Haplocauda, a New Genus of Fireflies Endemic to the Amazon Rainforest (Coleoptera: Lampyridae).

Luiz Felipe Lima Da Silveira,William Lima,Cláudio Ruy Vasconcelos Da Fonseca,Joseph Mchugh

doi:10.3390/insects13010058

Luiz Felipe Lima Da Silveira, William Lima + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13010058

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Abstract

Simple SummaryThe Amazon Rainforest is still a frontier in the study of insect biodiversity, housing several species yet to be described and studied. Yet, its continuous deforestation urges scientists to study insect diversity there before it is too late. Here, we identified and described new species and a new genus of fireflies from the Amazon Rainforest. These new species are unique among other fireflies due to their unique abdominal morphology, supposed here to involve a clamping mechanism used during mating.Most firefly genera have poorly defined taxonomic boundaries, especially in the Neotropics, where they are more diverse and more difficult to identify. Recent advances that shed light on the diversity of fireflies in South America have focused mainly on Atlantic Rainforest taxa, whereas lampyrids in other biomes remained largely unstudied. We found three new firefly species endemic to the Amazon basin that share unique traits of the male abdomen where sternum VIII and the pygidium are modified and likely work as a copulation clamp. Here we test and confirm the hypothesis that these three species form a monophyletic lineage and propose Haplocauda gen. nov. to accommodate the three new species. Both maximum parsimony and probabilistic (Bayesian and maximum likelihood) phylogenetic analyses confirmed Haplocauda gen. nov. monophyly, and consistently recovered it as the sister group to Scissicauda, fireflies endemic to the Atlantic Rainforest that also feature a copulation clamp on abdominal segment VIII, although with a different configuration. We provide illustrations, diagnostic descriptions, and keys to species based on males and females. The three new species were sampled from different regions, and are likely allopatric, a common pattern among Amazonian taxa.

Highlights

Beetles are the most diversified lineage of organisms, with over 400,000 species described, and over 1,000,000 are estimated [1]
The study of lampyrid diversity has been hampered by a lack of taxonomic revisionary work and diagnostic resources to facilitate species identification, in the Neotropics, where the family is most diverse
Specimens of these distinctive new species were located at the following institutions: the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) and University of Georgia Collection of Arthropods (UGCA); Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São

Summary

Introduction

Beetles are the most diversified lineage of organisms, with over 400,000 species described, and over 1,000,000 are estimated [1]. Among soft-bodied elateroids, fireflies are arguably the most popular. For such charismatic and fascinating insects, fireflies can be surprisingly hard to identify. The study of lampyrid diversity has been hampered by a lack of taxonomic revisionary work and diagnostic resources to facilitate species identification, in the Neotropics, where the family is most diverse. Despite recent advances in the classification at higher levels [3], the genus-level classification of most fireflies remains unchanged from pre-Hennigian taxonomy for most subfamilies. A notable exception to this static generic classification is seen in the Australopacific luciolines, which have a much more mature taxonomic status due to decades of revisionary studies and, more recently, phylogenetic analyses [4]. Revisionary work for most genera across firefly subfamilies is needed, and the monophyly of most genera remains largely untested

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