Tenebrionidae

The family Tenebrionidae is well characterised here.

  

My interest in Tenebrionidae started at the end of 2005 when I had the opportunity to participate in 2nd International Symposium on Tenebrionidae held in Lyon (more information here). There I was given two great ideas for my future course in “tenebrionid” research:

 

1) Work on the tribe Cnodalonini. This study started in 2006 and resulted in a larger revisional paper (together with S. Bečvář) of the genus Hexarhopalus Fairmaire, 1891 (Bečvář & Purchart 2008). This work was continued and  resulted in neotype designation of type species of the genus Hexarhopalus (Purchart 2009) and review of Bornean members of Hexarhopalus with description of several new species (Purchart 2010). I am still working on this genus as I continually accumulate new material coming from new private and institutional collections. In future I plan to revise related genus Necrobioides Fairmaire, 1882. These two genera are distributed in the Oriental Region and occur particularly in mountain forests. I am much interested in any new or older material for my study.

 

2) A comprehensive study (since 2007) of the tribe Adelostomini (previously Eurychorini), which is primarily an African (most species occur in southern Africa) group of flightless darkling beetles with wide distribution, extending to the Mediterranean area, Middle East and to South Asia (India). They are xerophilous and cryptic insects with nocturnal disposition and diversified habits. Like most darkling beetles they feed on dead plant material – detrivores. Most species are psammophilous and very often follow the burrows of rodents and reptilia or have become adapted to the life in the shifting sand of dunes. However, a number of species are myrmecophilous, petrophilous and two species are cavernicolous. They show great variability of body shape and can generally be divided into two groups: adelostomoid group – narrow body and eurychoroid group – broad body. Each group can  be  further split  to stridulating and not stridulating groups. The stridulating organ consists of a smooth carina on the inner surface of the middle femora as the active part and an opposite file-like epipleural carina as passive part.

 

The tribe is presently represented by 33 genera and contains more than three hundred species. Although they show great variability in body forms and are usually not very difficult to identify  to genus level, identification to species level is often very complicated as they are  higly uniform within the genus and as there are practically no keys for determination. Modern revision is lacking and badly needed. So far I have studied the genera Adelostoma (Purchart 2007, 2009, 2012), Prunaspila (Purchart 2009a, b) and Carinosella (Purchart 2010). As in Hexarhopalus and Necrobioides, I am very much interested in any new material and I would appreciate any opportunity to study it.

 

Visited collections

In the course of my study of darkling beetles I have visited following institutional collections:

  • Centre de Conservation et d'Etude des Collections du Muséum, Lyon, France
  • Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary
  • Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas, Laboratorio de Entomologia, Mendoza, Argentina
  • Museum für Naturkunde, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, Germany (supported by SYNTHESYS I. grant)
  • Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle,  Genève, Switzerland
  • Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France (supported by SYNTHESYS I. and II. grant)
  • National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
  • National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom (supported by SYNTHESYS I. and II. grant)
  • Naturhistorisches Museum, Basel, Switzerland
  • Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium (supported by SYNTHESYS II. grant)
  • Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium (supported by SYNTHESYS I. and II. grant)
  • Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, Germany
  • Zoologische Staatssammlung, München, Germany

 

Described taxa and patronyms

 The list of all described taxa can be downloaded here.

 The list of taxa dedicated me can be downloaded here.