Cephennomicrus Reitter

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2017, First record of Cephenniini on Christmas Island, with updated checklist of world Cephennomicrus species and summary of their distribution (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4227 (4), pp. 593-600 : 598-599

Distribution of Cephennomicrus Reitter

Most species of Cephennomicrus ( Fig. 10 ) are known to occur within the historical area of Sundaland and adjacent continental subtropics, reaching to the north as far as Tsushima Island (Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan) . Several species are known to occur in the southernmost Japanese islands of the Ryukyus and Taiwan, but only two have been so far discovered in the subtropical mainland China . Within the Oriental region , Cephennomicrus reaches Sri Lanka in the west, but no species are known so far from India . Southeast of the Wallace Line, Cephennomicrus is known from Papua New Guinea and southwestern and southeastern Australia ; further to the east the genus range extends through Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia and Fiji to Samoa. In the Afrotropical region , Cephennomicrus is rare in the southeastern portion of the continent, but common and abundant in Madagascar (with several dozen species awaiting description); several yet unrevised species occur in the Comoros, Reunion, Mauritius and Seychelles .

Such a distribution of extant species might suggest Gondwanian origins, with Oriental taxa dispersed from Africa via the drifting Indian subcontinent, and the Sundaland colonized from continental Asia or/and Australia. However, a recent discovery of a relatively species-rich Cephennomicrus community in Europe (present day Ukraine) during Eocene (Priabonian) ( Jałoszyński & Perkovsky 2016) suggests a broader distribution of this genus ca. 40 mya, followed by extinction on vast areas of Eurasia. Further studies focused on reconstructing the phylogeny and searching for new fossils must be undertaken to clarify the origins of Cephennomicrus .

Figures

FIGURE 10. World distribution of extant nominal Cephennomicrus species.