The species of Platypus of Florida

The family Platypodidae includes approximately 1,000 species, most of which are found in the tropics (Schedl 1972). Seven species of platypodids, all in the genus Platypus, are found in the U.S., 4 of which occur in Florida. All species found in Florida are borers of trunks and large branches of recently killed trees and may cause economic damage to unmilled logs or standing dead timber. The most recent key to species was published 50 years ago (Chamberlin 1939), does not include all species known from the U.S. (Wood 1979), and has long been out of print.