Revision of the Southern African Pollen Beetle Genus Anthystrix (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae: Meligethinae)

Abstract

The pollen beetle genus AnthystrixKirejtshuk, 1981 previously included six South African species characterized by unusual dimorphic development of male antennal characters. The genus is revised and three new species are described from South Africa, including Anthystrix endroedyi new species, Anthystrix flabellicornis new species, and Anthystrix megalocera new species. Anthystrix luculentaKirejtshuk & Easton 1988, Anthystrix rotundiclavaKirejtshuk & Easton 1988, and Anthystrix martini (Grouvelle, 1899) need to be transferred to two new undescribed genera. These new genera will globally include ≈20 species, most of which remain undescribed or previously attributed to the unrelated genus Meligethinus Grouvelle, 1906. One new synonymy is proposed: Meligethinus uhligiKirejtshuk & Easton, 1988, = Pria martiniGrouvelle, 1899, syn. nov. Larval host plants of Anthystrix species are reported as dioecious Asteraceae trees within the tribe Tarchonantheae (Tarchonanthus). An identification key to all Anthystrix species is provided.

Palms and pollen beetles: two new anthophilous beetle species of Meligethinus from Mozambique (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae: Meligethinae)

“…The important subfamily Meligethinae (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) comprises some 700 pollen-feeding species worldwide (Audisio 1993;Audisio et al 2009b;Jelínek et al 2010;Cline et al 2014).…”

“…The genus Meligethinus was formally established by Grouvelle (1906), based on the species M. humeralis Grouvelle, 1906 from Angola, by monotypy (Grouvelle 1919;Cooper 1980). As recently delimited by Audisio et al (2009b), Meligethinus includes some twenty species distributed from western Mediterranean areas (including Maghreb) to the northern Arabian Peninsula and Iran, tropical and subtropical Africa, eastern Palaearctic areas (S China and Japan; Hisamatsu 2019) and the Oriental Region (Indian subcontinent and Indochina). Two major diversity hotspots for this clade are located in southeastern tropical Africa and northwestern Oriental regions.…”

Rosaceae, Brassicaceae and Pollen Beetles: exploring relationships and evolution in an anthophilous beetle lineage (Nitidulidae, Meligethes-complex of genera) using an integrative approach

“…On the contrary, in the mostly W Palaearctic Brassicogethes (associated with the unrelated family Brassicaceae) it is evident that several recently differentiated species evolved in connection with rare and endemic plant species [1,5,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Molecular evidence also suggests that the two largest genera of Rosaceae Rosoideae, Rubus and Rosa, split more than 40 Mya [40], well before the estimated divergence between Odonthogethes (mostly associated with Rubus spp.) and Meligethes s. str.…”

Revision of the African pollen beetle genera Tarchonanthogethes and Xenostrongylogethes, with insect-host plant relationships, identification key, and cladistic analysis of the Anthystrix genus-complex (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae: Meligethinae)

“…Recently the generic classification of Meligethinae has been discussed and largely revised from results obtained by both morphological and molecular data analyses (Strika 2004;Mancini et al 2008;Audisio et al 2009aAudisio et al , b, 2011aAudisio et al , b, 2014Lamanna 2009;Trizzino et al 2009). In this context, Audisio et al (2008Audisio et al ( , 2009b proposed the 'Anthystrix genus complex' to include Anthystrix Kirejtshuk, 1981, and three closely related southern African genera, namely: Sebastiangethes Audisio, Kirk-Spriggs & Cline, 2008, Tarchonanthogethes Audisio and Cline, 2009, and Xenostrongylogethes Audisio & Cline, 2009.…”

“…Tarchonanthogethes and Xenostrongylogethes were originally erected to accommodate five and one species, respectively, from southern Africa, which were originally ascribed to Anthystrix, Meligethinus Grouvelle, 1906, Pria Stephens, 1830, and Meligethes Stephens, 1830. Anthystrix currently includes six southern African species, all associated with Asteraceae trees (Grouvelle 1899;Kirejtshuk 1981;Audisio et al 2009a); Meligethinus includes numerous Paleotropical and Palearctic species (Cooper 1980;Jelínek 1992;Audisio et al 2009b;Kirejtshuk 2011), true examples of which are strictly associated with male inflorescences of palms (Arecaceae) in larval stages (Jelínek 1992;Audisio 1993;Audisio et al 2009b); Pria includes approximately 100 described and undescribed species, mostly distributed in Paleotropical areas and associated with flowers of several…”