Blister beetles of the genus Lyttomeloe (Coleoptera: Meloidae)
1988; Kansas (Central States) Entomological Society; Volume: 61; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1937-2353
Autores Tópico(s)Beetle Biology and Toxicology Studies
ResumoLyttomeloe saulcyi (Guerin-Meneville), described originally from the de partment of Lima, Peru, is recorded from the department of Tacna, Peru, and the pro vinces of Atacama and Antofagasta, Chile. The adult stage is redescribed, with special attention to variation among apparently disjunct populations. The hindwings are vestigial rather than lacking, as previously supposed. Adults are recorded feeding on plants of the families Aizoaceae, Malvaceae, Nolanaceae, and Portulacaceae. In Tacna L. saulcyi is part of a mimetic complex involving two species of Pseudopyrota. In courtship the male grips the female with the foreand midtarsi, which are enlarged, compressed, and provided with dense pads ventrally. There is no courtship display as such; the male simply rides on the female and tries to present the genitalia continuously. Primarily on the basis of the anatomy of the triungulin larva, Lyttomeloe is assigned to the tribe Meloini. Within that tribe the genus is phenetically, if not cladistically as well, closest to the North American genus Spastonyx. In 1834 Guerin-Meneville described, as Meloe saulcyi, a, pair of small, flightless blister beetles collected on Isla San Lorenzo, in the bay fronting the city of Lima, Peru, by a Mr. Saulcy, identified only as a marine officer. Three years later Per cheron (1837) indicated that d'Orbigny had also collected the species, presumably again at the type locality. In 1920 Denier mentioned having examined three specimens from Peru and one from Chile, in addition to one of Guerin-Meneville's cotypes. The original description of M. saulcyi was unusually detailed for its time and was accompanied by illustrations of one of the specimens. Nevertheless, it affords no basis for determining the systematic relationships of the species within the Meloidae. Gemminger and Harold (1870), Beauregard (1890), and Borchmann (1917) listed M. saulcyi as a species of Pseudomeloe Fairmaire and Germain, which in the classifications of that era and even in some later ones (e.g., Kaszab, 1959, 1969) was assigned a position in the tribe Meloini near the genus Meloe Linnaeus. However, Denier (1920), in a cursory note, transferred M. saulcyi to a new, monotypic genus, Lyttomeloe. Without revealing how he distinguished between the Meloini and Lyttini, Denier assigned Lyttomeloe to the latter tribe. Subsquent authors have recognized Lyttomeloe as a genus but, with good reason, have not followed Denier's suggestion that it is a lyttine. While working in the precordilleran region of Antofagasta, Chile, in 1955 Luis E. Pefia discovered a population of Lyttomeloe saulcyi at Toconao. A decade later he found another population at lower elevation, between the Andes and the Coast Range in the province of Atacama, Chile. In 1983, in company with Pefia, I studied the Atacama population at several localities. Peiia and I tried to sample the Antofagasta population on that trip but were unsuccessful. However, this failure was compensated for by the discovery of a previously unknown population in the province of Tacna, in southern Peru. Accepted for publication 16 October 1987. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.162 on Thu, 11 Aug 2016 05:58:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms VOLUME 61, NUMBER 1 81 i -: 311bbbbbbbbbbbB&'^^
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