Ctenomyophila striata Hustache

Turienzo, Paola & Iorio, Osvaldo Di, 2008, Insects found in birds’ nests from Argentina: Anumbius annumbi (Vieillot, 1817) (Aves: Furnariidae), Zootaxa 1871, pp. 1-55 : 37-38

Ctenomyophila striata Hustache

Species of this genus are “friends of Ctenomys ” because larvae and adults of Ctenomyophila bruchiana Heller, 1920 [type-species] live in tunnels of Ctenomys rodents ( Hustache [1926] 1927; Bruch 1937: lám. 4, fig. 6; Farina et al. 2002). Among other species described, Hustache ([1926] 1927: planche I, fig. 9) included Ctenomyophila striata , which is distributed from Santiago del Estero (Río Salado) and Córdoba (Alta Gracia). Viana & Williner (1981) cited C. striata as a rare species from Córdoba [El Sauce; La Paz; San Javier; Santa Rosa] and San Luis [San Gerónimo] without including any detail; and C. curta Hustache, 1927 , which was found in nests of the “black ant” [probably Acromyrmex lobicornis (Emery, 1887) , Formicidae : Attini ] from San Luis: San Gerónimo. Until now nothing is known concerning the biology of C. striata .

Adults of C. striata were found in a nest from Santa Fe occupied by a rodent. The occurrence of both together was probably accidental. The beetle appeared regularly in other birds´nests from Santa Fe not inhabited by rodents and in one uninhabited nest from La Pampa ( Table 2). All nests where C. striata was found were closed ( Narosky et al. 1983; De la Peña 2005), with the breeding chamber far from the exterior, like the microhabitat in the tunnels of Ctenomys ( Bruch 1937) .

The insect fauna of both biotopes are similar at the family level. In some instances the same genera but different species are present. The tunnels of Ctenomys talarum talarum Thomas, 1898 from Buenos Aires (Monte Veloz) were inhabited by two species of Euparia Audinet-Serville, 1825 [ Coleoptera : Aphodiidae ], C. bruchiana , four species of Histeridae , one Lathrididae , and three Staphylinidae ( Bruch 1937) . The species of Euparia are different from those listed from birds’ nests ( Turienzo & Di Iorio 2007). Farina et al. (2002) recorded Carabidae , Curculionidae ( C. bruchiana ), and undetermined Tenebrionidae larvae, Cydnidae , and Grylloidea in tunnels of C. talarum from Mar Chiquita, Necochea, and Tornquist (Buenos Aires); whereas Staphylinidae , Scarabaeidae larvae, and other soil arthropods (Scorpionida, Acarina, Diplopoda ) were regularly found in the tunnels of Ctenomys .