No abstract

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. This represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education.Coleoptera represent a huge assemblage of holometabolous insects, including as a whole more than 200 recognized families and some 400,000 described species worldwide. Basic information is summarized on their biology, ecology, economic relevance, and estimated number of undescribed species worldwide. Little less than 30,000 species are listed from Europe. The Coleoptera 2 section of the Fauna Europaea database (Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga and Polyphaga excl. the series Elateriformia, Scarabaeiformia, Staphyliniformia and the superfamily Curculionoidea) encompasses 80 families (according to the previously accepted family-level systematic framework) and approximately 13,000 species. Tabulations included a complete list of the families dealt with, the number of species in each, the names of all involved specialists, and, when possible, an estimate of the gaps in terms of total number of species at an European level. A list of some recent useful references is appended. Most families included in the Coleoptera 2 Section have been updated in the most recent release of the Fauna Europaea index, or are ready to be updated as soon as the FaEu data management environment completes its migration from Zoological Museum Amsterdam to Berlin Museum für Naturkunde.

Tanyproctini (Melolonthinae) is a large group of chafers within the pleurostict Scarabaeidae that shows an enormous morphological diversity and variation. However, their morphology based definition appears to be mainly based on presumably plesiomorphic characters. Here, we investigate the phylogeny of this interesting lineage with a three‐gene data set using partial gene sequences of 28S rRNA, cytochrome c oxidase I (cox1) and 16S rRNA (rrnL). Our data set comprised 191 species of all major lineages of pleurostict scarabs. Combined analyses of the 2,070 base pairs alignment with maximum‐likelihood and Bayesian tree inference always recovered Tanyproctini to be highly polyphyletic. Tests of an alternative topology with constrained monophyly of Tanyproctini using CONSEL and IQ‐TREE were not found to be more likely than the unconstrained tree topology. Instead, Tanyproctini was split into six independent lineages under the current taxon sampling that were scattered throughout diverse parts of the pleurostict tree. The fact that numerous smaller chafer lineages exist beside several evolutionary successful and large lineages, highlights the complexity of the pleurosticts’ evolutionary history. The resulting tree topologies imply the need for a thorough revision of tribal classification within Melolonthinae lineages to accommodate the polyphyly of Tanyproctini. However, a revision of classification would be premature due to low support of most relevant branches, instable tree topologies among different tree searches, and due to a still very incomplete representation of Tanyproctini lineages.

The development of modern methods of species delimitation, unified under the “integrated taxonomy” approach, allows a critical examination and re-evaluation of complex taxonomic groups. The rose chafer Protaetia (Potosia) cuprea is a highly polymorphic species group with a large distribution range. Despite its overall commonness, its taxonomy is unclear and subject to conflicting hypotheses, most of which largely fail to account for its evolutionary history. Based on the sequences of two mitochondrial markers from 65 individuals collected across the species range, and a detailed analysis of morphological characters including a geometric morphometry approach, we infer the evolutionary history and phylogeography of the P. cuprea species complex. Our results demonstrate the existence of three separate lineages in the Western Palearctic region, presumably with a species status. However, these lineages are in conflict with current taxonomic concepts. None of the 29 analyzed morphological characters commonly used in the taxonomy of this group proved to be unambiguously species- or subspecies- specific. The geometric morphometry analysis reveals a large overlap in the shape of the analyzed structures (pronotum, meso-metaventral projection, elytra and aedeagus), failing to identify either the genetically detected clades or the classical species entities. Our results question the monophyly of P. cuprea in regard to P. cuprina, as well as the species status of P. metallica. On the other hand, we found support for the species status of the Sicilian P. hypocrita. Collectively, our findings provide a new and original insight into the taxonomy and phylogeny of the P. cuprea species complex. At the same time, the results represent the first attempt to elucidate the phylogeography of these polymorphic beetles.

Immature stages of holometabolous insects represent a useful source of information for phylogenetic studies. However,knowledge about immature stages of insects is generally poor. This paper presents a historical overview on the study ofimmature Cetoniinae and provides an up-to-date list of 194 so far described taxa at the species level. Most immature stagesare described for the Cetoniini. Larvae of Microvalgini, Taenioderini, and Phaediminini are unknown, while the larvae of Platygeniini need to be redescribed.