Leptolycini, Leng & Mutchler, 1922

Seidel, Matthias, Arriaga-Varela, Emmanuel & Vondráček, Dominik, 2019, Abstracts of the Immature Beetles Meeting 2019 October 3 - 4, Prague, Czech Republic, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 59 (2), pp. 569-582 : 572-573

Association of Leptolycini adult males with immatures and extreme neotenous females in the West Indies (Elateroidea, Lycidae )

Vinicius S. FERREIRA & Michael A. IVIE

Montana Entomology Collection, Montana State University, Marsh Labs, Rm 05 1911 W. Lincoln St., Bozeman, MT 59717, USA; e-mail: [e-mail]; [e-mail]

Sexually dimorphic cases of extreme neoteny in beetles are well known in groups such as the „trilobite“ larvae of SE Asia ( Lycidae ) (MÁSEK & BOCÁK 2014), fireflies ( Lampyridae ) and New World glow-worms ( Phengodidae ) (BOCÁK et al. 2008). In these groups, some females completely lack the characters that define the adult form of a beetle: compound eyes, wings, elytra, 11 antennomeres, ovipositor and a multi-segmented tarsus. These extreme neotenic adults are often termed “larviform” females, and in most cases, the status of a given individual as an adult or larva is not really known. In contrast, the males of these sexually dimorphic species have all the normal adult characters and are immediately identifiable as a beetle. The Leptolycini are unique among other extreme neotenous groups of beetles because of the similar size of the females and males. They also differ from other neotenic lycids in their hyperdiversity and rapid geographic turnover of species. To date, no proven female or immature association with a male Leptolycini has been made and information on feeding, behavior and the morphology are lacking.

To investigate this, Malaise Traps and Flight Intercept Traps (FITs) were used over a month of field work in Puerto Rico in 2017 to collect male leptolycines and pit falls and Berlese funnels to collect the immatures and neotenous females. The collected specimens generated DNA quality data and we were able to associate the different semaphoronts with the use of DNA barcoding. We associated immature stages with adult males of Leptolycini in Puerto Rico of two different genera, Leptolycus Leng and Mutchler, 1922 and Tainopteron Kazantsev, 2009 . Our successful DNA association in Puerto Rico allowed us to confirm a previous association of Leptolycus with immatures and females from St. John ( U.S. Virgin Islands). Based on these association’s confirmations in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, and with the use of morphology traits, we were able to hypothesize further associations between semaphoronts of Leptolycini in Cuba, Hispaniola and Tortola ( U.S. Virgin

Islands) and expand the knowledge on the immature and female Leptolycini .

BOCÁK L., BOCÁKOVÁ M., HUNT T.& VOGLER A. 2008: Multiple ancient origins of neoteny in Lycidae (Coleoptera) : consequences for ecology and macroevolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275: 2015–2023.

MASEK M. & BOCÁK L. 2014: The taxonomy and diversity of Platerodrilus ( Coleoptera , Lycidae ) inferred from molecular data and morphology of adults and larvae. ZooKeys 426: 29–63.