Family LYCIDAE

Porrostoma rhipidium

Lycid larva, Canberra, Feb. 2011

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Family LYCIDAE

Lycids

Compiler and date details

Andrew A. Calder, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Introduction

The Lycidae are a moderately large family, containing about 150 genera and 3500 species worldwide (Lawrence 1982), and largely confined to the tropical regions. The Australian fauna comprises 203 described species arranged in 13 genera (CALDER 1998). The largest genus in the Australian fauna is Porrostoma Castelnau, formerly known as Metriorhynchus Guérin-Méneville or Metriorrhynchus Gemminger & Harold, containing 105 valid species. The genus is widespread in the Indo-Malayan Region, extending as far west as India and north as far as the Philippines. Other large Australian genera are Trichalus Waterhouse (34 species) and Xylobanus Waterhouse (24 species), both of which occur in the Oriental Region as well.

During the compilation of this Catalogue a major nomenclatural problem became evident. The genus Metriorhynchus Guérin-Méneville, 1838, which is used for some 175 described species, is a junior homonym of Metriorhynchus Meyer, 1830, used for a fossil crocodile. Under the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1985) this name must be replaced with either one of its synonyms if there is one, or a new replacement name (see Article 60). Porrostoma Castelnau, 1838 has long been listed as a synonym of Metriorhynchus Guérin-Méneville and consequently becomes the valid name of this genus. However, the status of the genera Porrostoma Castelnau, 1838 and Metriorrhynchus Gemminger & Harald, 1869, and the species currently assigned to Porrostoma in this Catalogue, is being revised (L. Bocák, pers. comm.); in order to maintain stability the current subfamily and tribal names are retained here pending this revision.

Endemicity in this family is low at the generic level. Achras Waterhouse appears to be the only endemic genus. The genera Calochromus Guérin-Méneville, Cladophorus Guérin-Méneville, Porrostoma (formerly Metriorhynchus or Metriorrhynchus), Enylus Waterhouse, Flabellotrichalus Pic, Melaneros Fairmaire, Procautires Kleine, Synchonnus Waterhouse, Trichalus and Xylobanus are shared with New Guinea. The Australian Porrostoma rufipennis (Fabricius) has been introduced into New Zealand where it was described by Broun (1893) under the synonym Metriorhynchus erraticus (Kuschel 1990).

The biology of the Lycidae is not well known, although larvae occur beneath bark or in leaf litter or soil, where they are thought to feed on soft, decaying plant material or possibly slime mould plasmodia or yeasts (Lawrence & Britton 1994). Larvae of Porrostoma are heavily armoured and occasionally wander in the open, although they usually occur in wet litter or under bark of moist logs (Moore 1989). Adults are short lived and are usually found on flowers where they are thought to feed upon nectar and pollen, if at all. They are usually day flying and are frequently encountered in forested areas during the spring and summer months. Lycid adults are distasteful to predators such as birds (Crowson 1981) and are aposematically coloured in combinations of orange-red and black or reddish yellow and black. They are involved in numerous mimicry complexes. Lycid mimics occur in several beetle families, such as Buprestidae, Elateridae, Cantharidae, Lampyridae, Cleridae, Meloidae, Oedemeridae, Pyrochroidae, Cerambycidae, Chrysomelidae and Belidae (Moore & Brown 1989) as well as Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera. Moore & Brown (1981) have recorded that the common Australian lycid Porrostoma rhipidium (Macleay) has a characteristic quinoline-like odour, possesses a bitter taste and exhibits reflex bleeding when handled roughly. This species is heavily protected chemically by the presence of characteristic warning odour components (2-methoxy-3-alkylpyrazines), bitter principles (1-methyl-2-quinoline and 3-phenylpropanamide) and acetylenic antifeedants.

The first Australian species to be described were Pyrochroa serraticornis (Fabricius 1775), Lycus rufipennis and Lycus atratus (Fabricius 1801). Dalman (1817), Bosiduval (1835), Erichson (1842), LeGuillou (1844) and Redtenbacher (1867) described another seven species which were collected during the first European voyages to this country. Waterhouse (1877a, 1877b, 1878, 1879) monographed the world fauna including many Australian representatives then present in the British Museum (Natural History) collections, and designated the type specimens of numerous genera providing a sound basis for future work during a time when generic type specimens were not automatically designated. Macleay (1872, 1886, 1887), Blackburn (1888, 1892, 1900) and Lea (1895, 1899, 1908, 1909, 1921a, 1921b, 1921c, 1922, 1929) described 131 species, well over 60% of the Australian species. Lea's (1909) monograph of the Australian Malacodermidae (which included the families Cantharidae, Lampyridae, and Lycidae as well as the unrelated Melyridae) is the first and only work to treat the Australian lycid fauna as a whole. In this monograph, he described 92 new species particularly in the genus Metriorrhynchus and erected the genus Dumbrellia for two Calochromus species that have a partially covered head and a prothorax without distinct cells (areolets). Lea also created two primary homonyms (Metriorrhynchus hackeri Lea, 1929, nec Kleine, 1928 and Metriorrhynchus marginicollis Lea, 1929, nec W.J. Macleay, 1872) which were corrected by CALDER (1998). Fairmaire (1877a, 1877b, 1883) described six species and one new genus, Bourgeois (1879, 1884, 1889) described two species and one genus, while Pic (1921, 1923, 1925, 1942) described 16 species and erected two genera and one subgenus of which only Flabellotrichalus survives. Kleine (1927, 1929, 1930) revised Trichalus and Xylobanus and described new species of Metriorrhynchus (Kleine 1928a). He described another seven species in two later papers (Kleine 1933b, 1934) bringing to 29 the number of species he described.

No comprehensive modern treatment of the Australian lycid fauna is available although Bocák & Bocáková (1990) provided keys to the suprageneric groups they recognised in the world fauna. The most recent catalogue of the world fauna was provided by Kleine (1933a). Papp (1952) catalogued the world fauna of Calochromus, recognised and provided a key to three species groups and described the larva of C. polgari Papp from the Indian subcontinent. Matthews (1985) provided an illustrated key to the lycid genera of South Australia. The Australian lycids are badly in need of a modern revision.

The first attempt at a classification of the Lycidae was by Lacordaire (1857). He recognised three subtribes Lycides vrais, Calochromides and Homalidides of the tribe Lycides which was considered to be a tribe of the family Malacodermes. In the succeeding 65 years the proliferation of taxa with minimal description and no reference to any suprageneric categories resulted in a very confused state when Kleine began his researches on the Lycidae. Kleine (1926) produced the first classification this century of the Lycidae largely based on the New Guinean fauna. He recognised three subfamilies: Metriorrhynchinae, Dilolycinae and Calochrominae. This was followed by yet another classification based on the Indian fauna in which 10 subfamilies were recognised (Kleine 1928b). In the catalogue of Lycidae of the world Kleine (1933a) recognised only two subfamilies, Homalisinae (now correctly Omalisinae) and Lycinae, which contained 15 tribes. The Omalisinae with its single European genus is now considered as a separate family (see Crowson 1972; Lawrence 1982).

The most recent classification of the family by Bocák & Bocáková (1990) is based largely upon adult mouthparts and male and female genitalia. This classification of the family recognises six subfamilies (Calochrominae, Metriorrhynchinae, Ateliinae, Leptolycinae, Lycinae and Erotinae) and is followed in this Catalogue. Of these subfamilies only the Calochrominae, Erotinae and Metriorrhynchinae occur in Australia. Further changes that affected the Australian fauna were published by Bocák & Bocákova (1992). The Calochrominae are represented in Australia by two genera Calochromus and Dumbrellia. The Erotinae are represented by the genus Melaneros Fairmaire. Kleine (1934) described the only species of Melaneros known from Australia. The Metriorrhynchinae contain the majority of the Australian taxa with ten genera and 182 species recorded.

Type specimens held in the Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warszawa, Poland were verified from Mroczkowski (1959) and the type material of Fabricius was verified from Zimsen (1964) and Radford (1981). Odontocerus martini Pic (1925: 18) was erroneously listed from Buru, NSW in the genus Metriorrhynchus by Kleine (1933a). The original description states clearly that it was described from Bœrœ, which is the island of Buru in the Indonesian archipelago in the Straits of Malacca; it is thus not an Australian species.

Diagnosis

The adults of the Lycidae range in size from 5 to 22 mm. The body is either elongate and parallel-sided or the elytra are expanded posteriorly. The head is slightly to strongly deflexed, partly concealed by pronotum and is occasionally rostrate. The antennae are serrate to pectinate or flabellate, usually long and flattened with their insertions approximate and raised. The labrum is well developed and the tentorium is nearly always membranous. The hind angles of the pronotum are usually acute, the lateral margins usually explanate and the disc is concave with ridges enclosing cells (areolets). The anterior margin of the mesosternum is more or less straight and the mesocoxae are distinctly separate. The elytra are soft, leathery and usually have costae and rows of deep window punctures giving the elytra a net-veined appearance. The elytral epipleura are indistinct or absent. The hindwings lack a closed anal cell. The legs are more or less flattened, the trochanters are elongate and the tarsi have membranous lobes on tarsomeres 3 and 4. The females are nearly always winged and possess either a long or short ovipositor (Lawrence & Britton 1994).

The larvae are elongate and somewhat flattened, usually heavily sclerotised and sometimes tuberculate. The head is small with non-opposable, blade-like mandibles which are longitudinally divided into two parts and the bases are close together. The third antennal segment is reduced. Spiracles are biforous and situated in the upper pleural sclerites. Tergite 9 usually lacks solid urogomphi. Abdominal segment 10 is circular and ventrally located (Lawrence 1982)