Systematic Study of Subfamily Nitidulinae and Prometopinae (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea: Nitidulidae) in Korea and Phylogeny of Nitidulidae

Abstract

This thesis consists of two main themes: i) taxonomic review of the Korean Nitidulinae and Prometopinae

ii) molecular phylogeny of Nitidulidae.

In the first chapter, the subfamily Nitidulinae was reviewed as 38 species of 19 genera from Korea, including two new species, Cyllodes sp. nov., Pallodes sp. nov. and 9 unrecorded species, Nitidula rufipes (Linnaeus), Soronia lewisi Reitter, Ipidia sibirica (Reitter) Stelidota multiguttata Reitter, Atarphia fasciculata Reitter, Hebasculinus japonus (Reitter) Xenostrongylus variegatus (Fairmaire), Neopallodes vicinus Grouvelle and Pocadites rufobasalis Reitter. Subfamily Prometopinae Böving and Craighead, 1931 is recorded from Korea for the first time with 2 species from different genera, Prometopia unidentata Hisamatsu, Parametopia x-rubrum Reitter. Descriptions for all species, illustrations of habitus and genitalia, key to tribes, genera and species from Korea are provided.

In the second part, phylogenetic study of family Nitidulidae is conducted based on the molecular data. Family Nitidulidae is the second largest family in Cucujoidea which includes ten subfamilies. Because of their morphological and biological diversity, the phylogenetic relationship within Nitidulidae is one of the most debated topics among Cucujoidea phylogeny and yet, is still open to many questions. To recover the internal relationship of Nitidulidae, we performed ML and BI analyses that targeted on five gene regions (COI, 28s, CAD, H3, Wingless) for 77 taxa. Our research also included the 7 outgroups and 67 ingroups which contain the nine out of ten currently recognized subfamilies of Nitidulidae. The results of our phylogenetic analysis suggest the three following conclusions i) Subfamilial status of Prometopinae is reconfirmed

ii) Epuraeinae is paraphyletic with inclusion of Calonecrinae

iii) Nitidulinae is paraphyletic with inclusion of Meligethinae and Cillaeinae. In addition, the generic relationships within Nitidulidae and the evolutionary history of their feeding behaviors are also briefly discussed.