Penicillophorinae (Phengodidae)

Seidel, Matthias, Arriaga-Varela, Emmanuel & Vondráček, Dominik, 2017, Abstracts of the Immature Beetles Meeting 2017, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 57 (2), pp. 835-859 : 852-853

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.1515/aemnp-2017-0102

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:13AD5AC9-1787-49AA-9E61-08EABF15A027

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/038187E3-FFD6-FFDF-514F-FC73486CFA17

treatment provided by

Marcus

scientific name

Penicillophorinae (Phengodidae)
status

 

Discovery of a new genus and species of Penicillophorinae (Phengodidae) from Southeastern Brazil: description of larva, pupa, neotenic female and male

Simone Policena ROSA 1), Cleide COSTA 2) & Adriana da Costa Candal LOPES 1)

1) Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Instituto de Recursos Naturais, Minas Gerais, Brazil; e-mail: simonepolicena@unifei.edu.br

2) Museu de Zoologia , Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil ; e-mail: cleideco@usp.br

Phengodidae (Elateroidea) comprises about 244 species included in three subfamilies, Phengodinae, with 4 genera and 2 subgenera; Mastinocerinae with 25 genera and Penicillophorinae with 5 genera. They occur only in America, from southern Canada to northern Argentina. Male phengodids have soft body with variably reduced elytra and may be or not bioluminescent. Females and larvae are known of three Phengodinae genera and four Mastinocerinae genera; both subfamilies emit yellow to red bioluminescence through dorsolateral lanterns on thorax, abdomen and sometimes on the head. Females are noticeable by having the highest level of paedomorphosis retaining more larval features than any other Elateroidea family. Females are very similar to larvae, of which they can only be distinguished by the lighter coloration or by the presence of an oopore and annular spiracles (biforous in larvae) (COSTA & ZARAGOZA- CABALLERO 2010).

So far the Penicillophorinae comprising six species from Central America and Colombia have been known only by rare male specimens. Its species are characterized by having a head with one or two tentorial pits, without sulci or antennal tubercles; antennae 10 or 11-segmented, serrate or sub-moniliform; 3 or 4-jointed maxillary palps with a securiform apical palpomere; 1-segmented labial palps; pronotum without explanations and wing venation variably reduced. Most of those diagnostic characters assigned to penicillophorines are quite variable among genera and their phylogenetic relationships with Phengodidae , have been questioned.A recent phylogenetic analysis found them closer to Telegeusidae species (ZARAGOZA- CABALLERO 2008, ZARAGOZA- CABALLERO & ZURITA- GARCÍA 2015).

Larvae of a new genus and species of Penicillophorinae have been found in ravine soil at the Municipal Biological Reserve of the “Serra dos Toledos”, Itajubá, Minas Gerais, Brazil. In the laboratory, larvae were kept in small jars with moist soil. One outstanding larval characteristic is the beaked form of its buccal apparatus. The mandibles and labium are very elongated and at first sight, they seem to work together to suck liquid. Although its feeding preferences are unknown to us, we have tried to feed them with termites, roots collected in the same place from where the larvae lived, and with yam and a paste of roots and yam. We were not able to observe if larvae fed by a sucking act. We have collected 15 larvae but only two reached the adult stage, a male and a female, and a third one, which was killed and fixed as pupa. Bioluminescence was not visible at naked eye.

The proposition of a new genus and species presented here based on the male, which differs from other Penicillophorinae genera by the following combination of characters: head with two tentorial pits, two-jointed labial palpi, 4-jointed maxilary palpi, apical maxilary palpomere acuminate, abdominal segments without setose patches, tarsi without spines and wing venation reduced to vestigial RA and CuA

2

.

Larvae are very small (5–9.5 mm) cylindrical with thoracic and abdominal tegument weakly sclerotized, cream-white, very short legs and heavily sclerotized head with a unique mouthpiece, with mandibles and labium forming a beak. The wingless female has general body similar to that of the larvae, except by the distinct pronotum, legs with four simple tarsomeres and two simple claws, head sclerotized, with falcate mandibles and 10-jointed and somewhat moniliform antennae. Those larval and female characters are unique among Phengodidae . Although many questions remain unanswered, as the presence of bioluminescence and feeding habits, with this study we aim to improve the knowledge of the Penicillophorinae .

COSTA C. & ZARAGOZA-CABALLERO S. 2010. Phengodidae LeConte, 1861 . In: LESCHEN R., BEUTEL R. G. & LAWRENCE J. F. (Eds.): Handbook of Zoology, Coleoptera, Beetles. Vol. 2: Morphology and Systematic (Elateroidea, Bostrichiformia, Cucujiformia partim). Walter de Gruyter GmbH &; Co. KG, Berlin / New York, pp. 126–135.

ZARAGOZA-CABALLERO S. 2008. Dos géneros y tres especies nuevos de Penicillophorinae ( Coleoptera : Phengodidae ) de México. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 79: 363–368.

ZARAGOZA-CABALLERO S & ZURITA-GARCIA M. L. 2015: A preliminary study on the phylogeny of the family Phengodidae ( Insecta: Coleoptera ). Zootaxa 3947(4): 527–542.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Phengodidae

Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF