Carabid beetle (Coleoptera, Carabidae) richness, diversity, and community structure in the understory of temporarily flooded and non-flooded Amazonian forests of Ecuador.

Although tropical regions harbor the greatest arthropod diversity on Earth, the majority of species are taxonomically and scientifically unknown. Furthermore, how they are organized into functional communities and distributed among habitats is mostly unstudied. Here we examine species richness, diversity, and community composition of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and compare them between flooded (FP) and non-flooded terra firme (TF) forests in the Yasuní area of Ecuador.

After 157 years, a second specimen and species of the phylogenetically enigmatic and previously monobasic genus Gemminger & Harold, 1868 (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Nototylini).

The enigmatic beetle tribe Nototylini (Carabidae) is revised and a key to species is provided. Two species from South America are included in the genus. One species, (Schaum), is reviewed and a second, Erwin & Kavanaugh, , is described as new.

Phylogeny of the beetle supertribe Trechitae (Coleoptera: Carabidae): Unexpected clades, isolated lineages, and morphological convergence.

Using data from two nuclear ribosomal genes and four nuclear protein-coding genes, we infer a well-resolved phylogeny of major lineages of the carabid beetle supertribe Trechitae, based upon a sampling of 259 species. Patrobini is the sister group of Trechitae, but the genus Lissopogonus appears to be outside of the Patrobini + Trechitae clade. We find that four enigmatic trechite genera from the Southern Hemisphere, Bembidarenas, Argentinatachoides, Andinodontis, and Tasmanitachoides, form a clade that is the sister group of Trechini; we describe this clade as a new tribe, Bembidarenini.

Mordellidae (Coleoptera) Research: A Review Based on the from 1864 through 2013.

Mordellidae (tumbling flower beetles) is a globally distributed family of Coleoptera; it is among the most species-rich families (containing 115 genera and 2308 species described). It is important because of its agroforestry significance and its ecosystem-sustaining attributes. However, the past and current status of Mordellidae research remains unclear.

Neotropical Liebke, 1939 and Mateu, 1961 of the Cryptobatida group, subtribe Agrina: Taxonomic revisions with notes on their ways of life (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiini).

Liebke, 1939 and Mateu, 1961 of the Cryptobatida group, subtribe Agrina, Lebiini, living in the Neotropics are diagnosed, described, and illustrated. Occurrences of known species ranges are limited to the northern and western Amazon Basin and Guyana Shield. The following species are described as new: Erwin & Aldebron, , Suriname, Aldebron & Erwin, , French Guiana, Erwin & Aldebron, , Ecuador, Perú; Erwin & Aldebron, , French Guiana, Aldebron & Erwin, , Ecuador, and Aldebron & Erwin, , French Guiana.

Experimental assemblage of novel plant-herbivore interactions: ecological host shifts after 40 million years of isolation.

Geographic isolation is the first step in insect herbivore diet specialization. Such specialization is postulated to increase insect fitness, but may simultaneously reduce insect ability to colonize novel hosts. During the Paleocene-Eocene, plants from the order Zingiberales became isolated either in the Paleotropics or in the Neotropics.

Chaudoir, 1872 of the Cryptobatida group of subtribe Agrina: A taxonomic revision with notes on their ways of life (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiini).

Chaudoir, 1872 of the Cryptobatida group of subtribe Agrina, Lebiini, living in the Neotropics and southernmost Nearctic realms are diagnosed, described, and illustrated, and new species are assigned to two inclusive species groups. Occurrences of species range from Texas, USA, to the state of Santa Caterina in Brazil. Seven new species of are described: Erwin & Henry, ; Type locality - Perú, Madre de Dios, Manu Reserved Zone, Río Manu, BIOLAT Biological Station, Pakitza; Henry & Erwin, ; Type locality - Perú, Madre de Dios, Manu Reserved Zone, Río Manu, BIOLAT Biological Station, Pakitza; Henry & Erwin, ; Type locality - French Guiana, Cayenne, Commune de Roura, Montagne des Chevaux; Erwin & Henry, ; Type locality - Perú, Loreto, Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, Río Samiria (South Branch), Camp Terry; Erwin, ; Type locality - Brazil, Amazonas, north of Manaus on Amazonas 010 at Km 26, Reserva Ducke; Erwin & Henry, ; Type locality - Venezuela, Amazonas, Cerro de la Neblina, Río Baria Basecamp; Erwin & Henry, ; Type locality - Ecuador, Orellana, Yasuni National Park (edge), 95.

Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome.

Tropical forests are global centres of biodiversity and carbon storage. Many tropical countries aspire to protect forest to fulfil biodiversity and climate mitigation policy targets, but the conservation strategies needed to achieve these two functions depend critically on the tropical forest tree diversity-carbon storage relationship. Assessing this relationship is challenging due to the scarcity of inventories where carbon stocks in aboveground biomass and species identifications have been simultaneously and robustly quantified.

Evolutionary heritage influences Amazon tree ecology.

Lineages tend to retain ecological characteristics of their ancestors through time. However, for some traits, selection during evolutionary history may have also played a role in determining trait values. To address the relative importance of these processes requires large-scale quantification of traits and evolutionary relationships among species.

sp. n. (Carabidae, Trechini): the first ground beetle from Antarctica.

Fossil elytra of a small trechine carabid are reported from the Oliver Bluffs on the Beardmore Glacier at lat. 85°S. They were compared with counterparts from the extant genera , , and .

Taxonomic review of New World Tachyina (Coleoptera, Carabidae): descriptions of new genera, subgenera, and species, with an updated key to the subtribe in the Americas.

The classification of the carabid subtribe Tachyina (Trechitae: Bembidiini) is reviewed in light of newly discovered diversity from Central and South America. Described herein are three new genera (, , ), two new subgenera of (, ), and two new subgenera of (, ). Two names previously synonymized under ( Jeannel, 1962) and ( Alluaud, 1930) are elevated to generic and subgeneric status, respectively.

Limited tolerance by insects to high temperatures across tropical elevational gradients and the implications of global warming for extinction.

The critical thermal maximum (CTmax), the temperature at which motor control is lost in animals, has the potential to determine if species will tolerate global warming. For insects, tolerance to high temperatures decreases with latitude, suggesting that similar patterns may exist along elevational gradients as well. This study explored how CTmax varies among species and populations of a group of diverse tropical insect herbivores, the rolled-leaf beetles, across both broad and narrow elevational gradients.

Ecosystem heterogeneity determines the ecological resilience of the Amazon to climate change.

Amazon forests, which store ∼ 50% of tropical forest carbon and play a vital role in global water, energy, and carbon cycling, are predicted to experience both longer and more intense dry seasons by the end of the 21st century. However, the climate sensitivity of this ecosystem remains uncertain: several studies have predicted large-scale die-back of the Amazon, whereas several more recent studies predict that the biome will remain largely intact. Combining remote-sensing and ground-based observations with a size- and age-structured terrestrial ecosystem model, we explore the sensitivity and ecological resilience of these forests to changes in climate.

Hyperdominance in Amazonian forest carbon cycling.

While Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, the abundance of trees is skewed strongly towards relatively few 'hyperdominant' species. In addition to their diversity, Amazonian trees are a key component of the global carbon cycle, assimilating and storing more carbon than any other ecosystem on Earth. Here we ask, using a unique data set of 530 forest plots, if the functions of storing and producing woody carbon are concentrated in a small number of tree species, whether the most abundant species also dominate carbon cycling, and whether dominant species are characterized by specific functional traits.

A synopsis of the tribe Lachnophorini, with a new genus of Neotropical distribution and a revision of the Neotropical genus Asklepia Liebke, 1938 (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae).

This synopsis provides an identification key to the genera of Tribe Lachnophorini of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres including five genera previously misplaced in carabid classifications. The genus Asklepia Liebke, 1938 is revised with 23 new species added and four species reassigned from Eucaerus LeConte, 1853 to Asklepia Liebke, 1938. In addition, a new genus is added herein to the Tribe: Peruphorticus gen.

Markedly divergent estimates of Amazon forest carbon density from ground plots and satellites.

Aim: The accurate mapping of forest carbon stocks is essential for understanding the global carbon cycle, for assessing emissions from deforestation, and for rational land-use planning. Remote sensing (RS) is currently the key tool for this purpose, but RS does not estimate vegetation biomass directly, and thus may miss significant spatial variations in forest structure. We test the stated accuracy of pantropical carbon maps using a large independent field dataset.

Beetles that live with ants (Carabidae, Pseudomorphini, Pseudomorpha Kirby, 1825): A revision of the santarita species group.

The Western Hemisphere genus Pseudomorpha Kirby 1825 was last revised by Notman in 1925 based on only a few known species (22) and paltry few specimens (73); other authors have added an additional six species represented by 53 additional specimens since 1925. Baehr (1997) assigned three species from Australia to this genus, albeit in a new subgenus, Austropseudomorpha Baehr 1997. A recent study of collections from throughout the Americas (1757 specimens) has revealed numerous new species that can be arrayed across 19 species groups based on a suite of attributes, some used by Notman and others newly discovered.

Beetles that live with ants (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Pseudomorphini): A remarkable new genus and species from Guyane (French Guiana), Guyanemorpha spectabilis gen. n., sp. n.

Among the extensive collections currently being made in Guyane (French Guiana), adults of a large and colorful species of pseudomorphine were encountered. The adults present, for the first time in the Western Hemisphere, elytra with a marked color pattern, and in addition a size considerably beyond that of the rest of the members of all other known genera in the Western Hemisphere. Both of these attributes, however, are well known in the Australian pseudomorphine fauna.

Tropical plant-herbivore networks: reconstructing species interactions using DNA barcodes.

Plants and their associated insect herbivores, represent more than 50% of all known species on earth. The first step in understanding the mechanisms generating and maintaining this important component of biodiversity is to identify plant-herbivore associations. In this study we determined insect-host plant associations for an entire guild of insect herbivores using plant DNA extracted from insect gut contents.

Unprecedented ichneumonid parasitoid wasp diversity in tropical forests.

The megadiverse parasitoid wasp family Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera) is classically considered an exception to the extensively studied latitudinal diversity gradient: the majority of ichneumonid species are described from temperate regions. The gradient has been hypothesized to be dependent on the biology of the wasps, but recently questions of sampling and description biases have been raised. Here, we show with primary data that the species richness of Ichneumonidae is markedly underestimated in tropical areas and that latitudinal diversity patterns in the family remain uncharacterized.

The Nearctic-Caribbean species Leptotrachelus dorsalis (Fabricius, 1801): Larval descriptions with a diagnosis of immature Ctenodactylini and natural history notes on the genus and tribe (Coleoptera, Carabidae).

Adults and larvae of Leptotrachelus dorsalis (Fabricius), the Sugarcane Savior Beetle, live in association with grasses, the larvae in the appressed leaf axils. Both adult and larval Leptotrachelus dorsalis eat larvae of the Sugarcane Borer, Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius), and perhaps other insects living in the confines of the leaf sheaths of that and other grass-like species. The geographic range of Leptotrachelus dorsalis extends from Kansas in the west to the Atlantic seaboard, north as far as Ontario, Canada and south to Cuba; it is an eastern species of North America and the Caribbean.

A synopsis of the genus Cypholoba Chaudoir (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Anthiini) known to occur in the Republic of South Africa.

Nearly one third of the described species of Cypholoba Chaudoir (Coleoptera: Carabidae) are known to inhabit the Republic of South Africa. A key and diagnostic notes are provided for their identification, as well as notes about way of life for some of the species based on observations in the Kruger National Park. Fifteen species and subspecies of the genus are recorded from the Republic of South Africa; adult specimens of each species and subspecies are illustrated and information about the distribution of each species in the Republic of South Africa is summarized and mapped: Cypholoba alstoni (Péringuey), Cypholoba alveolata (Brême), Cypholoba amatonga Péringuey, Cypholoba fritschi (Chaudoir), Cypholoba gracilis gracilis (Dejean), Cypholoba gracilis scrobiculata (Bertoloni), Cypholoba gracilis zuluana Basilewsky, Cypholoba graphipteroides graphipteroides (Guérin-Méneville), Cypholoba leucospilota semilaevis (Chaudoir), Cypholoba macilenta (Olivier), Cypholoba notata (Perroud), Cypholoba oberthueri seruana Strohmeyer, Cypholoba opulenta (Boheman), Cypholoba rutata (Péringuey), and Cypholoba tenuicollis aenigma (Dohrn).

Carabidae diversity along an altitudinal gradient in a Peruvian cloud forest (Coleoptera).

Carabid beetles were sampled at five sites, ranging from 1500 m to 3400 m, along a 15 km transect in the cloud forest of Manu National Park, Perú. Seasonal collections during a one year period yielded 77 morphospecies, of which 60% are projected to be undescribed species. There was a significant negative correlation between species richness and altitude, with the number of carabid species declining at the rate of one species for each 100 m increase in altitude.

Badister Clairville 1806: A new species and new continental record for the nominate subgenus in Amazonian Perú (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Licinini).

Badister (Badister) amazonussp. n. is described from Perú, Loreto, 1.