Wednesday, August 7, 2013

10:00 am        The Tenebrionidae of California pdf

Rolf L. Aalbu
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA

The California floristic province has been identified as one of the 25 most important hot spots on the planet.  This province includes parts of Southern Oregon as well as Northern Baja California. However, the state of California also includes elements not normally associated with this province. These arid unassociated biogeographic regions are also very rich in tenebrionid diversity. At present, the state of California hosts 461 species of tenebrionids, 197 of which are endemic. 54 non-endemic species also occur in Baja California, 41 in Oregon.  Nine regional areas of endemism are identified and examined which tie closely with biogeographic regions. Regional endemism and diversity is examined.  California is the center of diversity for a number of genera and tribes. Distributional patterns and comparison to other areas are discussed.

10:20 am        The Tenebrionid Fauna of Kirghizia (Central Asia)

Wolfgang Schawaller
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, Germany

General aspects of the Tenebrionid Fauna of Kirghizia (Central Asia) are compiled. As yet 265 species (without subfamily Alleculinae) in 66 genera are recorded. The composition of the fauna, comparisons of the fauna with Nepal and Mongolia, species communities in 7 localities of different mountain ranges of the Tien Shan, remarks about distribution and faunal history of that area, as well as some biological and ecological observations are presented.

10:40 am        The Tenebrionidae of South Mountain Park pdf

Charles A. Triplehorn
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

The tenebrionid fauna of South Mountain Park, a large preserve in Phoenix, Arizona is discussed based on large scale pitfall sampling.

11:20 am       The Tenebrionidae of Arizona: An Invitation to Help Develop a Preliminary List

Larry Stevens1 and Warren Steiner2
1Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
2Smithsonian NMNH, Washington, DC, USA

The American Southwest is a biodiversity hotspot for the Tenebrionidae; however, a list of the species of Arizona has not been compiled. We invite regionally knowledgeable tenebrionid experts to contribute to the development of a list of all members of the family by county for the state of Arizona. We also are compiling collection data from numerous regional and national museums. To date, we have assembled information on 497 species among 123 genera, making the Tenebrionidae one of the most species-rich beetle families in the Southwest. We examined tenebrionid species richness in detail in the Grand Canyon region in northern Arizona, where we have focused sampling to better understand elevation and biodiversity relationships. Tenebrionid species density there is negatively related to elevation, and species composition analyses reveals increased presence of neotropical taxa over nearctic species. Arizona is naturally highly fragmented landscape, with large natural barriers, such as Grand Canyon, the Mogollon Rim, and the Sky Islands that have developed in relatively recent geologic time. However, endemism among the tenebrionids appears to be relatively rare, suggesting that tenebrionids are relatively resilient to landscape evolution. Nonetheless, much remains to be learned about tenebrionid distribution in the state. We invite all interested darkling beetle researchers who have substantial information on Arizona Tenebrionidae to participate in development of this list, and welcome co-authorship in this effort to help build a more complete understanding of Arizona tenebrionid distribution.

 

11:40 am        Mexican Tenebrionidae Found in Agriculture Quarantine Inspections

Jason T. Botz
USDA-APHIS-Plant Protection and Quarantine, Nogales, Arizona, USA

Inspections of commercial cargo and personal baggage from Mexico yield a variety of insects, including many tenebrionids.  In this presentation, I will give an overview of intercepted taxa and their frequencies.  I will also discuss how agriculture quarantine inspections can produce material useful for systematic research, and the opportunities and obstacles to collaboration between researchers and the quarantine inspection apparatus.

1:20 pm          The importance of morphology-based taxonomic revisions in the age of genomics pdf

Quentin D. Wheeler
International Institute for Species Exploration, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

 

1:40 pm          Phylogeny, biogeography and generic classification of the Ectateus generic group (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Platynotina) pdf

Marcin Jan Kamiński
Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

According to the results of a cladistic analysis performed by Iwan (2002) the subtribe Platynotina can be divided into three evolutionary lineages: platynotoid (Africa, Asia, North and South America), melanocratoid (Madagascar) and trigonopoid (South Africa). Ectateus generic group is a monophyletic group of genera within the platynotoid lineage, defined by the specific pronotal structure (disc with lateral and basal depressions).

Initially, the group consisted of 11 genera and 75 species distributed in two separate parts of the Afrotropical realm: eastern – 8 genera, and western – 3 genera. Because Iwan`s (2002) cladogram did not reflect this biogeographic division, he postulated that evolutionary history of Ectateus generic group can be linked to the Miocene fragmentation of African rain forest (Turnover-pulse hypothesis). In Iwan`s opinion the populations were relegated to small forest refugia in which the speciation took place, after which the species disperse with expanding forest area.

Since the time of designation (Iwan 2002), several papers concerning the alpha-taxonomy of the Ectateus generic group were published. The generic and species composition was significantly modified and now consists of 16 genera and 88 species. Furthermore, the newly available entomological material do not supports Iwan`s (2002) phylogenetic hypothesis. Additionally, the new distributional data shows that some of the previously known species seems to have wider ranges (e.g. all over the Afrotropical realm). All this suggests that the phylogenetic and biogeographic hypotheses concerning the Ectateus generic group should be verified.

The aim of the project was to present a new hypothesis about the phylogeny of the Ectateus generic group. The results of a cladistic analysis were used to perform an ancestral area analysis to test the above mentioned biogeographic hypothesis. Basing on the information from both methods a new generic classification of the studied group was proposed.

 

2:00 pm          Revision of the South American genus Praocis Eschscholtz 1829 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Praociini) pdf

Gustavo E. Flores1 and Jaime Pizarro-Araya2
CONICET, Laboratorio de Entomología, Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas (IADIZA, CCT CONICET Mendoza),  Mendoza, Argentina
Laboratorio de Entomología Ecológica, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile
1CONICET, Laboratorio de Entomología, Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas (IADIZA, CCT CONICET Mendoza), Mendoza, Argentina
2Laboratorio de Entomología Ecológica, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile.

The South American genus Praocis (Pimeliinae: Praociini) is revised. Praocis comprises 77 species and 8 subspecies species arranged in 10 subgenera distributed in arid lands from Central Peru, Bolivia to Southern part of Patagonia in Chile and Argentina. Based on adult morphology, the subgenera are redefined using new and constant characters. The subgenus Praocis (Parapraocis) is excluded from Praocis because its species exhibit constant character states unique to the three species assigned to Parapraocis and these deserve recognition as a separate genus within Praociini. For each subgenus of Praocis: Praocis s. str., Mesopraocis, Anthrasomus, Filotarsus Postpraocis, Parapraocis, Hemipraocis, Orthogonoderes, Praonoda, and Praocida we add new characters such as shape of clypeus, frons and clypeal suture, arrangement of apical tomentose sensory patches on antennomeres 9, 10 and 11, length and proportion of antennomeres 9, 10 and 11, distance between meso–metacoxae, ventral surface of profemora, shape of protibiae, and genital features; the number of current species and the number of undescribed species is presented; the current distribution range and enlargement of the subgenera distribution with the new records and new species to be described is given. Recent studies in islands close to the coastal Chilean desert offers new distributional data.

 

2:20 pm          Review of the species of Paratenetus Spinola inhabiting America, north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) pdf

Yves Bousquet and Patrice Bouchard
Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The North American (north of Mexico) species of the tenebrionid genus Paratenetus Spinola are reviewed and a key is presented for their identification. Five species are recognized, P. gibbipennis Motschulsky, P. fuscus LeConte, P. punctatus Spinola and two new species, P. exutus [type locality: Tabusintac, Nova Scotia] and P. texanus [type locality: Port Isabel, Cameron County, Texas]. Two new synonymies are proposed: P. cribratus Motschulsky with P. gibbipennis Motschulsky and P. crinitus Fall with P. fuscus LeConte.

2:40 pm          Prospectus for a Revision of the Genus Philolithus Lacordaire (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Asidini) pdf

Kirby W. Brown1 and Aaron D. Smith2
1Manteca, California, USA
2International Institute for Species Exploration, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA


In 1858, LeConte published Lacordaire’s new genus Philolithus “in advance of the publication of the fifth volume of his work on the genera of Coleoptera”.  Only a year later LeConte sunk it into synonymy under Pelecyphorus Solier where it remained until resurrected by Brown (1971).  Smith (2013) in his phylogenetic revision of the Asidini found a well defined “Philolithus” clade and reduced the former genera Gonasida, Glyptasida, Herthasida, and Tisamenes to subgenera within the genus Philolithus.  There are currently 37 species in the genus, divided into the subgenera as follows:  Philolithus s.str., 26 species: Glyptasida, 3 species; Gonasida, 6 species, Herthasida, 1 species; and Tisamenes, 1 species.  They range from central Mexico and Baja California to southern Canada, from southern California east to Oklahoma.  Glyptasida was recently revised by Lockwood and Pollock (2009) and went from 22 to 3 valid species.  Similarly, Gonasida was revised by Brown (1971, unpublished thesis) who proposed a reduction from 6 to 1 species.  Philolithus s. str. is ripe for a reduction of Casey names, but it is not straight forward.  For example, the relationships between populations of the Philolithus actuosus complex in the Mojave Desert, Antelope Valley, Los Angeles Basin, San Joaquin Valley and the Great Basin are complicated and difficult to untangle.  Ideally a combination of population level morphometrics and phylogeography should be brought to bear to make sense of the situation.  Are we dealing with numerous isolated species, or an unbroken continuum of populations of a single species?  The probability that the present widespread range of the genus in western North America represents a relatively recent dispersal from Mexico and the southwestern United States raises interesting issues regarding rates of morphological changes.

3:20 pm          Tribulations in the subgenus Eleodes

Donald B. Thomas1 and Charles A. Triplehorn2
1USDA, ARS, Edinburg, Texas, USA
2The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

The genus Eleodes is a diverse genus consisting of around 200 species distributed in the arid and semiarid areas of North America. Factors which contribute to its success is a tolerance for low humidity and a defense against predators in the form of a repugnatorial spray coupled with aposematic behavior. Factors which make species recognition difficult are mimicry which selects for similarity in morphology, while flightlessness restricts gene flow leading to regional patterns in variation and subspeciation.

3:40 pm          Towards the construction of a Coleoptera anatomy ontology - how and why pdf

Nico M. Franz
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

"Phenotype ontologies" that can structure and support morphological descriptions of insect species are a fairly recent phenomenon, pioneered by the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology team (http://portal.hymao.org/projects/32/public/ontology/). Such ontologies can be useful in defining and illustrating structures and character traits within and among taxonomic treatments, as well as facilitate computational "reasoning" over the presence of certain traits across multiple taxa. Descriptions that incorporate ontology terms are potentially more standardized, machine-readable, and reusable than free language descriptions; though this may come at the cost of losing finer descriptive nuances to differentiate among species, populations, individuals, or capture variation within a single individual. Using ontologies furthermore requires a collaborative upfront investment into defining and organizing structures and terms and adoption of a shared virtual platform to do so. These trade-offs are illustrated with special attention to the prospects of building up a phenotype ontology for beetles.

 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

9:40 – 10:20 am                    Poster viewing, LSE 244

Posters

Note on the brachypterous species of Stenochiini from China (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Caixia Yuan
College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Hebei Province, P. R. China

The taxonomic history of the brachypterous species of Stenochiini is reviewed. A key to the Chinese species of brachypterous species is given. A new species is describedunder the name of Strongylium liangi sp. nov. (CHINA: Yunnan). The habitus photos of the following species are provided, S. liangi sp. nov. S. wuyishanense Yuan et Ren, 2006. Besides, a checklist of brachypterous species of Stenochiini from China and neighboring countries is attached.

The taxonomy of the tribe Ulomini Blanchard from China (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Shanshan Liu
College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Hebei Province, P. R. China

The taxonomic history of the tribe Ulomini Blanchard, 1845 is reviewed. A catalogue of 40 species of Ulomini from China is listed. The genus Ulomimus Bates, 1873 with its representative species U. indicus Bates, 1873 is recorded to China for the first time. A new species is described under the name of Uloma guangxiana sp. n. (CHINA: Guangxi). The illustrations and photos of Ulomimus indicus Bates, 1873 and Uloma guangxiana sp. n. are provided.

Species diversity and distribution of Tenebrionidae (Coleoptera) in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau

Guodong Ren
College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Hebei Province, P. R. China

Based on the geographic distribution database of museum specimens and related literature, the diversity and distribution of tenebrionids in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau was studied using the GIS method. A total of 610 tenebrionid species belonging to 86 genera in 24 tribes of 6 subfamilies were recorded from this region, among which Tenebrioninae shared the highest species proportion (282 species, 46.2%), followed by Lagriinae and Pimeliinae. A total of 311 species and 6 genera are endemic this region. The tenebrionid fauna has diverse faunal components and shows affinity with Palaearctic realm. It is supposed that the tenebrionid fauna of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau is originated from Palaearctic Realm, and the species spreads from northern to southern area. Possible reasons for the species diversity and distribution patterns are discussed. The implications and priorities for conservation are also discussed based on these distribution patterns.

Towards a revision of Scotobiini Solier, 1838 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) pdf

Violeta A. Silvestro1 and Gustavo E. Flores2
1Laboratorio de Entomología, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2CONICET, Laboratorio de Entomología, Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas (IADIZA, CCT CONICET Mendoza), Mendoza, Argentina.

Scotobiini was created by Solier in 1838 including the genera: Scotobius, Ammophorus, Leptynoderes, Gonogenius (then synonymous of Scotobius), and Diastoleus. Posteriorly Blanchard (1842) added Emmallodera. Lacordaire (1859) transferred Ammophorus to Nyctoporini and added Psammetichus to Scotobiini. The only review of the tribe was made by Kulzer (1955) which added another genus: Pseudoscotobius. Marcuzzi (1976) synonymized Pseudoscotobius with Phrynocarenum (Phrynocarenini). Recently Doyen (1993) added Ammophorus again to the tribebased on a peculiar synapomorphy first noticed by Medvedev (1977) in Scotobius, the presence on the truncate apex of the last antennomere of clusters on dome-shaped sensorial placoid.

Scotobiini today contains five genera and 110 species/subspecies: Scotobius Germar, with 61 species and seven subspecies, Emmallodera Blanchard with 13 species and three subspecies, Leptynoderes with five species, Diastoleus with three species and Ammophorus with 15 species and three subspecies.

Scotobiini is endemic of South America mainly in arid lands south of the parallel 20 South, including arid areas further north such as the Peruvian coastal desert and ranges, Bolivian plateau, and Galápagos islands, as well as south-eastern Brazil. Scotobiini are abundant in arid enviroments, have adaptations to live in those climates, such as the absence of the second pair of wings, strong joints between the elytra and the abdominal sternites and develop a subelytral cavity to help prevent water loss.

We propose to revise the tribe Scotobiini on the basis of external morphology and new characters such us the antennomere sensorial placoid, abdominal defensive glands, internal skeletal anatomy and genitalia which have higher taxonomic value. In order to redefine the tribe and which genera are included.

The revision will allow update the knowledge about the genera included in the tribe and their distribution patterns. Posteriorly a phylogenetic analysis will be performed to test the monophyly of the tribe and its genera.

Talks

10:20 am       Larvae and pupae of two North American darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae; Stenochiinae), Glyptotus cribratus LeConte and Cibdelis blaschkei Mannerheim, with notes on biology

Warren Steiner
Smithsonian NMNH, Washington, DC, USA

This study describes the larvae and pupae of two North American darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in the subfamily Stenochiinae, Glyptotus cribratus LeConte from the southeastern United States, and Cibdelis blaschkei Mannerheim from California.  Both species inhabit forested regions where adults and associated larvae have been found in soft rotten dry wood of dead branches, usually on living trees or in sections recently fallen from them.  Identity of these is confirmed by rearing of adlts and pupae and discovery of both in pupal cells with associated exuvia.  Distinctive characters of the larval urogomphi with associated structures and the armature of pupal “gin-traps” are illustrated.

10:40 am        Larvae of the Genus Eleodes Eschscholtz (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) pdf

Aaron D. Smith
International Institute for Species Exploration, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Darkling beetle larvae (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) are collectively referred to as false wireworms. Larvae from several species in the genus Eleodes are considered to be agricultural pests, though relatively little work has been done to associate larvae with adults of the same species and only a handful of species have been characterized in their larval state.

Morphological characters from late instar larvae were examined and coded to produce a matrix in the server-based content management system mx. The resulting morphology matrix was used to produce larval species descriptions, reconstruct a phylogeny, and build a key to the species included in the matrix.

Larvae are described for the first time for the following 12 species: Eleodes anthracinus Blaisdell, Eleodes carbonarius (Say), Eleodes caudiferus LeConte, Eleodes extricatus (Say), Eleodes goryi Solier, Eleodes hispilabris (Say), Eleodes nigropilosus LeConte, Eleodes pilosus Horn, Eleodes subnitens LeConte, Eleodes tenuipes Casey, Eleodes tribulus Thomas, and Eleodes wheeleri Aalbu, Smith, and Triplehorn. The larval stage of Eleodes armatus LeConte is redescribed with additional characters to differentiate it from the newly described congeneric larvae.

11:00 am       Phylogenetic analysis of Helopini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in North and Central America: tackling a taxonomically neglected group

Paulina Cifuentes Ruiz, Santiago Zaragoza Caballero, Helga Ochoterena Booth, Miguel Ángel Morón Ríos
Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D. F, México

Tribe Helopini’s known richness concentrates in the Palearctic Region. Only three genera (out of 45) are now recognized for the New World, one of them, Nautes, being endemic. This taxonomic restricted landscape wasn’t always the same. Nineteenth century authors, like Ernest Allard described more or even placed some species under several palaearctic genera. George Champion on the other hand, described most of the neotropical species in the monumental Biologia Centrali Americana. Admitting the heterogeneity of the group, he nevertheless held only three genera to simplify his work. Through a phylogenetic analysis, we are exploring the complex relationships of the American helopines. So far, evidence of polyphyly of Helops and Tarpela, as well as paraphyly of Nautes, and the occurrence of the subtribe Cylindrinotina in America have been revealed

11:20 am       Shedding light on the obscure: from global to regional patterns in darkling beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae)

Gael J. Kergoat1, Laurent Soldati1, Fabien L. Condamine2
1 INRA - UMR 1062 CBGP (INRA, IRD, CIRAD, Montpellier SupAgro), Montferrier-sur-Lez, France
 
Despite the recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies and phylogenetics, the quest for a well-resolved and comprehensive tree of life remains ongoing. Though glimpses of light may come from the recent assembly of complete or nearly complete supertrees for vertebrates, relationships within most hyperdiverse groups remain either poorly known or under-investigated. This deficit of knowledge can be exemplified in Coleoptera, which encompass several species-rich groups whose phylogenetic relationships have been poorly explored. Here, we propose a first molecular higher-level phylogeny for the family Tenebrionidae through the analysis of an eight genes/404-taxa dataset encompassing 250 tenebrionid taxa. We also present thorough dating analyses, through the use of multiple calibration points combined with conservative priors and calibration options. All these phylogenetic-based analyses allow us to: (i) assess the monophyly of the family and investigate the status and relationships of several major tenebrionid subfamilies and tribes; (ii) infer a more precise timing of divergence for the family.

In addition, we illustrate the kind of integrative studies that can be made on tenebrionid beetles, through the analyses of a comprehensive dataset of Mediterranean Blaps species. For the latter we conduct extensive dating, historical biogeography and diversification analyses, which suggest that Mediterranean Blaps lineages diversified between the Oligocene and the Pliocene. Interestingly, current Blaps distribution patterns can be mostly accounted for by early vicariance and late dispersal events. Blaps diversification rates were relatively constant through time, but decreased during Pleistocene glaciation cycles. This scenario may be applicable to other Mediterranean terrestrial animal taxa.

11:40 am        A molecular phylogeny of the Tenebrionidae

Kojun Kanda and David Maddison
Oregon State University, Department of Zoology, Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Since Doyen and Tschinkel’s 1982 study using morphological characters, there has not been a phylogenetic analysis examining higher-level relationships for the entire Tenebrionidae.  In this talk, I will present results from my molecular phylogenetic study of the Tenebrionidae.  142 taxa representing 71 tribes were sequenced along with 13 outgroups for four loci: 28S, ArgK, CAD, and wingless. Analyses of a concatenated dataset suggested Pimeliinae as sister to the rest of the family and the Zolodininae sister to a clade containing the lagrioid and tenebrionoid branches.  While monophyly of the branches is largely recovered, many of the subfamilies were not recovered as monophyletic, suggesting a need to revise the higher-level classification for the family.