Abstract
A new species of the forensically interesting genus Oxelytrum Gistel (Coleoptera, Silphidae), Oxelytrum selknan, is described from Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego provinces, Argentina. The new species resembles Oxelytrum biguttatum (Philippi) in outer aspect, but has different male genitalia, in particular a median lobe longer than the paramera. All the described species of Oxelytrum have the median lobe shorter than the paramera. The internal sac, as far as it could be reconstructed from dry-pinned specimens, also shows differences between the two species. A key to the species of Oxelytrum is given and illustrated.
Highlights
The family Silphidae, in its present sense, comprises 25 genera with some 200 species distributed all over the world (Newton and Thayer in Pakaluk and Slipinsky 1995)
The male genitalia are of the trilobed type, with an internal sac (Blackburn 1930)
The male genitalia were cleared in cold NaOH for two to four days; this sometimes permitted to study the internal sac
Summary
The family Silphidae, in its present sense, comprises 25 genera with some 200 species distributed all over the world (Newton and Thayer in Pakaluk and Slipinsky 1995). The adults of this family are rather large beetles, without ocelli, with elytra punctate but never striate, and with 6–7 differentiated ventrites (Hansen 1997). Adults of corpse-frequenting species prey on the eggs and larvae of flies (Dorsey 1940; Payne and King 1970; Oliva and Di Iorio 2008). The larvae have maxilae with large, wide mala, divided in the apical 1⁄4; galea with a brush of dense hairs, articulate urogomphi, which may be uni- or bisegmented (Hansen 1997)
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