Pollen beetle but pollen is a major part of its diet. Several members of the Nitidulidae are similarly referred to as pollen beetles. In particular, practically all the species in the genus "Meligethes" are called pollen beetles. Of these the most notorious is probably the one now accepted as being properly called "Meligethes aeneus"/"Brassicogethes aeneus". It is called the "Brassica pollen beetle", "Rape pollen beetle" and similar names, because it first became prominent as a pest of such crops in the first quarter of the 20th century. Many species in the family Oedemeridae are similarly called "pollen beetles". For example, the Southern
Hilum (biology) such a mark, and can be used as a distinguishing characteristic of a seed or spore. Hilum (biology) In botany, a hilum (pronounced ) is a scar or mark left on a seed coat by the former attachment to the ovary wall or to the funiculus (which in turn attaches to the ovary wall). On a bean seed, the hilum is called the "eye". For some species of fungus, the hilum is the microscopic indentation left on a spore when it separates from the sterigma of the basidium. A hilum can also be a nucleus of a starch grain; the