Ecclisister costaericae Reichensperger, 1935

Tishechkin, Alexey K., Kronauer, Daniel J. C. & Beeren, Christoph Von, 2017, Taxonomic Review and Natural History Notes of the Army Ant-Associated Beetle Genus Ecclisister Reichensperger (Coleoptera: Histeridae: Haeteriinae), The Coleopterists Bulletin 71 (2), pp. 279-288 : 281-284

Ecclisister costaericae Reichensperger, 1935 , new status

Ecclisister bickhardti costaericae Reichensperger 1935: 204 .

Ecclisister bickhardti costaericae Reichensperger : Mazur 1984: 304, 1997: 159, 2011: 116; Helava et al. 1985: 324

Zoobank Identifier. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:920C67FF-E5B2-47A9-B2C2-31EBCCCDDEA8

Type Material Examined. Lectotype (present designation; Fig. 1g –l ). A male mounted on a point and labeled “ Costa Rica F. Nevermann 25.11.1934 / Eciton burchelli / Type! Reichensperger / Ecclisister bickhardti costaericae / LECTOTYPE Ecclisister bickhardti costaericae Reich. A. K. Tishechkin and C. von Beeren des. 2015” ( FIMAK) . Paralectotype. A specimen of undetermined sex with the same label data as lectotype, but “ Paratype! Reichensperger ” instead of “ Type! Reichensperger ” and our “ Paralectotype ” instead of “ Lectotype ” labels and an extra label “ Hamburg Farm Reventazon Ebene Limon ” ( FIMAK) .

Additional Material Examined. BRAZIL (new country record): Pará: 4 specimens: Altamira – Maraba , km 18, 3°09ʹS 52°03ʹW, 14.iv.1986, in an E. burchellii bivouac, N. Dégallier (ND); 1 specimen: Belém, Utinga ( IPEAN) , 1°27ʹS 48°26ʹW, 18.viii.1984, in a nest of E. burchellii inside a hollow tree stump, N. Dégallier (ND). COSTA RICA: Heredia: 2 specimens: La Selva Biological Station, 10.4305°N 84.0064°W, 8.iv.2013, with E. burchellii, C. von Beeren, G. Burke, D. Kronauer, S. Pohl (LSAM) ; 1 specimen: Puerto Viejo , 10°26ʹN 83°59ʹW, 2.viii.1965, with E. burchellii, C. W. Rettenmeyer (UCS) . Limon: 29 specimens: Hamburg Farm , 10°13ʹN 83°29ʹW, multiple dates between 10.xi.1927 and 1.i.1938 and undated, all with E. burchellii, F. Nevermann (FIMAK, FMNH, USNM, ZMHUB) . ECUADOR (new country record): Orellana: 1 specimen: Tiputini Biodiversity Station , 0.6376°S 76.1499°W, 31.vii.2008, with E. burchellii, A. K. Tishechkin (LSAM) . GUYANA (new country record): Cuyuni-Mazaruni: 1 specimen: Kartabo , 6°23ʹN 58°42ʹW, 15.iv.1919 (ND) . PANAMA: Colón: 3 specimens: San Lorenzo Forest, Smithsonian Research Institution canopy crane site, 9°17ʹN 79°58ʹW, 3.x. 2003 and 21.x. 2003, with E. burchellii, A. K. Tishechkin (LSAM) . Panamá: 1 specimen: Barro Colorado Island , 9°11ʹN 79°51ʹW, with E. burchellii, O. Park (FMNH) ; 6 specimens: same locality and host data, multiple dates between 4.iii.1955 and 23.iii.1966, C. W. Rettenmeyer ( FMNH, UCS) ; 4 specimens: same locality and host data, multiple dates between 26.iii.1967 and 1.v.1967, R. Akre, R. Torgerson ( WSU) . PERU (new country record): Jun´ın: 5 specimens: 11 km NW Puerto Ocopa, Los Olivos , 11°3.00ʹS 74°15.52ʹW, 1,220 m, 28. iii.2009, with E. burchellii , riding beneath heads of major workers in emigration column, A. K. Tishechkin ( LSAM) . Loreto: 1 specimen: R´ıo Sucusari, 2 km upstream from R´ıo Napo , 3°15ʹS 73°14ʹW, 27.viii.1992, with E. burchellii, P. E. Skelley (PK) .

Host Specificity and Phoretic Transport in Ecclisister . We found nine E. costaericae specimens during Eciton colony emigrations at LSBS. They were collected from two of 12 E. burchellii foreli colonies, while we never found any E. costaericae specimens associated with other host species. However, actual prevalence of E. costaericae in E. burchellii foreli colonies might be higher, because the discovery rate during army ant colony emigrations is expected to be low. Ecclisister costaericae has been observed to be phoretic on the underside of the heads of major worker ants (AKT, personal observation), which makes it difficult for the collector to spot them. In an emigration of E. burchellii cupiens Santschi monitored in March 2009 in the Jun´ın Region of Peru, AKT noticed a lump beneath the head of a passing major worker ant, which turned out to be an attached haeteriine beetle upon inspection. Special attention to the passing major worker ants allowed the collection of multiple specimens of the genera Clientister Reichensperger , Ecclisister , and Sternocoelopsis Reichensperger on approximately every 40 th major worker ant (see also von Beeren and Tishechkin 2017). Further evidence for phoretic transport of Ecclisister beetles on major army ant comes from the collection of specific army ant castes. Five of the nine specimens collected at LSBS were found in collection vials into which only major workers had been collected, while no Ecclisister specimens were found in collection vials of minor and intermediate workers. The remaining four specimens were found in collection vials with representatives of all worker castes. No data are available about host-following mechanisms in E. bickhardti .

Molecular Analysis. COI barcodes were successfully obtained for four South American E. costaericae specimens and seven Central American E. costaericae specimens ( Figure 2A ; for detailed collection records as well as GenBank accession numbers, see Table 1). They comprised two and three different COI haplotypes, respectively. A RAxML tree of COI sequences revealed two distinct genetic clades reflecting the origin of specimens ( Fig. 2B ). P-distances within the geographic areas were lower than 1% (range 0.0–0.5%), while they exceeded 2% (range 2.3–2.4%) in pairwise comparisons between specimens from the two geographic areas. P-distances describe the percentage of base-pair differences in two homologous DNA sequences.

Figures

Fig. 1. Ecclisister species. E. bickhardti lectotype: a) dorsal view, b) lateral view, c) ventral view, d) frontal head, e) aedeagus, dorsal view, f) aedeagus, lateral view; E. costaericae lectotype: g) dorsal view, h) lateral view, i) ventral view, j) frontal head, k) aedeagus, dorsal view, l) aedeagus, lateral view. Scale bars: a–c, g–i = 1 mm; d and j = 0.2 mm. Dorsal and lateral views of aedeagi are at the same scale.

Fig. 2. Collection sites and phylogenetic tree of barcoded Ecclisister costaericae populations. A) Map of Central and South America depicting the collection sites of studied Ecclisister specimens, B) RAxML tree of COI sequence data (658bp) depicting genetic divergence of E. costaericae from different populations. Bootstrap support (1,000 replications) is given at branches of interest. The scale bar represents expected substitutions per site as inferred by the RAxML algorithm. The haeteriine species Cheilister lucidulus Reichensperger (GenBank accession number: KX420342; von Beeren and Tishechkin, 2017) and Clientister henrici Reichensperger (GenBank accession number: KX420343; von Beeren and Tishechkin, 2017), both members of the tribe Nymphistrini, served as outgroups. Sample names are given at tips (for more information, see Table 1).