Rove Beetle Species Research Articles

Rove beetle species diversity and the patterns of interactions with their host plants in primary and secondary tropical forests

In tropical disturbed forests, it is relatively unknown the extent insect communities are experiencing shifts in species diversity and the consequences for ecosystem functions and services. In southern Mexico, we used the rove beetle community associated to Heliconia wagneriana bracts, as a model system, to investigate differences in community attributes and feeding habits between old-growth and human induced secondary forests. We tested if the beta diversity components of rove beetle communities were influenced by forest type and bract traits. Furthermore, we described the topology of individual-based heliconia-rove beetle ecological networks. Overall, we recorded 26 rove beetle species with significantly greater abundance in secondary forests. High compositional dissimilarity between forest types was observed with saprophagous species being more likely detected in old-growth forests; whereas predatory species in secondary forests. Heliconia-rove beetle networks showed a significant nested pattern with incidence data for old-growth forests and incidence and abundance data for secondary forests. Compared to old-growth forests, the rove beetle community in secondary forests showed strong shifts in species composition, diversity and differences in the detection probability of feeding habits, with consequences for ecosystem functioning. We further discuss these findings according to the forest disturbance and phytotelm systems. Implications for insect conservation: Individuals of H. wagneriana represent biodiversity reservoirs for invertebrates, especially in human-modified landscapes.

Xerothermophilous species of rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in dry-warm habitats prefer their wetter niches

Xerothermophilous species of rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in dry-warm habitats prefer their wetter niches

Fires and Clear-Cuttings as Local Areas of Arthropod Diversity in Polar Regions: Khibiny Mountains

The well-known phenomenon of attracting untypical animals to disturbed territories has been poorly investigated in the polar mountains. We studied arthropod diversity in self-healing industrial clear-cuts and burn areas in the Khibiny Mountains, Kola Polar region. Fieldworks were conducted at four sites, including a control mountain taiga forest and its three transformed variants: burnt forest, uncleared clear-cut, and twice-disturbed burnt clear-cut. Arthropods were collected using formalin traps 2–3, 5–6, and 8–9 years after industrial deforestation in 2012 and an extensive grass-roots fire in 2013. Out of 124 identified species (spiders—61; ground beetles—41; and rove beetles—22), 79 (or 64%) were collected in disturbed, primarily burned areas and were absent in control forest. We note ten species of rove beetles, nine species of ground beetles, and eight species of spiders for the first time in the well-studied arthropod fauna of the Khibiny Mts. We found that grass-root fires transform the soil vegetation covers in the polar mountain forests more powerfully in comparison with extensive deforestation and attract a greater diversity of arthropods with different preferences, enriching the fauna of the polar mountains and the Subarctic region as a whole. The attraction effect persists for, at least, a decade after the violations.

The genomic and cellular basis of biosynthetic innovation in rove beetles

How evolution at the cellular level potentiates macroevolutionary change is central to understanding biological diversification. The >66,000 rove beetle species (Staphylinidae) form the largest metazoan family. Combining genomic and cell type transcriptomic insights spanning the largest clade, Aleocharinae, we retrace evolution of two cell types comprising a defensive gland-a putative catalyst behind staphylinid megadiversity. We identify molecular evolutionary steps leading to benzoquinone production by one cell type via a mechanism convergent with plant toxin release systems, and synthesis by the second cell type of a solvent that weaponizes the total secretion. This cooperative system has been conserved since the Early Cretaceous as Aleocharinae radiated into tens of thousands of lineages. Reprogramming each cell type yielded biochemical novelties enabling ecological specialization-most dramatically in symbionts that infiltrate social insect colonies via host-manipulating secretions. Our findings uncover cell type evolutionary processes underlying the origin and evolvability of a beetle chemical innovation.

The first record of osoriine rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) in Eocene Baltic amber

ABSTRACT There are no formal fossil records of Osoriinae known from the pre-Quaternary Europe. Here, a new osoriine rove beetle species, Thoracophorus balticus sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on an exquisitely well-preserved adult in Eocene Baltic amber. The new species is placed in the extant genus Thoracophorus (Thoracophorini: Thoracophorina), a nearly worldwide genus, albeit with only a single modern species in Europe. Our discovery is significant in consideration of the palaeofauna of Staphylinidae in the Eocene European forests that produced Baltic amber, as well as the palaeozoogeography of the genus.

Two rove beetle species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) new to the Korean fauna

A taxonomic study of two Korean staphylinid species is presented. Baeocera satana Nakane is identified for the first time in the Korean Peninsula and diagnosed with illustrations of its diagnostic characters. Dalotia coriaria (Kraatz) is newly discovered in South Korea and is redescribed with illustrations of its diagnostic characters.

First Description of the Immature Stages of Philonthus spinipes Sharp, 1874 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae) – An Adventive Rove Beetle Species in Europe, with Notes on Its Biology, Ecology and Zoogeography

First Description of the Immature Stages of Philonthus spinipes Sharp, 1874 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae) – An Adventive Rove Beetle Species in Europe, with Notes on Its Biology, Ecology and Zoogeography

Материалы к фауне стафилинид (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) севера Корякии (Камчатский край)

Fifty species of rove beetles from twenty-six genera, belonging to the nine subfamilies (without subfamily Aleocharinae) are recorded for the fauna of the northern part of Koryakia (Kamchatskiy Kray). A table of list of species is presented. Collecting localities are mapped.

Micro-endemism pattern and Wolbachia infection of Quedius obliqueseriatus (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), a montane rove beetle endemic of the North-Western Caucasus

We conducted an integrative taxonomic study of a forest floor dwelling montane rove beetle Quedius obliqueseriatus Eppelsheim, 1889. It is one of many endemic species of the North-Western Caucasus, a region considered a global biodiversity hotspot. Examination of the morphological characters in 93 specimens of Q. obliqueseriatus and phylogenetic assessment of the COI barcode for 28 of them, revealed that this species in fact consists of two distinct (p-distance of 4.0%) allopatric lineages, western and eastern. They subtly differ in the structure of the aedeagus, which was not noticed in the previous revision of this species. Nuclear DNA markers (H3, ITS1, ITS2, Wg and 28S) sampled in both lineages, did not show any divergence. Variation of the non-genitalic morphological characters, such as body size or coloration, is continuous across both lineages. Discovery of microendemic lineages within an endemic rove beetle species highlights how little is understood about the patterns and drivers of endemism in arthropods of the North-Western Caucasus. We refrained from the description of a new species due to shortage of data from the area where newly discovered western and eastern lineages meet. As Q. obliqueseriatus was found to be largely infected with Wolbachia, we gave a review of this infection among insects and other arthropods and its impact on speciation. Finally, we described our method of removal of the WolbachiaCOI amplicon by endonuclease restriction enzyme in order to get the desired beetle amplicon from infected specimens.

A new genus of Syntomiini rove beetles from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae)

A new genus and species of rove beetles, Vidya scabra gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on a well-preserved amber specimen of the mid-Cretaceous period from northern Myanmar. The new genus is placed in the extant tribe Syntomiini Böving & Craighead of the subfamily Oxytelinae, based on the following combination of features: procoxal fissure open with exposed protrochantin, tibiae without spines, tarsal formula 5-5-5, weakly developed abdominal sternite II, immovably fused to sternite III, and a single pair of wide paratergites on each abdominal segment. Our discovery represents the first record of Syntomiini as amber bioinclusion and documents the palaeodiversity of Oxytelinae during the mid-Cretaceous.

A new species of the genus Naddia Fauvel, 1867 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae) from southern China.

This study describes a new rove beetle species, Naddia flavipes sp. nov. from southern China and provides additional morphological knowledge on Naddia hainanensis Yang & Zhou 2010. Line drawings and color illustrations of adult structures and genitalia are provided for both species.

Formation of the Holarctic Fauna: Dated molecular phylogenetic and biogeographic insights from the Quedius-lineage of Ground-Dwelling Rove Beetles (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae)

Although the Holarctic fauna has been explored for centuries, many questions on its formation are still unanswered. For example, i) what was the impact of the uplift of the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau?, ii) what were the timings and climate of the faunal bridges connecting the Nearctic and Palearctic regions?, and iii) how did insect lineages respond to the late Paleogene global cooling and regional aridification? To answer these, we developed a phylogenetic dataset of 1229 nuclear loci for a total of 222 species of rove beetles (Staphylinidae) with emphasis in the tribe Quediini, especially Quedius-lineage and its subclade Quedius sensu stricto. Using eight fossils for calibrating molecular clock, we estimated divergence times and then analysed in BioGeoBEARS paleodistributions of the most recent common ancestor for each target lineage. For each species we generated climatic envelopes of the temperature and precipitation and mapped them across the phylogeny to explore evolutionary shifts. Our results suggest that the warm and humid Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau acted as an evolutionary cradle for the Quedius-lineage originating during the Oligocene from where, in the Early Miocene, the ancestor of the Quedius s. str. dispersed into the West Palearctic. With the climate cooling from the Mid Miocene onwards, new lineages within Quedius s. str. emerged and gradually expanded distributions across the Palearctic. In Late Miocene, a member of the group dispersed to the Nearctic region via Beringia before the closure of this land bridge 5.3 Ma. Paleogene global cooling and regional aridification largely shaped the current biogeographic pattern for Quedius s. str. species, many of them originating during the Pliocene and shifting or contracting their ranges during Pleistocene.

A new species of Peplomicrus Bernhauer from Ecuador (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Micropeplinae)

Peplomicrus nidicola sp. n., a new rove beetle species of the subfamily Micropeplinae is described and illustrated based on a series of males and females collected from nests of New World blackbirds (Icteridae) in northern Ecuador. It is the eleventh nominal species of this genus and the eighth known to occur in the Neotropical realm. A modification of Campbell's key to the Neotropical species of Peplomicrus Bernhauer is given to include P. nidicola, as well as a list of co-occurring coleopterofauna.

Response of rove-beetle (Staphylinidae) assemblages to the cumulative effect of wildfire and linear footprint in boreal treed peatlands.

Cumulative effects of anthropogenic and natural disturbances have become increasingly relevant in the context of biodiversity conservation. Oil and gas (OG) exploration and extraction activities have created thousands of kilometers of linear footprints in boreal ecosystems of Alberta, Canada. Among these disturbances, seismic lines (narrow corridors cut through the forest) are one of the most common footprints and have become a significant landscape feature influencing the maintenance of forest interior habitats and biodiversity. Wildfire is a common stand-replacing natural disturbance in the boreal forest, and as such, it is hypothesized that its effects can mitigate the linear footprint associated with OG exploration, but only a few studies have examined its effectiveness. We studied the short-term (1year post-fire) response of rove-beetle assemblages to the combined effects of wildfire and linear footprint in forest, edge, and seismic line habitats at burned and unburned peatlands along the southwest perimeter of the 2016 Horse River wildfire (Fort McMurray). While rove-beetle species richness was higher in seismic lines in both the burned and unburned habitats compared with the adjacent peatland, diversity was greater only in seismic lines of burned areas. Abundance was lower in the burned adjacent peatland but similarly higher in the remaining habitats. Assemblage composition on seismic lines was significantly different from that in the adjacent forest and edge habitats within both burned and unburned sites. Moreover, species composition in burned seismic lines was different from either unburned lines or burned forest and edge. Euaesthethus laeviusculus and Gabrius picipennis were indicator species of burned line habitats, are sensitive to post-fire landscapes and can occupy wet habitats with moss cover more efficiently than when these habitats are surrounded by unburned forest. Although these results are based on short-term responses, they suggest that wildfire did not reduce the linear footprint, and instead, the cumulative effect of these two disturbances had a more complex influence on rove-beetle recovery at the landscape level than for other invertebrates. Therefore, continued monitoring of these sites can become useful to evaluate changes over time and to better understand longer-term biodiversity responses to the cumulative effects of wildfire and linear disturbances in boreal treed peatlands, given the long-lasting effect of such disturbances.

Afristenus orapensis: A new genus and species of Steninae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) with “harpoon-like” mouthparts from the Upper Cretaceous lacustrine deposits at Orapa Diamond Mine, Botswana

A new genus and species of rove beetle, Afristenus orapensis gen. et sp. nov., is described and figured based on one well-preserved compression fossil from the African, Upper Cretaceous fossil insect deposit, Orapa Diamond Mine in north-east Botswana. Afristenus is definitively placed in the extant subfamily Steninae based on its harpoon-like labial feeding apparatus. Afristenus differs from all other Steninae by head and neck behind the eyes being broader than eyes that cover two-thirds of the side of the head and transverse prothorax, which is distinctly broader than the head. The new specimen from Orapa Diamond Mine possibly has unique antennae with a compact 5-segmented-club, and a stem composed of elongated antennal segments. This is the first stenine compression fossil with a preserved labial feeding mechanism. It confirms the widespread distribution of stenines with this feeding apparatus in the mid-Cretaceous; supporting the hypothesis that this feeding mechanism was part of the ground plan of the Steninae, and the Lower Cretaceous, but probably not Jurassic origin for the group. It also demonstrates morphological conservatism dating back to the Cretaceous.

A new Ryukyuan species of Edaphus Motschulsky (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Euaesthetinae).

Edaphus nagugushikuensis sp. n., a new Japanese rove beetle species of the subfamily Euaesthetinae is described and illustrated based on a male specimen collected in the northern region of Okinawa-jima, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is the 56th species of Edaphus Motschulsky known to occur in Japan, and the sixth known to inhabit the largest Ryukyuan island. Puthzs identification key to Edaphus species of the southwestern Japanese islands from 2010 is modified to include the new species.

New Burmese Amber Rove Beetle Fossils Assigned to the Rare Extant Subfamily Coomaniinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae).

Simple SummaryThe rove beetle subfamily Coomaniinae is incredibly rare, currently comprised of one described and several undescribed species of the genus Coomania in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. Contrary to most rove beetle groups, the subfamily is only known based on a handful of specimens. Coomaniinae is the sister group to the subfamily Staphylininae, which, in contrast, is mega-diverse and abundant in terrestrial habitats globally. In this paper we describe three new species of Coomania preserved as fossils from Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber (ca. 99 million years old).The Mesozoic, ca. 99-million-year-old Burmese amber is an incredible source of fossil beetles that have been very actively studied in recent times and have already significantly improved our knowledge about the evolution of the large family of Staphylinidae, the rove beetles. Nevertheless, new extinct taxa of high phylogenetic interest are being discovered, among which the following three rove beetle species are described here: Coomania megistos sp. nov., Coomania enkarsios sp. nov. and Coomania yini sp. nov. These fossils preserved enough morphological characters to be identified as members of the rove beetle lineage formed by Staphylininae and allied subfamilies. Based on the fragments of morphology available for observation, they are hypothesized to be the extinct members of the extant rare monobasic subfamily Coomaniinae, sister to the recently mega-diverse and abundant Staphylininae. Limitations of the available fossil material prompted us to place the new species in the extant, monobasic genus Coomania Cameron, 1939, pending a more refined generic placement when more characters become available via additional material or advanced examination techniques. The odd morphology and rarity of the extant members of Coomaniinae restricted to Southeast Asia and Northern Australia make them an enigmatic subfamily among the hyper-diverse Staphylinidae. The newly described fossils, albeit without sufficient details concealed by imperfect preservation, shed some light on the past diversity of Coomaniinae and its divergence from Staphylininae.

Urban Individuals of Three Rove Beetle Species Are Not More Exploratory or Risk-Taking Than Rural Conspecifics.

Simple SummaryUrbanization-derived disturbances and threats, as well as changes in environmental and habitat parameters act as selection pressures on various features of urban-dwelling animals, including their behavior. Earlier studies on vertebrates showed that urban individuals are more exploratory and bolder than their rural counterparts. Similar analyses on invertebrates are rare, therefore we studied the exploratory and risk-taking behavior of individuals of three rove beetle species from rural and urban populations during their main reproductive period. Beetles of all three studied species responded consistently in the different behavioral tests. The exploratory behavior of beetles was consistent over time indicating the existence of personalities, but did not differ in differently urbanized habitats. Ocypus nitens males, however, were significantly more exploratory than females which can be explained by the active searching of males for mating partners.Urbanization is creating changes in environmental and habitat conditions, as well as creating disturbance and threats to urban-associated species. Some traits, such as high exploratory and risk-taking behavior, are beneficial to allow colonization of urban habitats and coping with urbanization-derived pressures. In this study the exploratory and risk-taking behavior of rural and urban individuals of three forest-associated rove beetle species were tested during their main reproductive period by five frequently used behavioral measures. Individuals of all studied species were similarly ranked by all behavioral measures, indicating that the studied rove beetles responded consistently in the different contexts. However, the behavior of beetles was consistent over time for all/most studied species only by using two measures of exploratory behavior. These provide evidence for the existence of the exploratory dimension of personality in rove beetles. We found a higher exploratory behavior in males than females in Ocypus nitens which can be explained by the active searching of males for mating partners. There were no urbanization-related differences in the exploratory behavior of individuals, suggesting that behavioral changes (being more exploratory) may not yield additional fitness benefits in these rove beetle species with good dispersal capacity.

Development of markers using microsatellite loci of two rove beetle species, Paederus fuscipes Curtis and Aleochara (Aleochara) curtula Goeze (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), followed by analyses of genetic diversity and population structure

BackgroundThe family Staphylinidae is the most speciose beetle group in the world. The outbreaks of two staphylinid species, Paederus fuscipes and Aleochara (Aleochara) curtula, were recently reported in South Korea. None of research about molecular markers and genetic diversity have been conducted in these two species.ObjectiveTo develop microsatellite markers and analyze the genetic diversity and population structures of two rove beetle species.MethodsNGS was used to sequence whole genomes of two species, Paederus fuscipes and Aleochara (Aleochara) curtula. Microsatellite loci were selected with flanking primer sequences. Specimens of P. fuscipes and A. curtula were collected from three localities, respectively. Genetic diversity and population structure were analyzed using the newly developed microsatellite markers.ResultsThe number of alleles ranged 5.727–6.636 (average 6.242) and 2.182–5.364 (average 4.091), expected heterozygosity ranged 0.560–0.582 (average 0.570) and 0.368–0.564 (average 0.498), observed heterozygosity ranged 0.458–0.497 (average 0.472) and 0.418–0.644 (average 0.537) in P. fuscipes and A. curtula, respectively. Population structure indicates that individuals of A. curtula are clustered to groups where they were collected, but those of P. fuscipes are not.ConclusionPopulation structures of P. fuscipes were shallow. In A. curtula, however, it was apparent that the genetic compositions of the populations are different significantly depending on collection localities.

Ikaros navarretei (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Staphylininae), a new apterous rove beetle species from high elevations in Colombia

A new species of the xanthopygine genusIkarosChatzimanolis & Brunke, 2021 is described from Colombia:Ikaros navarreteisp. nov.Illustrations and a key are provided to identify the four known species ofIkaros.