrrhidae) with descriptions of new genera and species. Zootaxa 3745(3), 301-29.
Genera include:Byrrhidae. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). Amphycyrta Arctobyrrhus Byrrhus Chaetophora Curimopsis Cytilus Eusomalia Exomella Lioligus Lioon Listemus Morychus Porcinolus Sierraclava Simplocaria
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