A new species of Diochus from Baltic amber (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Diochini)

The first fossil of the staphylinine tribe Diochini Casey is described and figured from an inclusion in mid-Eocene (Lutetian) Baltic amber. Diochus electrussp. n. is distinguished from its congeners and the diversity of rove beetles (Staphylinidae s.l.) is summarized briefly.     

A new species of the genus Vulda Jacquelin du Val from Turkey (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Xantholinini)

Vulda assingi sp. n. from Bozda?lar, Manisa province, western Anatolia, is de-scribed, illustrated and distinguished from congeners recorded from Turkey. Additional records are reported for two species. A total of six species is now known from Turkey.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B3E6C251-50D4-4985-9655-2EAC57869F18     

Darwin’s legacy to rove beetles (Coleoptera,Staphylinidae): A new genus and a new species,including materials collected on the Beagle’s voyage

A species of xanthopygine rove beetles is described and figured here as Darwinilus sedarisi gen. n. and sp. n. The holotype was collected by Charles Darwin in Bahía Blanca, Argentina on the Beagle’s voyage. The contributions of Charles Darwin to rove beetle systematics are summarized briefly.     

Testing the phylogenetic utility of morphological character systems,with a revision of Creophilus Leach (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae)

Many studies have examined the phylogenetic utility of different kinds of molecular data, and have often compared these with morphology. However, relatively few studies have phylogenetically evaluated different morphological character systems. Using the Creophilus complex, the phylogenetic utility of external structural characters, male genitalia, female genitalia, and chaetotaxy of adults is examined for the first time in the megadiverse beetle family Staphylinidae. A data set of 121 phylogenetically informative characters of 24 terminal taxa was analysed separately and simultaneously using parsimony and the phylogenetic utility of each partition was compared with widely used statistics and support measures. External structures had the least homoplasy, resolved the most nodes separately, and largely determined the topology of the simultaneous analysis. Male and female genitalia contributed phylogenetic signal mostly congruent with external characters. Despite extensive homoplasy, chaetotaxy contributed the majority of hidden support, and was critical for resolving several terminal nodes in the simultaneous analysis. All character systems were informative throughout the tree, and when combined provided the best‐supported hypothesis. However, there is a need to distinguish hidden support from dispersion of homoplasy when combining data sets of varying quality. The Creophilus complex, Creophilus Leach, Liusus Sharp, and the Creophilus erythrocephalus ( Fabricius ) and C. maxillosus (Linnaeus) species‐groups are each strongly supported monophyletic groups. Hadrotes Mäklin is not monophyletic and Hadrotes wakefieldi Cameron is the sister‐species of the rest of the Creophilus complex, but included within it. Creophilus is revised to include 12 species, including Creophilus galapagensis sp. nov. and C. rekohuensis sp. nov. Creophilus huttoni (Broun) is removed from synonymy with C. oculatus (Fabricius), and C. insularis (Fauvel), C. villipennis Kraatz, and C. violaceus (Fauvel) are synonymized under C. flavipennis (Hope) comb. et stat. nov. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 163 , 723–812.     

Revision and phylogenetic assessment of the rove beetle genus Pseudohesperus Hayashi,with broad reference to the subtribe Philonthina (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylinini)

This paper studies the phylogeny of the rove beetle subtribe Philonthina, to test its hypothetical monophyly and to unravel the evolutionary relationships of the subtribe and its included genus‐level taxa, with emphasis on the genus Pseudohesperus and its close‐allied relatives. The phylogenetic analyses are based on 105 adult morphological characters and 66 terminal taxa, i.e., all six members of Pseudohesperus, 51 species to represent 29 other genera of the subtribe Philonthina, seven species to represent the other six subtribes of Staphylinini, one species of the tribes Arrowinini, and one of the Platyprosopini. According to the phylogenetic results obtained, the genus Erichsonius should move out from the hitherto‐defined subtribe Philonthina and thus the monophyly of this taxon is challenged. The phylogenetic tree suggests that the genera Hesperus and Belonuchus might not be monophyletic, but the monophyly of Pseudohesperus and the sister relationship between it and Bisnius are well supported. The species‐level phylogenetic relationships of the genus Pseudohesperus reveal a clear pattern of species diversification that can be correlated well with the species' zoogeographical patterns. The paper also revises the taxonomy of Pseudohesperus and describes five new species from China: Pseudohesperus luteus Li & Zhou sp. nov. , Pseudohesperus pedatiformis Li & Zhou sp. nov. , Pseudohesperus tripartitus Li & Zhou sp. nov. , Pseudohesperus sparsipunctatus Li & Zhou sp. nov. , and Bisnius lubricus Li & Zhou sp. nov. An identification key to the species of Pseudohesperus is provided and their geographical distributions are mapped. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 163 , 679–722.     

New Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) records with new collection data from New Brunswick and an addition to the fauna of Quebec: Staphylininae

Forty-four species of Staphylininae are newly reported from New Brunswick, bringing the total number of species known from the province to 126. Quedius criddlei (Casey) is reported for the first time from Quebec. Bisnius cephalotes (Gravenhorst) is removed from the faunal list of New Brunswick due to a lack of supporting voucher specimens. Additional locality data are presented for seven species either recently recorded from the province or with few previous records and little habitat data. We provide the first documented records of Atrecus americanus (Casey), Quedius erythrogaster Mannerheim, Quedius labradorensis labradorensis Smetana, Quedius plagiatus (Mannerheim), and Neobisnius terminalis (LeConte) from New Brunswick. Collection and habitat data are presented and discussed for all species.     

Ultrastructure of sensilla on the maxillary and labial palps of three species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae)

Most species of Staphylinidae are predators in an agroecosystem. They acquire prey information from their environment through receptors. In this study, the sensilla on maxillary and labial palps of Philonthus kailiensis, Philonthus lewisius and Quedius robustus were examined with scanning electron microscopy to identify and analyse the external morphology and distribution of the sensilla to enhance our knowledge of the sensilla of Staphylinidae and provide a rationale of taxonomical studies on the two genus. Results showed that the sensilla are classified into six types: Böhm bristles, sensilla chaetica, sensilla furcate, sensilla coeloconica, sensilla placodea and sensilla basiconica. No sexual dimorphism exists among the three species. The relationships and functions of sensilla on maxillary and labial palps were also speculated. There may be a certain correlation between the sensilla on maxillary and labial palps of the staphylinid and its habitat.     

A revision of the Neotropical species of Bolitogyrus Chevrolat,a geographically disjunct lineage of Staphylinini (Coleoptera,Staphylinidae)

The Neotropical species of the rarely collected genus Bolitogyrus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae: Staphylinini) are revised. The genus exhibits an uncommon, disjunct distribution between the Neotropical and Oriental Regions and is of unknown phylogenetic position within Staphylinini. Morphological evolution remarkable for Staphylinini was discovered within Bolitogyrus, including sexually dimorphic modifications of the pronotum that may be involved in male competition for females. rSEM interactive animations were used to establish morphological species boundaries between two highly variable species and are provided to illustrate diagnostic characters of the genitalia in unconventional views. The genus is redescribed based on the world fauna and twenty-eight Neotropical species are considered valid. Of these, nineteen are described as new to science: Bolitogyrus ashei sp. n.; B. apicofasciatus sp. n.; B. brevistellus sp. n.; B. bufo sp. n.; B. cheungi sp. n.; B. cornutus sp. n.; B. divisus sp. n.; B. falini sp. n.; B. gracilis sp. n.; B. inexspectatus sp. n.; B. longistellus sp. n.; B. marquezi sp. n.; B. newtoni sp. n.; B. pseudotortifolius sp. n.; B. pulchrus sp. n.; B. silex sp. n.; B. thomasi sp. n.; B. tortifolius sp. n.; and B. viridescens sp. n. Bolitogyrus sallei (Kraatz), stat. r. is removed from synonymy with B. buphthalmus (Erichson) and the following new synonyms are proposed: Cyrtothorax cyanescens Sharp, 1884, syn. n. = Quedius buphthalmus Erichson, 1840; C. nevermanni Scheerpeltz, 1974, syn. n. = C. costaricensis Wendeler, 1927. A summary of all available bionomic and distributional data, as well as an illustrated identification key to and diagnoses of all Neotropical species are provided.