Discovery of a new soft-bodied click-beetle genus from Namibia with a unique morphology leads to a modified diagnosis of Drilini (Coleoptera, Elateridae).

ABSTRACT: Drilini are soft-bodied predatory click beetles with incompletely metamorphosed females. Approximately 150 described species are distributed in the Afrotropical, Palaearctic and Oriental realms, with the highest diversity known from sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we describe Namibdrilusalbertalleni gen. et sp. nov. from Namibia which brings the total number of genera in Drilini to 16. The discovery of this unique taxon sheds new light on the diversity and evolution of the enigmatic paedomorphic beetle lineage and is interesting for several reasons. This new species is the only known representative of Drilini that has unidentate mandibles and lacks a hook on the dorsal part of the aedeagal median lobe, two of the few characters heretofore used for the unambiguous identific

SUBMITTER: Kundrata R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11450458 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature