Species diversity of Tenebrionidae in mountain tops of extraandean volcanoes of Payunia (Argentina), with descriptions of two new species

CARRARA, R.; SILVESTRO, V.A; CHELI, GERMAN; ROIG JUÑENT, S.; FLORES, GUSTAVO E.

Praga

Congreso; V International Tenebrionoidea Symposium; 2018

Faculty of Forestry and Wood technology

Tenebrionid beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) are one of most diverse insects inhabiting xeric environments in southern South America (Cepeda-Pizarro et al. 2005a; b; Cheli et al., 2010; Carrara et al., 2011). Their ability to survive in these environments lies in several morphological, physiological and ethological adaptations that they present (Zachariassen, 1996; Flores, 1998; Cloudsley-Thompson, 2001). Among these are nocturnal habits to elude extreme warm conditions, large bodies to control internal medium, interlocking of elytra and the presence of a sealed subelytral cavity to control water conservation (Matthews et al., 2010). The presence of this cavity in tenebrionids is generally accompanied by reduction or loss of wings (Matthews et al., 2010), becoming these species into apterous organisms (Carrara et al., 2011; Carrara and Flores, 2013). It have been suggested that these adaptations have positively influenced species survival (i.e., low extinction rates) and processes speciation rates in tenebrionids (Cloudsley-Thompson, 2001), which in turn can be hipothetically related as promoters of high species diversity found in arid environments. For example, it is possible hypothesize that morphological and ethological adaptations have increased tenebrionid survival because allow exploit more efficiently a great number of niches, which in turn reduce species extinction for competence (Carrara and Flores, 2015). In addition, it is also possible hypothesize that the loss of wings have increased tenebrionid speciation rates by isolation because low organisms vagility reduce individuals migration between populations (Kergoat et al., 2014). Particularly, these hypotheses have been evaluated at regional scales (Carrara and Flores, 2015), but still remain pending understand if they have validity as determinant of tenebrionid diversity at local scales.