Ptiliidae

Ptiliidae is a family of very tiny beetles (including the smallest of all beetles) with a cosmopolitan distribution. They are colloquially called featherwing beetles, because the hindwings are narrow and feathery.

There are approximately 600 described species in 80 genera, but large numbers of specimens in collections await description and the true number of species is likely to be much higher than this.

The family is divided into 3 subfamilies:

• Acrotrichinae
• Cephaloplectinae
• Ptiliinae