Discovery of a most remarkable cave-specialized trechine beetle from southern China (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Trechinae).

Mingyi Tian,Dianmei Wang,Sunbin Huang

doi:10.3897/zookeys.725.21040

Abstract

Xuedytes bellus Tian & Huang, gen. et sp. n. is described from a limestone cave in Du’an Karst of Guangxi, a kingdom of cavernicolous trechine beetles in southern China. From a morphological point of view, Xuedytes Tian & Huang, gen. n. seems to be the most extremely cave-adapted trechines in the world. Superficially, it looks much like Giraffaphaenops Deuve, 2002 in general body shape, in particular the structure of the prothorax, but simultaneously it is similar to Dongodytes (s. str.) Deuve, 1993, based on elytral characters, including chaetotaxy. Hence the new genus seems to represent a lineage intermediate between Giraffaphaenops and Dongodytes (s. str.).

Highlights

The globe’s largest and highly varied karst landscapes that blanket nearly the entire area of southern China (Deharveng and Bedos 2012) are long known to host the richest diversity of cave-dwelling trechine beetles in the world
As the cave beetle fauna of China is still poorly-known, it is hardly surprising that another highly peculiar species representing another new genus has been revealed in the country (Tian 2017)
In early August 2017, a cave biological survey carried out in Du’an Karst of northern Guangxi, southern China led to the discovery of a very peculiar species belonging to the subfamily Trechinae, family Carabidae

Summary

Introduction

The globe’s largest and highly varied karst landscapes that blanket nearly the entire area of southern China (Deharveng and Bedos 2012) are long known to host the richest diversity of cave-dwelling trechine beetles in the world. In early August 2017, a cave biological survey carried out in Du’an Karst of northern Guangxi, southern China led to the discovery of a very peculiar species belonging to the subfamily Trechinae, family Carabidae. It shows a number of most remarkable troglomorphic features amongst subterranean trechines generally. Str.) Deuve, 1993, yet being much more strongly elongated It has many other particular morphological characteristics, such as: (1) Head comparatively short, but sufficiently long and aphaenopsian, bearing multisetiferous pores in frontal areas; (2) Right mandible edentate; (3) Prothorax extremely elongated; (4) Lateral margins of pronotum visible in fore part from above, while long erect setae on disc and two pairs of latero-marginal setae in middle portion present; and (5) Elytra extremely elongated, smooth and glabrous, with striae completely obliterated

Materials and methods

Discussion