Shell-breaking predation on gastropods by Badister pictus (Coleoptera, Carabidae) with strikingly asymmetric mandibles

Abstract

The adults and larvae of some groups in the coleopteran family Carabidae are known to prey on snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda). Most species of the carabid tribe Licinini are believed to feed on live snails. However, the snail-eating behavior of only a few species has been studied. Whether adults of the licinine genus Badister can prey on live snails was tested by providing 155 live snails of 20 species (eleven terrestrial and nine aquatic species) to adults of Badister pictus Bates, 1873, and observing their behavior under laboratory conditions. Six of the 20 snail species have an operculum that can close the aperture of the shell. Each B. pictus adult attacked all of the snails provided. Badister pictus successfully preyed on ten terrestrial and six aquatic snail species. These beetles used their strikingly asymmetrical mandibles to break the dextral shells along the dorsal part of the whorls from the outer lip of the aperture towards the apex, allowing subsequent consumption of the soft bodies. However, 41.9% of snails could not be eaten by B. pictus adults. The rate of predation success by B. pictus decreased with increasing shell size and thickness of snails. In addition, the presence of an operculum decreased the rate of predation success by B. pictus. The results show that the shell size, thickness, and operculum of some snail species could play important roles in preventing B. pictus mandibles from breaking the shells. Therefore, Badister beetles may exert selective pressure on the evolution of defensive shell structures in small-sized snails.

A new genus and a new species of railroad-worm beetle from Peru (Coleoptera, Phengodidae, Mastinocerinae)

“…Mandible notches are found in other beetle families, such as Carabidae Latreille, 1802 (e.g., Badister Clairville, 1806) and Staphylinidae Latreille, 1802 (Oxyporus Fabricius, 1775 and Cephennium Müller & Kunze, 1822). In Badister and Oxyporus, however, the notch is in the dorsointernal margin of either right or left mandible (sometimes varying within the same species) to fit the other closed mandible (Cai et al 2017;Hayashi & Sugiura 2021). In Cephennium, both mandibles are notched in the anterodorsal margin to fit the lateral portions of the labrum (Jałoszyński & Olszanowski 2016).…”