First record of the genus Myrmedonota Cameron (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) from North America, with descriptions of two new species

Abstract

The lomechusine genus Myrmedonota Cameron is recorded from North America for the first time. Myrmedonota is diagnosed, and two new species, M. aidani Maruyama & Klimaszewski, sp. nov., and M. lewisi Maruyama & Klimaszewski, sp. nov., are described and illustrated. Bionomical information is provided for both new species.

Molecular phylogeny of the Athetini–Lomechusini–Ecitocharini clade of aleocharine rove beetles (Insecta)

“…The genus Myrmedonota was represented by a species from the Eastern USA, but was originally described from Singapore (Cameron 1920) and is furthermore known from Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It was only recently reported from North America by Maruyama et al (2008), who provided a new diagnosis of the genus based on the type species M. cingulata , two new species from the Eastern United States and published descriptions of two species from New Guinea. The geographic distribution of Myrmedonota suggests that the Nearctic species may not be related to and congeneric with the Oriental.…”

A new species of Myrmedonota Cameron from eastern Kansas (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae)

“…Members of the genus Myrmedonota may be separated from other genera of Lomechusini by the following combination of characters (partially adopted from Maruyama et al 2008 ): 1) head dorsally subcircular, excluding mouth parts; 2) head lacking neck; 3) occipital suture complete; 4) antennae generalized, clavate and slightly laterally compressed; 5) pronotum with complete marginal line; 6) pronotum without depressions or macrosculpture; 7) body surface finely punctate; 8) abdomen with no horn-like ornamentation; 9) dorsal abdominal surface with sparse to moderate setation but never with dense setal cover, nor with thick macrosetae creating a bristle-like texture; 10) cardo partially overlapping stipes, ventrally; 11) lacinia and galea extremely elongate and parallel sided; 12) labial palpomeres I and III subequal in length and longer then palpomere II; 13) glossa bifid with each lobe housing two sensillate elements; 14) mentum trapeziform and almost as long as wide; 15) labrum with lateral apices rounded and extending apically beyond maximum midpoint; 16) apical lobe of paramere short; 17) vellum and velar sac of paramere large and extending past the maximum reach of apical lobe and partially concealing it.…”

“…In North America Myrmedonota most closely resembles the genus Pella , but can be separated from the later by the following combination of characters: 1) smaller size (< 3.5 mm [ Maruyama et al 2008 ]); 2) extremely elongate lacinia and galea; 3) mentum almost as long as wide.…”

“…The genus Myrmedonota Cameron (Aleocharinae: Lomechusini) currently contains 25 species, mostly described from the Old World (23 species), including Borneo (one species), Malay Peninsula (two species), New Guinea (19 species) and Sulawesi (one species) (Hlaváč personal communication). Recently, two new Nearctic species, Myrmedonota aidani Maruyama & Klimaszewski and Myrmedonota lewisi Maruyama & Klimaszewski were described from the states of Ohio and Indiana (USA), respectively ( Maruyama et al 2008 ). Life histories of most species are not known, but some have been collected in the presents of ants or termites; these species are presumed to be myrmecophilous or termitophilous, respectively ( Bourguignon and Roisin 2006 ; Kistner 2003 ).…”

Two new species of Myrmedonota Cameron (Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae) from Mexico

“…The genus Myrmedonota was described originally by Cameron in 1920 . It only included species distributed in Asia and was recently expanded, when Maruyama et al (2008) redescribed the genus, to include two new species from North America. Later, Eldredge (2010) described another species from Kansas, U.S.A.…”