Discovery of a troglomorphic trechine beetle from the Ryukyu Archipelago, Southwestern Japan (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Trechinae)

Abstract

A new genus and new species of Trechina (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Trechinae: Trechini), Ryukyuaphaenops pulcherrimus gen. & sp. nov. is described from the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. This is the first troglomorphic Carabidae in the Ryukyus and probably the most cave-adapted beetle in Japan. Interestingly, our observations suggest that this new trechine beetle is not similar to any genera of Trechina distributed in Kyushu and Taiwan, which are geographically close to the Ryukyu Archipelago, but is more similar to several aphaenopsian genera distributed in the inland of China. The genetic diversity of the new species is discussed based on mitochondrial DNA (COI-5’, COI-3’, 16S).