Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Ptomaphagus cavernicola Schwarz, 1898
Range
c., se. US (TX, OK, AR, MO, IA, SC, FL) / Mex (Peck 1982)
Type Locality: Marble (=Marvel) Cave, Stone Co., Missouri
Life Cycle
In caves, P. cavernicola is most abundant upon feces of bats or raccoons, or upon dead bat carcasses. Occasionally it occurs on wet, rotten wood. (Barr 1963)
Remarks
This is a fully-eyed and functionally-winged species known (w/ one SC exception) only from caves in a largely disrupted but crescentric dist. from Mex. to IA to FL. (Peck 1973)
The lack of significant variation in the cave pop. may suggest that the dist. was achieved during and shortly after the Wisconsinan glacial, and that cave restriction occurred during the Recent. (Peck 1982)
Print References
Barr, T.C., Jr. 1963. Studies on the Cavernicole
Ptomaphagus of the United States. (Coleoptera: Catopidae). Psyche 70: 50-58.
Full Text
Peck, S.B. 1973. A systematic revision and the evolutionary biology of the Ptomaphagus (Adelops) beetles of North America (Coleoptera; Leiodidae; Catopinae), with emphasis on cave-inhabiting species. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 145(2): 29-162.
Peck, S.B. 1982. New records of poorly known
Ptomaphagus from Texas and the Ozarks (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Cholevinae). The Coleopterists Bulletin 36(1): 109-111.
JSTOR
Schwarz, E.A. 1898. A new cave-inhabiting silphid. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 4: 57-58.
Contributed by
Mike Quinn on 16 October, 2012 - 6:23am
Last updated 10 June, 2016 - 4:32pm