Afrocerophytum vix Costa, Vanin et Rosa, 2014 (Coleoptera: Cerophytidae) newly recorded from Ghana

The cerophytid genus AfrocerophytumCosta, Vanin et Rosa, 2014 with its only species A. vixCosta, Vanin et Rosa, 2014 was described from the tropical Africa based on one male and three female specimens from Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Here, we report two additional males from Ghana, which are deposited in the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest. With 7 figures

The mitochondrial genome of Iberobaenia (Coleoptera: Iberobaeniidae): first rearrangement of protein-coding genes in the beetles

International audienceThe complete mitochondrial genome of the recently discovered beetle family Iberobaeniidae is described and compared with known coleopteran mitogenomes. The mitochondrial sequence was obtained by shotgun metagenomic sequencing using the Illumina Miseq technology and resulted in an average coverage of 130 × and a minimum coverage of 35×. The mitochondrial genome of Iberobaeniidae includes 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, 22 tRNAs genes, and 1 putative control region, and showed a unique rearrangement of protein-coding genes. This is the first rearrangement affecting the relative position of protein-coding and ribosomal genes reported for the order Coleoptera

Unveiled: Prototrichalus from the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber represents a yet oldest record of Ischaliidae Blair, 1920 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea)

The genus Prototrichalus Molino-Olmedo, Ferreira, Branham and Ivie, 2020 known from Burmese amber was initially attributed to the family of net-winged beetles (Coleoptera: Lycidae) in the superfamily Elateroidea, and soon after transferred to Tenebrionoidea incertae sedis and compared with Ischalia Pascoe, 1860. Here, we examined additional material of Prototrichalus and confirmed it is the first known Mesozoic subgroup of the family of false fire-coloured beetles (Coleoptera: Ischaliidae) in superfamily Tenebrionoidea. This oldest yet available record of the Ischaliidae suggests their at least Cretaceous origin. A re-defined set of the diagnostic features is provided for the family Ischaliidae to incorporate the unique combination of morphological features of Prototrichalus. One new species, P. jingpo Telnov and Kundrata, sp. nov., is described and compared with its congeners. A key to supraspecific taxa of Ischaliidae and an annotated checklist of extinct species of the family are provided.Crown Copyright © 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The attached file is the published version of the article.NHM Repositor

Mastigocoleidae fam. nov., a New Mesozoic Beetle Family and the Early Evolution of Dryopoidea (Coleoptera)

With some 3,700 described species, Dryopoidea are a moderately diverse superfamily of beetles whose position within basal Polyphaga has been historically difficult to elucidate. Members of most extant dryopoid families are set apart from the majority of other polyphagans by their association with aquatic habitats, but little is known about the origin of these derived life habits and the phylogeny of the superfamily. Here we describe Mastigocoleidae Tihelka, Jäch, Kundrata & Cai fam. nov., a new family of Mesozoic dryopoids represented by fossils from the Cretaceous Yixian Formation in northeastern China (undescribed species; ~125 Ma), Crato Formation in northeastern Brazil (Mastigocoleus rhinoceros Tihelka & Cai gen. et sp. nov.; ~113 Ma), and amber from northern Myanmar (Mastigocoleus resinicola Tihelka & Cai gen. et sp. nov. and Cretaceocoleus saetosus Tihelka, Kundrata & Cai gen. et sp. nov.; ~99 Ma). Integrating the findings of recent molecular and morphological phylogenetic analyses, we recover Mastigocoleidae as an early-diverging dryopoid clade sister to the families Lutrochidae and Dryopidae, or less likely as a group of putative stem-dryopoids. Mastigocoleidae are most distinctly separated from all other dryopoid families by their whip-like antennae, with 11 antennomeres, reaching to the pronotal base, and with the scape broadest and longest, a short pedicel, and antennomeres II-XI more or less distinctively gradually tapering toward the apex. Mastigocoleidae indicate that the last common ancestor of Dryopoidea was likely terrestrial in the adult stage, and document character acquisitions associated with a specialization for aquatic life

The first mainland European Mesozoic click-beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) revealed by X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning of an Upper Cretaceous amber from Hungary

Fossil bioinclusions in amber are invaluable source of information on the past evolution and diversity of various organisms, as well as on the paleoecosystems in general. The click-beetles, Elateridae, which originated and greatly diversified during the Mesozoic, are mostly known from the adpression-like fossils, and their diversity in the Cretaceous ambers is only poorly documented. In this study, we describe a new click-beetle based on an incomplete inclusion in ajkaite, an Upper Cretaceous (Santonian) amber from the Ajka Coal Formation from Hungary. We used X-ray micro-computed tomography scanning to reconstruct its morphology because it is deposited in an opaque piece of amber. Our results suggest that the newly described Ajkaelater merkli gen. et sp. nov. belongs to subfamily Elaterinae. It represents the first Mesozoic beetle reported from Hungary, and the first Mesozoic Elateridae formally described from mainland Europe. Our discovery supports an Eurasian distribution and diversification of Elaterinae already in the Cretaceous. The paleoenvironment of the Ajka Coal Formation agrees well with the presumed habitat preference of the new fossil taxon. The discovery of a presumably saproxylic click-beetle shed further light on the yet poorly known paleoecosystem of the Santonian present-day western Hungary

Integrated phylogenomics and fossil data illuminate the evolution of beetles

Beetles constitute the most biodiverse animal order with over 380,000 described species and possibly several million more yet unnamed. Recent phylogenomic studies have arrived at considerably incongruent topologies and widely varying estimates of divergence dates for major beetle clades. Here we use a dataset of 68 single-copy nuclear protein coding genes sampling 129 out of the 193 recognized extant families as well as the first comprehensive set of fully-justified fossil calibrations to recover a refined timescale of beetle evolution. Using phylogenetic methods that counter the effects of compositional and rate heterogeneity we recover a topology congruent with morphological studies, which we use, combined with other recent phylogenomic studies, to propose several formal changes in the classification of Coleoptera: Scirtiformia and Scirtoidea sensu nov., Clambiformia ser. nov. and Clamboidea sensu nov., Rhinorhipiformia ser. nov., Byrrhoidea sensu nov., Dryopoidea stat. res., Nosodendriformia ser. nov., and Staphyliniformia sensu nov., Erotyloidea stat. nov., Nitiduloidea stat. nov., and Cucujoidea sensu nov., alongside changes below the superfamily level. Our divergence time analyses recovered a late Carboniferous origin of Coleoptera, a late Paleozoic origin of all modern beetle suborders, and a Triassic–Jurassic origin of most extant families, while fundamental divergences within beetle phylogeny did not coincide with the hypothesis of a Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution

Forest leaf litter beetles of Taiwan: first DNA barcodes and first insight into the fauna

We report the publication of 953 DNA barcodes of forest leaf litter beetles from central Taiwan, in total representing 334 spe- cies of 36 beetle families. This is the first bulk of data from the Taiwanese Leaf Litter beetles project focused on uncovering the under-explored diversity of leaf litter beetles across Taiwan. Based on these data, we provide the first records of the following taxa for Taiwan: family Sphindidae (genus Aspidiphorus Ziegler, 1821); tribes Trichonychini, Ctenistini, and Bythinoplectini (all Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae); genera Gyrelon Hinton, 1942, Thyroderus Sharp, 1885, Cautomus Sharp, 1885 (all Cerylonidae), Dermatohomoeus Hlisnikovský, 1963 (Leiodidae), Paraploderus Herman, 1970 (Staphylinidae: Oxytelinae), Thinocharis Kraatz, 1859 (Staphylinidae: Paederinae), Cephennodes Reitter, 1884, Napoconnus Franz, 1957 (both Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Bicava Belon, 1884 (Latridiidae), Otibazo Morimoto, 1961, Seleuca Pascoe, 1871 and Acallinus Morimoto, 1962 (all Curculioni- dae); species Oodes (Lachnocrepis) japonicus (Bates, 1873) (Carabidae: Licininae), Drusilla obliqua (Bernhauer, 1916) (Staphylin- idae: Aleocharinae) and Coccotrypes advena Blandford, 1894 (Curculionidae: Scolytinae). The records of Anapleus Horn, 1873 (Histeridae) and Batraxis Reitter, 1882 (Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) have been confirmed. The male of Sivacrypticus taiwanicus Kaszab, 1964 (Archeocrypticidae) is described for the first time. Gyrelon jenpani Hu, Fikáček & Matsumoto, sp. nov. (Cerylon- idae) is described, illustrated, and compared with related species. DNA barcodes associated larvae of 42 species with adults, we are concisely illustrating some of these: Oodes japonicus, Perigona cf. nigriceps Dejean, 1831 (both Carabidae), Ptilodactyla sp. (Ptilodactylidae), Maltypus ryukyuanus Wittmer, 1970 (Cantharidae), Drusilla obliqua, Myrmecocephalus brevisulcus (Pace, 2008), Diochus sp., Mimopinophilus sp. (all Staphylinidae), Stelidota multiguttata Reitter, 1877, Lasiodites inaequalis (Grouvelle, 1914) (both Nitidulidae), Lagria scutellaris Pic, 1910, and Anaedus spinicornis Kaszab, 1973 (both Tenebrionidae). We also report the first cases of Rickettsia infections in Scydmaeninae and Pselaphinae. All data (sequences, metadata, and voucher photos) are made public in BOLD database and in a Zenodo Archive

Figs 1–14 in New minute Drilini species significantly extend the distributions of Lolosia and Microselasia (Coleoptera: Elateridae: Agrypninae) in tropical Africa

Figs 1–14. Morphology of Lolosia species. 1–2 – L. gajduskovae sp. nov.: 1 – habitus, dorsal view; 2 – habitus, lateral view. 3–4 – L. smetkovae sp. nov.: 3 – habitus, dorsal view; 4 – habitus, lateral view. 5–6 – antenna, dorsal view: 5 – L. gajduskovae sp. nov.; 6 – L. smetkovae sp. nov. 7–10 – L. gajduskovae sp. nov.: 7 – head and pronotum, dorsal view; 8 – abdominal sternite IX, ventral view; 9 – aedeagus, dorsal view; 10 – aedeagus, lateral view. 11–14 – L. smetkovae sp. nov.: 11 – head and pronotum, dorsal view; 12 – abdominal sternite IX, ventral view; 13 – aedeagus, dorsal view; 14 – aedeagus, lateral view. Scale bars = 1.0 mm (Figs 1–4), 0.5 mm (Figs 5–7, 11), 0.2 mm (Figs 8–10, 12–14).Published as part of Kundrata, Robin, 2018, New minute Drilini species significantly extend the distributions of Lolosia and Microselasia (Coleoptera: Elateridae: Agrypninae) in tropical Africa, pp. 531-538 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 58 (2) on page 533, DOI: 10.2478/aemnp-2018-0042, http://zenodo.org/record/448890

New minute Drilini species significantly extend the distributions of Lolosia and Microselasia (Coleoptera: Elateridae: Agrypninae) in tropical Africa

Lolosia Kundrata & Bocak, 2017 and Microselasia Kundrata & Bocak, 2017 (Elateridae: Agrypninae: Drilini) were described based on species endemic to the Cameroonian rainforest zone. Here, I describe Lolosia gajduskovae sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Lolosia smetkovae sp. nov. (Central African Republic), and Microselasia sormovae sp. nov. (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Additionally, I redescribe Selasia burgeoni Pic, 1930 (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and transfer it to Microselasia as M. burgeoni (Pic, 1930) comb. nov. The main diagnostic characters including male genitalia are figured, and an identification key to the males of Lolosia species is provided. The generic diagnoses of Lolosia and Microselasia are updated based on the here studied species. The newly described species increase our knowledge on the distribution of Lolosia and Microselasia in the Afrotropical Region

Description of Selasia socotrana sp. nov. (Elateridae: Agrypninae: Drilini) from Socotra Island, with notes on S. homhilia

Kundrata, Robin (2012): Description of Selasia socotrana sp. nov. (Elateridae: Agrypninae: Drilini) from Socotra Island, with notes on S. homhilia. Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 52 (2): 213-218, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.535424