Haplocauda, a New Genus of Fireflies Endemic to the Amazon Rainforest (Coleoptera: Lampyridae).

ABSTRACT: Most firefly genera have poorly defined taxonomic boundaries, especially in the Neotropics, where they are more diverse and more difficult to identify. Recent advances that shed light on the diversity of fireflies in South America have focused mainly on Atlantic Rainforest taxa, whereas lampyrids in other biomes remained largely unstudied. We found three new firefly species endemic to the Amazon basin that share unique traits of the male abdomen where sternum VIII and the pygidium are modified and likely work as a copulation clamp. Here we test and confirm the hypothesis that these three species form a monophyletic lineage and propose Haplocaudagen. nov. to accommodate the three new species. Both maximum parsimony and probabilistic (Bayesian and maximum likelihood) phylogenetic analyses co

SUBMITTER: Silveira LFLD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8778453 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature