North American flour beetle  The North American flour beetle ("Aphanotus brevicornis") is a species of flour beetle in the family Tenebrionidae. It is a pest of stored foodstuff, particularly processed grains. This species was originally described as "Eulabis brevicornis" by LeConte, later placed in the genus "Aphanotus" by Casey, and further moved to "Tribolium" by Hinton. However, phylogenetic studies have shown that "A. brevicornis" is more closely related to "Latheticus oryzae" and "Gnatocerus cornutus" than to other "Tribolium" species, therefore warranting replacement of this species in its previous, otherwise defunct, genus "Aphanotus" .