Abstract— The checkered beetle genus Ababa is revised for the first time. Morphological evidence suggests that Thaneroclerinae and Isoclerinae comprise a monophyletic group. Based on the positional relationships between the pronotal projection and the prothoracic intercoxal process the isoclerine genus Ababa Casey is taken out of synonymy with Isoclerus Lewis. Cleridopsis Champion is considered to be a junior synonym of Ababa Casey. On the basis of the tarsal formula, the genus Allothaneroclerus Corporaal, with a tarsal formula of 5-5-5, is removed from Isoclerinae, whose genera show a 5-4-4 tarsal formula, and placed into the subfamily Thaneroclerinae. Ababa specimens were collected in fungi niches and it is postulated that the elongated stomodaeum found in adults serve as a crop to process soft food such as the eggs, larvae, and pupae of fungivorous prey. Ababa comprises A. adona Opitz, new species, A. epiiska Opitz, new species, A. granaria Opitz, new species, A. latimana (Champion), and A. tantilla (LeConte). A lectotype was designated for Ababa latimana (Champion). It is hypothesized that the ancestral stock of Ababa and Parateneroclerus evolved in the mid-Tertiary forests of South America. Included in this work are: A brief discussion about Ababa natural history, a discussion of Ababa phylogeny based on a phylogenetic tree generated by WINCLADA in conjunction with NONA, a Bootstrap consensus tree, a key to Ababa species, 10 scanning electron micrographs, one distribution map, four photographs of the aedeagus, and six color habitus photographs.
Abstract A total of 93 adult male and 1,191 larval caddisflies (Trichoptera), representing 10 taxonomic families, 16 genera and 39 species, were collected from a total of 46 lotic and lentic sites throughout Broome County, New York during 1973–2014. While this checklist is not an exhaustively complete county distributional inventory, it is intended to serve as a baseline compilation for future work.
We characterized the taxonomic richness of epigean coleopterans and assessed the sampling quality in Llullaillaco National Park (Antofagasta Region, Chile). The study was conducted in representative sites of the national park during the years 2017 and 2018. A total of 185 specimens were captured, belonging to 21 species grouped in 19 genera and 10 families. Entomochilus Solier and Praocis Eschscholtz being the only genera with more than one species. The accumulation curves demonstrating that the inventory of epigean coleopteran richness is still incomplete for the sampled area. This work is the first inventory of arthropod species richness in high-Andean ecosystems, but additional samplings in other habitats and seasons are required to expand the inventory of coleopteran fauna for this protected area.
Notes on nesting and gregarious behavior of the blue nest renting wasp Chalybion japonicum (Gribodo) are presented. Three focal nests, freshly attached to the walls of an abandoned house belonging to the mud dauber wasp Sceliphron madraspatanum were occupied by C. japonicum, suggesting that the wasp is a nest invader of S. madraspatanum. Aggregation of C. japonicum males on the string of the sack, which hung loosely beneath the ceiling, undoubtedly plays a role to help males finding females easily rather than by having to take flight. Discussion on relationship of occurrence between C. japonicum and C. bengalense is included. The new appellation "nest renting wasps" for Chalybion species is suggested.
