A synopsis of the spider beetles (Coleoptera: Ptinidae) of Socotra, with the description of a new genus and two new species

Abstract

The previously known spider beetle fauna of Socotra comprises four endemic species (Mezium erinaceus Belles, Sphaericus hirsutus Belles, Ptinus bertranpetiti Belles, and Silisoptinus inermicollis Belles) and Dignomus mesopotamicus (Pic), which is also known from Arabia and Mesopotamia. The study of new material has resulted in the discovery of a new genus and two new species, and many new localities of the previously known species. Here, a synopsis is presented that brings together all information available on the fauna of spider beetles of the Socotra archipelago, including updated distributions and ecological and biogeographical considerations of all species.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3EB99992-B352-42AD-A33D-C01EF494666C

Keywords:

• Soqotranus
• Silisoptinus
• description
• new genus
• new species, Socotra archipelago

Acknowledgements

The new material studied (Saldaitis fieldtrip of 2010, and the three Czech expeditions of 2010 and 2012) was provided to me by Jiří Hájek (Department of Entomology, The National Museum, Prague, Czechia). Those previously studied from the 1999 and 2000 fieldtrips of A. van Harten and H. Pohl were provided to me by Robert Güsten (Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany), whereas those from the 2000 and 2001 fieldtrips of V. Bejček and K. St’astný, were sent to me by Petr Zahradník (Forestry and Game Management Research Institute, JilovisteStrnady, Prague, Czechia). I thank those colleagues and institutions for entrusting me with the study of their materials. Thanks are also due to Jéan Ménier and Thierry Deuve (Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France), for making the spider beetles from the collection of Maurice Pic accessible to me on many occasions, and to Txus Gomez-Zurita for taking the photographs of the species shown in the present work. Jan Bezděk provided me with the Socotra maps that I have used in this article. Finally, I appreciate the comments of two anonymous reviewers who helped improve the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Catalan Government (grants 2014 SGR 619, and 2017 SGR 1030).