Open AccessTwo new ultraspecialized troglomorphic Leptodirini from Croatia (Coleoptera, Leiodidae, Cholevinae)
Author(s) -
Pier Mauro Giachino,
Achille Casale,
Branko Jalžić
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
natura croatica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.409
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1848-7386
pISSN - 1330-0520
DOI - 10.20302/nc.2021.30.5
Subject(s) - phyletic gradualism , aedeagus , arthropod mouthparts , cave , apex (geometry) , genus , biology , sexual dimorphism , zoology , taxon , botany , ecology , phylogenetics , biochemistry , gene
Two new ultraspecialized troglomorphic Leptodirini (Coleoptera, Leiodidae, Cholevinae) from two Croatian caves are described. Hygrodromus (new genus) nikolinae, a new species from Mladenova cave near Orebić, is a very enigmatic taxon of “tetramerous”Leptodirini, markedly distinct for several morphological features in antennae, mouthparts, male genitalia and the peculiar sexually dimorphic apex of elytra. However, because of some characters, it could be assigned to the phyletic lineage of Hadesia and Nauticiella, which so far includes only “pentamerous”species. Leptomeson vuicae from Dragina lipa jama cave near Čelopek in central Dalmatia, owing to its morphological features, is the south-eastern substitutive adelphotaxon of L. dombrowskii, from which it differs by its smaller size, longer elytral pubescence and the different shape of the median lobe of the aedeagus with a stouter apex.