Descriptions of the first semi-aphenopsian troglobiotic Patrobini and of a new anophthalmic cave-dwelling Trechini from central Sichuan, China (Coleoptera: Caraboidea)

Summary

The first known troglobiotic species belonging to the ground beetle tribe Patrobini is reported from a limestone cave called Lianhua Dong in Pengzhou, a suburb county-level city in northern Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. Troglopatrobus zhouchaoi n. gen., n. sp., is an eyeless and large-sized patrobine beetle with extremely elongated body (esp. head and elytra) and appendages. Duvalioblemus (Shublemus) liyuani n. subgen., n. sp., a minute anophthalmic trechine species, is also discovered from the same cave. It is the first cave-dwelling species belonging to this genus already known as endogean from Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.

Résumé

Descriptions du premier Patrobini troglobie semi-aphénopsien et d’un nouveau Trechini cavernicole anophtalme du Sichuan central, en Chine (Coleoptera : Caraboidea). La première espèce troglobie connue de Carabiques de la tribu des Patrobini est signalée d’une cavité karstique nommée Lianhua Dong, située dans le canton de Pengzhou, en périphérie nord de Chengdu, province du Sichuan, Chine. Troglopatrobus zhouchaoi n. gen., n. sp., est un Patrobini anophtalme de grande taille, avec des appendices et un corps très allongés, en particulier la tête et les élytres. Duvalioblemus (Shublemus) liyuani n. subgen., n. sp., est une espèce anophtalme de Trechini, de petite taille, qui a été découverte dans la même grotte. C’est la première espèce cavernicole décrite dans ce genre dont les autres espèces sont endogées, connues du Sichuan et du Yunnan.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C2C1F74B-731E-4D1A-B680-E2774BF67558

Keywords:

• Trechinae
• taxonomy
• biospeleology
• karst
• cave

Acknowledgements

First of all, we wish to express our appreciations to Chao Zhou (Chengdu, Sichuan) and Yuan Li (Deyang, Sichuan) for their support and assistance during the cave surveys. We are very grateful to Hao Jin (head of Sichuan Cave Exploration Team, Chengdu) for providing valuable advice and information about cave Lianhua Dong. Cave map of Lianhua Dong was surveyed by Jiong Zhang and Yuehai Yu (Sichuan Cave Exploration Team, Chengdu) and drawn by Jiong Zhang. We thank also our colleagues Alexander Zamotajlov (Kuban State Agrarian University, Krasnodar) and Sunbin Huang (MNHN, Paris) for providing several important references, and Andrey Frolov and Alexey Moseyko (Zoological Institute, Saint-Petersburg) for helping in translation from Russian language. Other cave animals were identified by Weixin Liu (SCAU, Guangzhou) for millipedes, Christophe Daugeron and Emmanuel Delfosse (MNHN, Paris) for Diptera, Yejie Lin (IOZ, CAS, Beijing) for spider, Jiajun Zhou (Hangzhou, Zhejiang) for bat and Etienne Iorio (Graveson, France) for centipede. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions to improve the manuscript. This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, grant no. 41871039).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41871039].