The species‐level phylogeny of archostematan beetles—where do Micromalthus debilis and Crowsoniella relicta belong?

Abstract

Abstract. A species‐level phylogenetic analysis comprising 37 of the 45 known extant species of archostematan beetles and a total of 110 morphological characters from adults and larvae is presented. For the first time, characters of the male genitalia are included in a phylogenetic analysis of Archostemata. The dataset is analysed with parsimony as well as with Bayesian algorithms. Analyses with differently arranged datasets, with larval characters included or excluded, and including or excluding Micromalthus debilis and Crowsoniella relicta are conducted. The resulting hypothesis of the species‐level phylogeny of Archostemata confirms Cupedidae and Ommatidae as monophyletic taxa. Within Cupedidae, the South American Paracupes and the North American Priacma together are the sister group to all remaining Cupedidae. Among the latter, the identification of a clade comprising Rhipsideigma, Cupes capitatus and Tenomerga leucophaea renders Tenomerga polyphyletic. Ascioplaga scalenacomb. nov. is transferred from Adinolepis. Characters of the male genitalia support phylogenetic affinities of Micromalthus debilis with Ommatidae and of Crowsoniella relicta with Cupedidae.

Early evolution of Cupedidae revealed by a mid‐Cretaceous reticulated beetle from Myanmar (Coleoptera: Archostemata)

“…and Mallecupes Jarzembowski et al ., formed a sister clade to the rest of crown‐group Cupedidae. Considering the extant taxa, this result is consistent with that recovered in Hörnschemeyer (), but not in Beutel et al . (), in which they suggested Priacma as a sister group to the remaining genera.…”

“…Taxon selection was mainly derived from a previously published work by Hörnschemeyer (). Exemplars included: (i) four outgroup taxa: Blattella germanica (Linnaeus) (Blattodea), Sialis lutaria (Linnaeus) (Megaloptera: Sialidae), Trachypachus sp.…”

“…We removed the enigmatic species, Sikhotealinia zhiltzovae Lafer, from the data matrix, because its subordinal placement remains contentious (Yan et al ., , and references therein). An obscure and poorly defined character (median protuberances, character 14 in Hörnschemeyer, ) was removed in our analyses. Specifically, the description of median protuberances (P3) on the head of some extant cupedids conflicted with what has been scored in the matrix.…”

“…For example, P3 of Ascioplaga mimeta (Neboiss) was indicated in the labelled figure (fig. 5 in Hörnschemeyer, ), whereas this character was coded as absent in the data matrix (Hörnschemeyer, ). In addition, a new character, the presence or absence of a fixing epipleural fold at the elytral apex, was added.…”

New fossil species of ommatids (Coleoptera: Archostemata) from the Middle Mesozoic of China illuminating the phylogeny of Ommatidae

“…He suggested to elevate Ommatinae to Ommatidae and described the features of this family. To date, a systematic position of Ommatidae within Archostemata is generally accepted [11-14]. …”