Pseudomorpha

Pseudomorpha
Pseudomorpha sp.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Beetle
Suborder:	Adephaga
Family:	Carabidae
Genus:	Pseudomorpha Kirby, 1825

Pseudomorpha is a myrmecophilous genus of Carabid beetle restricted to the Western Hemisphere. Pseudomorpha and some related genera are obligatory myrmecophiles in their larval stages. There are 27 described species with more than 100 undescribed species. As far as is known, adults are found in and around ant nests and in the surrounding vicinity; females are ovoviviparous (Liebherr and Kavanaugh 1985); larvae are known to be ant nest inquilines (Lenko 1972; Erwin 1981), or perhaps living with termites (Ogueta 1967). Of adults found at lights (UV, MV, and white light), most are males. Members of this genus are known to occur from Oregon, Idaho, and Colorado in the north to Argentina in the south, including the Caribbean area, and in southern Australia. They should be looked for in southern Wyoming, where they are also likely to occur. The only eastern species, P. excrucians Kirby, is related to species from the Caribbean and South America, not to those lineages from the American west and southwest.

Diagnosis. Form moderately depressed or rarely subcylindrical, narrow or broad, lean or robust, head visible from above, legs concealed beneath when in repose. Color ranges from black to light brown, rarely slightly rufous; only adults of P. excrucians Kirby, Yasunimorpha piranhna Erwin & Geraci, Guyanemorpha spectablis Erwin from Guyane are markedly bicolored. Head with mouthparts visible in dorsal aspect; ventrally beneath eye with deeply recessed groove for insertion of antennal base; mandibular scrobe nearly effaced, delimited by row of short stout setae; mentum and submentum fused; antennal scape partially visible in dorsal aspect. Anterior coxal cavities closed, median coxal cavities conjunct, metepimeron visible. Abdomen with six visible sterna, sternum III with broad medial emargination on posterior margin; sterna V and VI in male with dense row of decumbent and yellowish robust setae medially. Male parameres long, nearly of same length (more or less symmetrical), glabrous or setose, not balteate; phallobase bonnet-shaped, crested or not.

The species groups of Pseudomorpha Kirby 1825 and their known distributions (note that some species group names are based on yet undescribed species in Erwin in prep.) Alleni group. AZ, UT Augustata group. AZ, CA, NV, NM, TX, UT, México Behrensi group. CA, CO, ID, NV, NM, OR, UT Caterinoi group. CA Consanguinea group. AZ, CA Cronkhitei group. AZ, CA Chumash group. CA Cylindrica group. NM, TX, México Excrucians group. AR, GA, LA, MS, SC, Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic Falli group. CA Hubbardi group. AZ, NM, TX Parallela group. CA, Haiti Peninsularis group. AZ, CA, CO, NV, NM, OR, UT, México Phiara group. TX Pilatei group. TX, Costa Rica, Guatemala, México Santarita group. AZ, NM, México Subsulcata group. NM Tenebroides group. AZ, CA, NV, NM, UT Vindicata group. CO, ID, UT

List of Pseudomorpha and their Host Ants

List of Pseudomorpha and their Host Ants

Genus and species	Author and Year	Ant Host	Distribution	Notes
Pseudomorpha alleni	VanDyke, 1953	ants	Arizona (type)	Alleni group
Psuedomorpha alutacea	Notman, 1925	ants	Arizona, New Mexico (type)
Pseudomorpha argentina	Steinheil, 1869	ants	Argentina
Pseudomorpha arrowi	Notman, 1925	ants	Mexico: Cuidad Durango
Pseudomorpha augustata	G. Horn, 1883	ants	Arizona, New Mexico	Augustata group
Pseudomorpha behrensi	G.Horn, 1870	ants	Mexico; USA: California, Idaho, Nevada	Behrensi group
Pseudomorpha caribbeana	Darlington, 1935	ants	Haiti
Pseudomorpha castanea	Casey, 1909	ants	California, Oregon, Utah
Pseudomorpha champlaini	Notman, 1925	ants	Arizona
Pseudomorpha confusa	Notman, 1925	ants	Australia
Pseudomorpha consanguinea	Notman, 1925	ants	Arizona, California	Consanguinea group
Pseudomorpha cronkhitei	G.Horn, 1867	ants	California	Cronkhitei group
Pseudomorpha cylindrica	Casey, 1889	ants	Texas	Cylindrica group
Pseudomorpha excrucians	Kirby, 1825	ants	Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina	Excrucians group
Pseudomorpha falli	Notman, 1925	ants	California
Pseudomorpha gerstaeckeri	Chaudoir, 1877	ants	Brazil
Pseudomorpha huachinera	Amundson & Erwin, 2013	ants	Mexico (type); USA: Arizona	Santarita group
Pseudomorpha hubbardi	Notman, 1925	ants	Arizona (type)	Hubbardi group
Pseudomorpha lacordairei	(Dejean & Boisduval, 1829)	ants	Brazil
Pseudomorpha parallela	VanDyke, 1943	ants	California	Parallela group
Pseudomorpha patagonia	Erwin & Amundson, 2013	ants	USA: Arizona	Santarita group
Pseudomorpha penablanca	Amundson & Erwin, 2013	ants	Arizona	Santarita group
Pseudomorpha peninsularis	VanDyke, 1953	ants	Mexico	Peninsularis group
Pseudomorpha pilatei	Chaudoir, 1862	ants	Mexico: Yucatan	Pilatei group
Pseudomorpha pima	Amundson & Erwin, 2013	ants	Arizona	Santarita group
Pseudomorpha santacruz	Erwin & Amundson, 2013	ants	Arizona	Santarita group
Pseudomorpha santarita	Erwin & Amundson, 2013	ants	Arizona, New Mexico	Santarita group
Pseudomorpha schwarzi	Notman, 1925	ants	Arizona
Pseudomorpha tenebroides	Notman, 1925	ants	Arizona	Tenebroides group
Pseudomorpha tuxtla	Liebherr & Will, 1996	ants	Mexico
Pseudomorpha vandykei	Notman, 1925	ants	Arizona
Pseudomorpha vicina	Notman, 1925	ants	California, Nevada
Pseudomorpha vindicata	Notman, 1925	ants	Utah	Vindicata group

REFERENCES

• Baehr M (1997) Revision of the Pseudomorphinae of the Australian region. 2. The genera Pseudomorpha Kirby, Adelotopus Hope, Cainogenion Notman, Paussotropus Waterhouse, and Cryptocephalomorpha Ritsema. Taxonomy, phylogeny, zoogeography. (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae). Spixiana, Supplement 23, 1–508.

• Bousquet, Yves, 2012, Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico, ZooKeys 245, pp. 1-1722

• Casey. 1909. Studies in the Caraboidea and Lamellicornia. Canad. Ent. 41: 278.

• Erwin TL. (1981) A synopsis of the immature stages of Pseudomorphini (Coleoptera: Carabidae) with notes on tribal affinities and behavior in relation to life with ants. The Coleopterists Bulletin 35(1): 53-68.

• Erwin T, M. Amundson L (2013) Beetles that live with ants (Carabidae, Pseudomorphini, Pseudomorpha Kirby, 1825): A revision of the santarita species group. ZooKeys 362: 29-54. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.362.6300.

• Horn, G.H. 1867.Descriptions of a new Pseudomorpha from California, with notes on the Pseudomorphidae. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 1 68:151-154.

• Horn, G.H. 1870. Contributions to the Coleopterology of the United States. Transactions of the American Entomological Society (1867-1877) Vol. 3 (1870/1871), pp. 69-97.

• Horn, G.H. 1883. Notes and short studies of North American Coleoptera. Transactions of the American Society and Proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vol 10 (4): 269-312.

• Kirby, W. 1825. A description of such genera and species of insects, alluded to in the "Introduction to Entomology" of Messrs. Kirby and Spence, as appear not to have been before sufficiently noticed or described. The Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 14:563-572.

• Lenko K (1972) Pseudomorpha laevissma, un Carabideo mirmecofilo (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Studia Entomologica 15: 439-444.

• Liebherr JK, Kavanaugh DH (1985) Ovoviviparity in carabid beetles of the genus Pseudomorpha (Insecta: Coleoptera). Journal of Natural History 19: 1079-1086. doi: 10.1080/00222938500770681

• Liebherr, J.K. and K.W. Will 1996. A new Pseudomorpha Kirby (Coleoptera:Carabidae:Pseudomorphini) from the Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Folia Entomol. Mex. 98:53-58.

• Notman H (1925) A review of the beetle family Pseudomorphidae, and a suggestion for a rearrangement of the Adephaga, with descriptions of a new genus and new species. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 67(14): 1-34. doi: 10.5479/si.00963801.2586.

• Ogueta E (1967) Las especies argentinas de la subfamilia Pseudomorphinae G. Horn, 1881. Acta Zoológica Lilloana 23: 217-232.

• Steinheil, Eduard 1869. Symbolae ad historiam coleopterorum Argentiniae meridionalis, ossia elenco dei coleotteri raccolti dal professore Pelegrino STROBEL, durante il suo soggiorno in Buenos Aires &c: Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali, 12: 238-260.

• Van Dyke, E.C. 1943. New species and subspecies of North American Carabidae. The Pan-Pacific Entomologist 19:17-30.

• Van Dyke, E. C. 1953b. New Coleoptera from Western North America (Carabidae, Melasidae, Buprestidae, Curculionidae). The Pan-Pacific Entomologist 29(2):102-107.