Subfamily Agrypninae Candèze, 1857

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Subfamily Agrypninae Candèze, 1857

Compiler and date details

31 December 1996 - Andrew A. Calder, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Agrypnides Candèze, E. 1857. Monographie des Élatérides. Tome 1. Mémoires de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège 12: viii 1–400 [17].

Introduction

The Agrypninae are the largest subfamily of Elateridae, comprising some 115 genera and 2300 species worldwide. The Australian fauna contains 15 genera and 314 valid described species (Calder 1998) and constitutes the major component of our elaterid fauna. In this Catalogue and in the published volume (Calder 1998), the subfamily, as defined by Calder (1990), also includes the group known as Tetralobini which some authors regard as a separate subfamily.

All genera included in the Agrypninae have the following two characters: hind wing without an anal (wedge) cell and base of claw with erect basal setae on the outer side (not to be confused with the empodial setae). Most of the Australian genera listed in this Catalogue were already included in the suprageneric group Pyrophorinae (Pyrophorites Candèze, 1863) sensu Crowson (1961) by the early seventies, but the group is more properly known as Agrypninae (Agrypnides Candèze, 1857). Aphileus Candèze and Macromalocera Hope were transferred to this group by Stibick (1976) and Chrostus Candèze by Matthews (1985). Five tribes are present in Australia (Calder 1990) Agrypnini with three genera, Hemirhipini with four genera, Conoderini with five genera, and Pseudomelanactini and Tetralobini with one genus each. At present it is not possible to place the genera Chrostus and Macromalocera in any tribe.

Elater basalis (Gyllenhal, 1817) was the first described Australian agrypnine and is now included in Conoderus Eschscholtz. Eschscholtz (1829) described a species of Conoderus under its junior synonym of Monocrepidius Eschscholtz, and Guérin-Méneville (1830, 1838) described the species Elater scapularis (now Conoderus) and Adelocera grisea (= Agrypnus caliginosus (Boisduval)) collected on the voyage of the Coquille. Boisduval (1835) inexplicably described the same agrypnine under two names, Adelocera caliginosa and Elater caliginosus (= Agrypnus caliginosus), as well as Elater australiasiae (= Conoderus basalis (Gyllenhal)), collected on the voyage of the Astrolabe. Gory (1836) described the termite nest-inhabiting Tetralobus australasiae which has been referred to Pseudotetralobus Schwarz and Erichson (1842) described five species of Monocrepidius (= Conoderus) and Lacon Castelnau (= Agrypnus) humilis from Tasmania. LeGuillou (1844) described three Monocrepidius (= Conoderus) species and Hope (1834, 1842a, 1842b, 1843) described a Conoderus, an Agrypnus Eschscholtz, two species of Pseudotetralobus and erected Macromalocera for two species of peculiar elaterid, the males of which have greatly elongate antennae that exceed the apex of the elytra. Germar (1848) described Lacon costipennis from the environs of Adelaide and Blanchard (1853) named Monocrepidius cinereus, now synonymised with Conoderus leluti (LeGuillou), collected in Australia on the voyage to the South Pole of the corvettes Astrolabe and Zélée. Newman (1857) described a species of Aphileus Candèze and one of Paracalais Neboiss that had been collected from a saw pit by James Gibbon at Moreton Bay, Queensland. However, most of the contributions to our knowledge of the Agrypninae have been made by five authors: Blackburn (1889, 1890a, 1890b, 1890c, 1892a, 1892b, 1893, 1895, 1896, 1900), Candèze (1857, 1859, 1865, 1874, 1878a, 1878b, 1880, 1882, 1887, 1891, 1893, 1897, 1900), Elston (1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930), Schwarz (1902a, 1902b, 1902c, 1903, 1906, 1907) and W.J. Macleay (1872, 1888). Carter (1939) descibed three species of Pseudaeolus Candèze and two Agrypnus. Neboiss (1956, 1961) was the first to publish a list of the Australian species and Calder (1996) has provided the most recent list of all described Australian Agrypninae.

No comprehensive revision is available for the Australian species although Calder (1996) has provided a generic overview and given a key to the Australian genera (Calder 1990). Elston (1924, 1927) started revising the Australian species of Agrypnus (as Lacon) but only completed two parts. He later revised Pseudotetralobus (Elston 1928), describing five new species. Neboiss (1959) revised the endemic genus Aphileus and revised the species formerly included in Alaus Eschscholtz (Neboiss 1967) erecting the genera Paracalais and Austrocalais Neboiss to accommodate the Australian species. Hayek (1973, 1979) provided a treatise of the world Agrypnini (as Agrypninae), transferring innumerable species between genera due to misidentification of the generic type species of several genera and insufficient study of the range of variation within genera on a world wide basis. Calder (1990) reported on the presence of the little known genus Anthracalaus Fairmaire in Australia and later Calder & Hayek (1992) revised the world species, describing two new species from northern Australia.

A number of agrypnine genera are endemic to Australia—Aphileus, Chrostus, Macromalocera, Pseudaeolus and the unusual Trieres Candèze. The other genera are widespread, occurring in most zoogeographic regions. Ten genera, Aeoloderma Fleutiaux, Agrypnus, Anthracalaus, Austrocalais, Conoderus, Heteroderes Latreille, Lanelater Arnett, Paracalais, Pseudotetralobus and Tetrigus Candèze are shared with New Guinea. Agrypnus variabilis (Candèze) and Conoderus submarmoratus (Macleay) have been introduced accidentally into New Zealand and have become established there (Kuschel 1990). Conoderus exsul (Sharp) is also recorded as an introduced species by Sharp (1877) around Wellington and by Kuschel (1990) around Auckland. Sharp (1877) compared C. exsul with the Australian C. rectangulus (Candèze) and noted the limited distribution at the port of Wellington. This is the only evidence available on its status. Until further revisionary work is undertaken on the Australian Conoderus it is highly unlikely that the introduced status of exsul can be verified.

For many species of agrypnine very little is known of their biology, although some species are reasonably well known. Pseudotetralobus larvae live in termite-infested logs and mounds where they prey upon the inhabitants (Froggatt 1927). The larvae of Lanelater mastersi (Macleay) are carnivorous and feed upon soil-dwelling scarab larvae (Illingworth 1921) and Paracalais gibboni (Newman) is a predator of cerambycid beetle larvae in rotten wood and beneath the bark of various rainforest trees (Froggatt 1927; Neboiss 1967). The wireworms Conoderus exsul (Sharp) and Agrypnus variabilis (Candèze) are known to prey upon the larvae of the introduced Australian soldier fly, Inopus rubriceps (Macquart) in New Zealand pastures (Robertson & Pottinger 1979). Agrypnus variabilis is of economic importance in Australia where it has long been known as a pest of the establishing phase of crops such as sugar cane in central Queensland (McDougall 1934a, 1934b), maize in northern New South Wales (Forrester et al. 1984) and sorghum and sunflowers in eastern Australia (Gunning & Forrester 1984){GunningR1984A}. An unidentified Conoderus species was reported to eat the eyes of cane setts in central Queensland (Jarvis 1916; Bates 1925) and a new species of Heteroderes Latreille attacks germinating sugar cane in the Bundaberg district (Calder 1990).