Ctenophilothis Kryzhanovskij, 1987

Lackner, Tomáš, 2013, Revision of the genus Ctenophilothis Kryzhanovskij, 1987 (Coleoptera: Histeridae: Saprininae), Zootaxa 3691 (2), pp. 273-282 : 274

Ctenophilothis Kryzhanovskij, 1987

Ctenophilothis Kryzhanovskij, 1987: 25 . Type species: Xenonychus chobauti Théry, 1900 , original designation.

Ctenophilothis: Olexa (1990) : 143; Mazur (1997): 268; Mazur (2004): 91; Lackner (2010): 64, 90; Mazur (2011): 213.

Diagnosis. Ctenophilothis was recently diagnosed by Lackner (2010), to which the reader is referred for a complete diagnosis of the genus.

Differential diagnosis. Ctenophilothis is most similar to the species of the genus Philothis , differing from them chiefly by the shape of protibia that is adorned with two distal teeth topped by denticles followed by numerous long denticles in Ctenophilothis , whereas the species of the genus Philothis have their outer margin of protibia with two large triangular teeth topped with tiny denticle without any subsequent denticles (Lackner 2010). See the key to the Palaearctic genera of the Saprininae by the author for correct generic placement (Lackner 2010).

Biology. Ctenophilothis is a psammophilous genus with two described species. The type specimen of the genus, C. chobauti , has been collected in sand, near rotten stems of Orobanchaceae . The rest of the known specimens, as far as their biologies are known, have been collected in sand near decaying plants. Nothing is known about the biology of C. altus . According to Kovarik & Caterino (2005) Ctenophilothis “inhabits sandy areas where shifting sand can bury and kill vegetation occurring there. Histerids will prey upon larvae of Diptera and Coleoptera that colonize the decaying plant material”. Ctenophilothis belongs to the strict psammophiles and its species are morphologically well adapted to life in sand. Most of the examined specimens have been taken in spring, with some specimens of C. chobauti collected also in October. In the southern Palaearctic, there are two Saprininae taxa associated with Orobanchaceae : Paravolvulus syphax (Reitter, 1904) known from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia (Mazur 2011) recently collected also from Syria (Gomy 2013) and Chalcionellus hauseri (Schmidt, 1894) known from Turkmenistan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Mongolia (Mazur 2011). Both these taxa develop in the dry and decaying stalks of Cystanche (Orobanchaceae) (Kovarik & Caterino 2005). C. hauseri can be occasionally found together with its larvae within the stalks of Cystanche flava as well as in the surrounding sand in large numbers, where they prey upon flies of the genus Eumerus (Kryzhanovskij & Reichardt, 1976) .

Distribution. Ctenophilothis is an element of the Sahara desert: C. chobauti is known from Algeria and has recently been discovered in Morocco (Lackner 2010, Gomy 2011) and C. altus is known exclusively from Egypt (Mazur 2011), see also Fig. 27 .

Figures

FIGURE 27. Distributional map of Ctenophilothis.