Euspilotus (Neosaprinus), Bickhardt, 1909

Lackner, Tomáš, 2010, Review of the Palaearctic genera of Saprininae (Coleoptera: Histeridae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (suppl.) 50, pp. 1-254 : 105-106

Subgenus Neosaprinus Bickhardt, 1909

Neosaprinus Bickhardt, 1909: 243 . Neosaprinus : WENZEL (1962): 380; KRYZHANOVSKIJ & REICHARDT (1976): 111, 124; VIENNA (1980): 115, 127; MAZUR & KASZAB (1980): 6, 47; MAZUR (1984): 71; MAZUR (1997): 238; MAZUR (2001): 20, 31; YÉLAMOS (2002): 245, 293; MAZUR (2004): 91.

Myrmeosaprinus Mazur, 1974b: 55 . Type species: Saprinus gnathoncoides Bickhardt, 1909 (= Saprinus rubriculus Marseul, 1855 ), by monotypy.

Type species: Myrmeosaprinus brasiliensis Mazur, 1974b , by original designation. Synonymized by MAZUR (1997): 238.

Diagnosis. Frontal, supraorbital striae absent; pronotal foveae absent; eyes convex from above; sensory structures of antennal club in form of two sensory areas on ventral side and five vesicles; one of them is larger than other four vesicles arranged in two pairs on ventral and dorsal side respectively; pronotal hypomeron glabrous; prosternum with vague pre-apical foveae joined by vague sulcus; prosternal process between widely divergent carinal prosternal striae distinctly convex; lateral prosternal striae straight, parallel; pygidium of female with sulci; outer margin of protibia with low teeth topped with short thin denticles.

The diagnosis of this genus was based not on the genus’ type species, but on its single Palearctic representative instead. This is maily due to the fact that this work deals primarily with the Palearctic region (for more details see Introduction).

Differential diagnosis. The single Palaearctic species of the subgenus Neosaprinus , E. (N.) perrisi , is superficially similar to the species of the genus Saprinus but differing from them by the presence of pre-apical foveae, pygidial sulci of the female and absent supraorbital stria. The species could also be confused with the species of the subgenus Hemisaprinus of the genus Saprinus , that likewise possess pre-apical foveae, but supraorbital stria in the species of this subgenus is present, whereas it is absent in Euspilotus (Neosaprinus) , and the prosternal process is distinctly convex (flattened in Hemisaprinus ). Absence of the frontal and supraorbital striae could further confuse this taxon with genera Gnathoncus , Myrmetes , Eremosaprinus and Turanostyphrus , but all these taxa lack also pre-apical foveae, whereas Euspilotus (Neosaprinus) possesses them.

Biology. Euspilotus (Neosaprinus) perrisi inhabits the nests of European Bee-Eater ( Merops apiaster Linnaeus, 1758 ). In the nests of this bird it can occasionally be collected in larger numbers, but is generally rare in collections. Apart from its normal occurrence in the nests of the above-mentioned birds it has also been collected on carrion (Kanaar, pers. comm. 2008) and it has likewise been collected in a gerbils ( Spermophilus sp.) burrow ( KRYZHANOVSKIJ & REICHARDT 1976).

Distribution. This subgenus contains 8 described species, distributed mostly in North and South America ( MAZUR 1997). However, one species – Euspilotus (Neosaprinus) loebli Mazur, 1974a – occurs also in Malaysia and this subgenus has even a single Palaearctic representative: Euspilotus (Neosaprinus) perrisi . The latter is distributed chiefly in southern Europe (reaching its northern distributional boundary in Slovakia), Turkey, Caucasus, and South Russia as far east as Central Asia.

Species examined. Euspilotus (Neosaprinus) perrisi ( Marseul, 1872) .

Discussion. The only Palaearctic representative of the subgenus Neosaprinus , E. (N.) perrisi , shares several putative synapomorphies with the genera Gnathoncus , Myrmetes and Eremosaprinus , notably the total absence of frontal and supraorbital striae as well as similar sensory structures of antenna (especially similar to Gnathoncus and Eremosaprinus ). Furthermore, this taxon is not very ‘far’ on the cladogram of the preliminary phylogenetic analysis from these three taxa (LACKNER, in prep.). Perhaps Gnathoncus , Myrmetes , Eremosaprinus and E. (N.) perrisi are the most derived taxa of the old Gondwanan clades that currently survive only in the Neotropics. Presence of E. (N.) perrisi in the Palaearctic Region can be possibly atributed to the wide extinction of the representatives of this subgenus in the Old World. On the other hand, Euspilotus is very numerous in the Nearctic and Neotropical Regions. The presence of peculiar pygidial sulci in the females of this taxon is probably a character developed in the geographical isolation of South American continent from the rest of the continents and it is likewise regarded here as a plesiomorphic character.