Multilocus Phylogeny Support the Nonbioluminescent FireflyChespiritoas a New Subfamily in the Lampyridae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea)

Abstract

In this study, we describe a new Lampyridae subfamily, Chespiritoinae new subfamily, its sole genus Chespiritonew genus, and three new species: Chespirito zaragozainew species, Chespirito lloydinew species, and Chespirito ballantyneaenew species from the Neotropical portions of Mexico. Chespirito can be readily separated from all other known Lampyridae by the unique prosternum, characterized by being very wide, divided in the middle by a distinct suture forming two plates, with the anterior margin bearing a narrow inter-coxal process, the strongly setose filiform antennae, with antennomere III much smaller than all other antennomeres, the pronotum medially constricted (not in C. ballantyneae), with area adjacent to disc strongly punctate and with the presence of a strongly developed longitudinal carina. To test the placement of the genus within the Lampyridae, we obtained three genetic markers (18S rRNA, 28SrRNA, and cox1 mitochondrial DNA) from C. zaragozai and performed a maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analysis. Our analyses rendered nearly identical tree topologies, with C. zaragozainew species recovered as an independent lineage as sister to Pollaclasis bifaria (Say) (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) + Cyphonocerus ruficollis Kiesenwetter (Coleoptera, Lampyridae)+Luciolinae, with a posterior probability of 96 for the BI analysis and UFBoot respectively of 91 for the ML analysis with the entire clade sister to Pterotus obscuripennis LeConte (Coleoptera, Lampyridae). A detailed examination of the morphology of Chespirito indicates that this lineage is divergent from all other known Lampyridae, which combined with the results of our analyses supports the erection of a new subfamily.

A comprehensive review and call for studies on firefly larvae

“…For Q1, only papers with species-level identification were included, while for Q2 any level of identification beyond the family level was accepted. For the subfamily-level assignment, we followed the classification in Martin et al (2019) , with the addition of Chespiritoinae, recently described by Ferreira, Keller & Branham (2020) (total: 11). To address the state of knowledge of species per zoogeographic region, we followed the classification of Holt et al (2013) , as follows: Afrotropical, Australian, Madagascan, Nearctic, Neotropical, Oceanian, Oriental, Palearctic, Panamanian, Saharo-Arabian, Sino-Japanese (total: 11).…”

A new species of Petalacmis firefly from Bolivia, with a key to species (Coleoptera, Lampyridae)

“…), and even basic aspects of its morphology are lacking due to the rarity of specimens available for dissection. In fact, this genus is only known from male specimens, a widespread phenomenon in lampyrids ( Silveira and Mermudes 2013 , 2014 ; Ferreira et al 2019 , 2020 ; Bocakova et al 2022 ) and in elateroids as a whole (e.g., Bocak et al 2016 ; Biffi et al 2021 ). Therefore, detailed studies on the diversity of Petalacmis species are greatly needed in order to produce a more comprehensive understanding of the family Lampyridae , particularly in the tribe Lampyrini .…”

Hide-and-Seek with Tiny Neotenic Beetles in One of the Hottest Biodiversity Hotspots: Towards an Understanding of the Real Diversity of Jurasaidae (Coleoptera: Elateroidea) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

“…In insects, such shifts in regulatory timing can result in larviform adults with wings greatly reduced or absent [ 2 , 3 ]. In Coleoptera (beetles), neoteny occurs mainly within the series Elateriformia; it occurs to a lesser extent in Dascilloidea [ 4 ] and much more typically in Elateroidea [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Soft-bodiedness, i.e., reduced sclerotization and a soft, highly flexible abdomen, is considered to be the first level of neotenic development [ 6 ].…”

“…Indeed, several neotenic lineages occur exclusively in humid tropics and have limited ranges [ 6 , 8 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Due to their small size and cryptic lifestyle, elateroid neotenic beetles are relatively easy to overlook and hence rarely collected, and for many lineages, immature stages and presumably flightless females are unknown [ 8 , 9 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Interestingly, two of the four beetle families (and the only two belonging to Polyphaga) that have been erected during the 21st century based on newly collected material were neotenic elateroid lineages.…”