A Revision of the Myrmecophilous Tribe Deremini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) Part I: The Dorylopora Complex and Their Behavior

Author: KISTNER DAVID H.  

Publisher: Entomological Society of America

ISSN: 1938-2901

Source: Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Vol.59, Iss.2, 1966-03, pp. : 341-358

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Abstract

This complex of the Deremini (subfamily Aleocharinae) now includes the genera Dorylopora Wasmann, RODYLOPORA (type attenuata;; Congo Republic and Ivory Coast), and DRACONULA type minuta; Ivory Coast). These and their respective species are described and illustrated, and a key is given to Dorylopora, in which 10 new species from tropical Africa are added to the 6 previously known. Known geographic ranges have been extended and host data augmented for nearly all previously known species in the complex. These beetles were found to be obligate scavengers, feeding on minute pieces of dropped booty and on dead ants. By using a new method for measuring the degree of colonial integration, it was found that species with larger numbers of carinas on their bodies were more integrated into the ant colonies than those with fewer, although the degree of integration for Dorylopora was never high. Comparative data, arrived at by the same method, are presented for certain members of the Dorylomimini and Pygostenini, groups which are well integrated into the ant colonies. Host specificity was found to be applicable only at the ants' subgeneric level, though there was some indication that dereminine species associated with Dorylns (Anomma) emeryi ssp. opacus Forel are not found with other ants in the same location.

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