Nomenclatural and taxonomic changes in Staphyliniformia (Coleoptera)

Many nomenclatural changes are implemented in the beetle families Georissidae, Histeridae, Hydraenidae, Hydrochidae, Hydrophilidae, Ptiliidae, Leiodidae and especially Staphylinidae, of the beetle series Staphyliniformia (Coleoptera), in preparation for making a world catalog of this group available online. Limited taxonomic changes are also made in the staphylinid subfamilies Osoriinae and Staphylininae. At the level of family-group taxa, Article 29.4 of the current (1999) Zoological Code is reviewed and the original spellings of two tribal names, Nymphisterini Tishechkin (Histeridae) and Cryptonotopsisini Pace (Staphylinidae), are resurrected. The tribal name Stictocraniini Jakobson (Staphylinidae) is also resurrected as the valid name for its new synonym Fenderiini Scheerpeltz. Changes at the genus-group level in Histeridae include placing Contipus Marseul as a new synonym of Hister Linnaeus due to the current placement of its validly designated type species C. subquadratus Marseul; proposal of Contipides Newton gen. nov. (type species Contipus digitatus Marseul) for the 10 species that had remained in Contipus of authors; and new designation of Idolia laevigata Lewis as type species of Idolia Lewis. In Ptiliidae, Rodwayia ovata Lea is newly designated as type species of Rodwayia Lea, and Throscidium germainii Matthews is newly designated as type species of Throscidium Matthews. In Staphylinidae, Paramichrotus Naomi is resurrected as a valid subgenus of Hesperosoma Scheerpeltz with Hemihesperosoma Hayashi placed as a new synonym of it; Sonoma corticina Casey is reaffirmed as the type species of Sonoma Casey in place of Faronus tolulae LeConte; Stanosthetus Dejean is recognized as an available name and junior synonym of Euplectus Kirby; Taplandria Pace (type species T. guyanensis Pace) is recognized as a junior homonym and new synonym of Taplandria Pace (type species T. flava Pace); and Termitobiella Wasmann is resurrected as the valid name for the genus Felda Blackwelder. Replacement names for preoccupied generic or subgeneric names include in Histeridae Bellatricides Newton nom. nov. for Pachylister (Bellatrix) Mazur, junior homonym of Bellatrix Boie; and in Staphylinidae Foxiides Newton nom. nov. for Foxia Pace, junior homonym of Foxia Ashmead, and Xenasterides Newton nom. nov. for Xenaster Bierig, junior homonym of Xenaster Simonwitsch. Taxonomic changes at the generic level in Staphylinidae include proposal of Prolibia Newton gen. nov. (type species Lispinus californicus LeConte) for four Nearctic species recently placed in Clavilispinus Bernhauer; placement of Heterotrochinus Coiffait and its synonym Heterotrochus Coiffait as new synonyms of Eulibia Cameron; placement of the generic or subgeneric names Chapmaniella Bernhauer, Glenothorax Bierig, Euryolinus Bernhauer and Plesiolinus Bernhauer as new synonyms of Platydracus Thomson; and transfer of the subgenus Poikilodracus Scheerpeltz from Staphylinus Linnaeus to Platydracus. First reviser actions are used to select Georissites Ponomarenko (Georissidae) as the correct original spelling over the alternate original spelling Georyssites, and Kyrtusa Pace (Staphylinidae) as correct original spelling over Kirtusa. Several hundred nomenclatural and taxonomic changes at the species group level are briefly summarized here but are too numerous to list completely. Replacement names for preoccupied species or subspecies names in current use are proposed in Histeridae (3), Hydrochidae (1), Hydrophilidae (1), Leiodidae (2), Ptiliidae (3) and Staphylinidae (180); an additional staphylinid replacement name, Phloeopora nilgiriensis, is newly proposed by G. Paśnik. New or resurrected combinations are proposed for either nomenclatural or taxonomic reasons in the following genera (with indication of how many names in each genus): in Histeridae, Contipides Newton (10); in Staphylinidae, Abemus Mulsant and Rey (4), Allotrochus Fagel (6), Atheta Thomson (1), Cheilocolpus Solier (4), Eulibia Cameron (4), Foxiides Newton (1), Lispinus Erichson (3), Loncovilius Germain (2), Nacaeus Blackwelder (119), Naddia Fauvel (1), Neohypnus Coiffait and Sáiz (8), Neolosus Blackwelder (1), Ocypus Leach (2), Ontholestes Ganglbauer (1), Platydracus Thomson (59), Prolibia Newton (4) Termitobiella Wasmann (10), Thyreocephalus Guérin-Méneville (4), Xenasterides Newton (1), and Zeoleusis Steel (3). First reviser actions are used to resolve the correct original spellings (of two or more original spellings) of two species of Hydraena Kugelann (Hydraenidae) and 21 species of Staphylinidae. Changes in priority or availability of names are cited to establish the following names as valid over one or more new synonyms each: Acrotrichis rotundata (Haldeman) and Acrotrichis glabricollides Newton sp. nov. in Ptiliidae, Nemadiopsis franki Perreau in Leiodidae, and Gyrophaena nigra Kraatz, Heterothops fumigatus LeConte, Loncovilius germaini (Scheerpeltz), Philonthus upotovus Newton, sp. nov., Stenus fulviventris Rougemont, and nine species of Homalota Mannerheim in Staphylinidae. Finally, the species Eleusis lata Coiffait and Eleusis microlestiformis Coiffait are noted as not belonging to the genus Eleusis Laporte de Castelnau or to Staphylinidae, and are transferred without generic assignment to the subfamily Inopeplinae of the family Salpingidae

Oxytelinae

24 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 24)."A distinctive new genus and species of flightless litter-inhabiting staphylinid, Oxypius peckorum, is described from extreme southwestern Australia, together with its presumed larva. The systematic position and phylogenetic relationships of the genus are reviewed. Oxypius is considered to be most closely related to Euphanias, presently placed in the Piestinae. Both genera are here placed in the Oxytelinae close to the genera Syntomium and Deleaster. A revised cladistic analysis is presented for primitive taxa of the Oxytelinae; a need for a revised tribal classification is suggested. A key to separate larvae of the subfamilies Piestinae, Osoriinae, and Oxytelinae is also given, and existing keys to genera of Oxytelinae are modified to include adults and larvae of Oxypius and adults of Euphanias"--P. [1]

Transitional fossils illuminate early evolution of the ant-like stone beetle tribe Leptomastacini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae)

<p>The ant-like stone beetle supertribe Mastigitae (Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae) comprises nine extant and five extinct genera that exhibit unusual morphological specializations and ecological adaptions. Recent discoveries of mastigite fossils from Upper Cretaceous–middle Eocene deposits have significantly improved our knowledge of the evolutionary history of this group, yet a direct fossil record for two modern tribes of unclear affinities, i.e. Leptomastacini and Papusini, is lacking. Herein we describe a new genus and species, †<i>Archemastax divida</i> gen. et sp. nov., based on two well-preserved individuals entombed in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber (<i>c</i>. 99 Ma), representing the earliest known representative of Leptomastacini. †<i>Archemastax</i> possesses both plesiomorphic and derived characters, with a few important traits shared with extant members of Papusini and Clidicini. A data set of 70 morphological characters scored for 29 species of Mastigitae was analysed using maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference; both analyses recovered a sister relationship between †<i>Archemastax</i> and extant leptomastacines. However, in the former analysis Leptomastacini was recovered as sister to the remaining Mastigitae, while the latter indicated an origin of Leptomastacini from within Clidicini. Although a close affinity between †<i>Archemastax</i> and Papusini was not supported by our analyses, similarities in some shared characters of these two groups are discussed.</p> <p><a href="http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:BB17DF86-25FC-48B5-8AFB-1DB27328280F" target="_blank">http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:BB17DF86-25FC-48B5-8AFB-1DB27328280F</a></p

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

The Beetle Tree of Life Reveals that Coleoptera Survived End-Permium Mass Extinction to Diversify During the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution

Here we present a phylogeny of beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) based on DNA sequence data from eight nuclear genes, including six single-copy nuclear protein-coding genes, for 367 species representing 172 of 183 extant families. Our results refine existing knowledge of relationships among major groups of beetles. Strepsiptera was confirmed as sister to Coleoptera and each of the suborders of Coleoptera was recovered as monophyletic. Interrelationships among the suborders, namely Polyphaga (Adephaga (Archostemata, Myxophaga)), in our study differ from previous studies. Adephaga comprised two clades corresponding to Hydradephaga and Geadephaga. The series and superfamilies of Polyphaga were mostly monophyletic. The traditional Cucujoidea were recovered in three distantly related clades. Lymexyloidea was recovered within Tenebrionoidea. Several of the series and superfamilies of Polyphaga received moderate to maximal clade support in most analyses, for example Buprestoidea, Chrysomeloidea, Coccinelloidea, Cucujiformia, Curculionoidea, Dascilloidea, Elateroidea, Histeroidea and Hydrophiloidea. However, many of the relationships within Polyphaga lacked compatible resolution under maximum-likelihood and Bayesian inference, and/or lacked consistently strong nodal support. Overall, we recovered slightly younger estimated divergence times than previous studies for most groups of beetles. The ordinal split between Coleoptera and Strepsiptera was estimated to have occurred in the Early Permian. Crown Coleoptera appeared in the Late Permian, and only one or two lineages survived the end-Permian mass extinction, with stem group representatives of all four suborders appearing by the end of the Triassic. The basal split in Polyphaga was estimated to have occurred in the Triassic, with the stem groups of most series and superfamilies originating during the Triassic or Jurassic. Most extant families of beetles were estimated to have Cretaceous origins. Overall, Coleoptera experienced an increase in diversification rate compared to the rest of Neuropteroidea. Furthermore, 10 family-level clades, all in suborder Polyphaga, were identified as having experienced significant increases in diversification rate. These include most beetle species with phytophagous habits, but also several groups not typically or primarily associated with plants. Most of these groups originated in the Cretaceous, which is also when a majority of the most species-rich beetle families first appeared. An additional 12 clades showed evidence for significant decreases in diversification rate. These clades are species-poor in the Modern fauna, but collectively exhibit diverse trophic habits. The apparent success of beetles, as measured by species numbers, may result from their associations with widespread and diverse substrates – especially plants, but also including fungi, wood and leaf litter – but what facilitated these associations in the first place or has allowed these associations to flourish likely varies within and between lineages. Our results provide a uniquely well-resolved temporal and phylogenetic framework for studying patterns of innovation and diversification in Coleoptera, and a foundation for further sampling and resolution of the beetle tree of life