Flour beetle
A small beetle in the genus Tribolium whose adults and larvae infest stored flour and other grain products.
Tribolium castaneum: The red flour beetle, a cosmopolitan stored-product pest and genetic model organism. This common species is often what people mean by a flour beetle.
Complete metamorphosis: An insect life cycle with distinct egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages. Flour beetles develop through these four stages in stored food.
Tribolium as a model organism: The use of Tribolium beetles to study genetics, development, physiology, and evolution. The red flour beetle is a major laboratory model beyond pest research.
Drugstore beetle: A small brown beetle, Stegobium paniceum, that infests dried foods, spices, and other stored materials. It attacks pantry goods too, but belongs to a different beetle family.
Tribolium confusum: The confused flour beetle, a widespread pest of flour and other stored foods. It is a close relative often found in the same infested products.
Stored-product pest control: Methods for preventing or reducing insect damage to stored food and agricultural commodities. Control targets beetles across their life stages and storage habitat.
RNA interference: A gene-silencing process in which small RNA molecules reduce expression of matching genes. Tribolium helped establish RNA interference as a powerful insect research method.
Sawtoothed grain beetle: A slender stored-product beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis, with distinctive projections along its thorax. Its body shape separates it from Tribolium in infested stores.
Tenebrionidae: A large beetle family that includes darkling beetles and many stored-product pests. Tribolium belongs to this family of beetles.
Insect pheromone: A chemical signal released by an insect that alters the behavior of other members of its species. Pheromone traps can detect and monitor Tribolium infestations.