Description of Microtyphlus (Speleotyphlus) infemails n. sp. from Valencia (eastern Iberian Peninsula), and review of the present state of knowledge of this hypogean subgenus (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Anillini)

Abstract

A new species of cave-dwelling Anillini carabid Microtyphlus (Speleotyphlus) infernalis n. sp. found in a single cave ('Cova Soterranya', in Serra Calderona's Natural Park, a protected area belonging to the Valencian Autonomous Community) is described. In this cave, the populations are located in the aphotic zone, being subject to rather buffered variations of the abiotic factors and living in a biocoenosis with opportunistic elements and a low number of troglodytic forms, thus possessing a greater degree of biodiversity than the deeper zone of the cave. M. infernalis n. sp. is the most southern species of the subgenus Speleotyphlus. A total of six species belong to this subgenus. Three of them (M. (S.) comasi, M. (S.) fadriquei, and M. (S.) virgillii) are poorly known; the existing descriptions provide insufficient details and are largely inaccurate. Although its slenderness makes it look like M. (S.) auroxi, some features in the aedeagus of the new species show similarities with the most troglobiomorphic species of the tribe Anillini in the Iberian Peninsula, Aphaenotyphlus alegrei. A comparison of the main morphological characteristics of the species belonging to the Speleotyphlus subgenus reveals the need for a thorough revision of the whole group, which could be paraphyletic.