A review of Gnathoncus of Southeast Asia (Coleoptera: Histeridae: Saprininae)
Author
Lackner, Tomáš
text
Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae
2020
2020-06-19
60
1
397
409
journal article
8114
10.37520/aemnp.2020.24
9cf87cc9-79ad-4a31-83ca-b635d495a0b9
1804-6487
4489252
AC387BAF-E7A8-40B2-9486-E5642074587D
Genus
Gnathoncus
Jacquelin du Val, 1857
Gnathoncus
: MΑƵUR (2011): 175 (catalogue); VιΕΝΝΑ +| RΑττο (2013): 30 (description of a new species from
Iran
); LΑർΚΝΕR et al. (2015): 113 (catalogue); LΑർΚΝΕR +| LΕඌർΗΕΝ (2017): 28 (diagnosis and key to the Australopacific
Gnathoncus
).
Note.
Complete list of synonymies and literature references of this taxon are given in LΑർΚΝΕR (2010: 105) and the reader is referred to them there. For the sake of completeness we only list the references published after LΑർΚΝΕR (2010) above.
Diagnosis.
Members of the genus
Gnathoncus
can be easily distinguished from all other SE Asian
Saprininae
by the following external and genitalic characters: body rather small (PEL=
1.70–3.20 mm
), uniformly dark-brown to black, without metallic hue; frontoclypeal suture (frontal stria) absent; dorsum punctate; pronotal hypomeron asetose, pronotum only with marginal pronotal stria (shortened in case of
G. semimarginatus
); elytra with complete striae I–IV; between base of elytral stria IV and sutural elytral stria (that can be interrupted or present only as a short basal fragment) present a characteristic short, hooked appendix; lateral prosternal striae very short, reaching approximately mid-length of carinal prosternal striae; outer lateral costa of prosternal process reaching prosternal keel. Ninth tergite of male terminalia longitudinally divided; VIII sternite and tergite not fused laterally. For a key to the Thai
Saprininae
see MΑƵUR +| ÔΗΑRΑ (2003); for a key to the Indonesian
Saprininae
see ÔΗΑRΑ +| HΑRιτιΝι (2008). As yet, there is no key to the SE Asian genera of
Saprininae
, mostly due to the existence of undescribed taxa from
Thailand
and
Vietnam
(T. Lackner, unpublished).
Biology.
Gnathoncus brevisternus
was collected inside caves;
G. rotundatus
is a synanthrope often collected in anthropogenic settings;
G. nannetensis
was collected on carrion and in bird nests;
G. sechuanus
sp. nov.
was collected under a mushroom on a tree trunk in a mixed forest. The biology of two SE Asian endemics (
G. vietnamicus
and
G. semimarginatus
) is unknown.
Distribution.
In SE Asia,
Gnathoncus
is present mainly in the north of the region: southern
China
(
Guangdong
,
Gansu
,
Sichuan
),
Taiwan
,
Nepal
, northern
Thailand
and
Vietnam
. One unidentified species is known from
Java
(
Indonesia
). The exact distribution of
G. semimarginatus
is unknown (its
holotype
was either collected in northern
India
or southern
China
, see below).