Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Instituto de Recursos Naturais, Av. BPS, 1303, 37500-903, Itajubá, MG, Brazil.
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Nazaré, 481, 04263-000, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jan 31;10(1):1544. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58416-6.
Beetles are the most species-rich animal radiation and are among the historically most intensively studied insect groups. Consequently, the vast majority of their higher-level taxa had already been described about a century ago. In the 21st century, thus far, only three beetle families have been described de novo based on newly collected material. Here, we report the discovery of a completely new lineage of soft-bodied neotenic beetles from the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, which is one of the most diverse and also most endangered biomes on the planet. We identified three species in two genera, which differ in morphology of all life stages and exhibit different degrees of neoteny in females. We provide a formal description of this lineage for which we propose the new family Jurasaidae. Molecular phylogeny recovered Jurasaidae within the basal grade in Elateroidea, sister to the well-sclerotized rare click beetles, Cerophytidae. This placement is supported by several larval characters including the modified mouthparts. The discovery of a new beetle family, which is due to the limited dispersal capability and cryptic lifestyle of its wingless females bound to long-term stable habitats, highlights the importance of the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest as a top priority area for nature conservation.
甲虫是物种最丰富的动物辐射群，也是历史上研究最广泛的昆虫类群之一。因此，它们绝大多数的高级分类群在一个世纪前就已经被描述过了。在 21 世纪，到目前为止，仅有三个甲虫科是根据新收集的材料而新描述的。在这里，我们报告了在巴西大西洋雨林中发现的一种全新的软体制软甲幼虫的完全新谱系，该雨林是地球上最多样化也是最濒危的生物群落之一。我们在两个属中鉴定出了三个物种，它们在所有生命阶段的形态上有所不同，并且在雌性中表现出不同程度的幼态持续现象。我们对这个谱系进行了正式描述，并为其提出了新的家族——Jurasaidae。分子系统发育将 Jurasaidae 归入到 Elateroidea 的基础等级中，与硬体化的罕见叩头虫科 Cerophytidae 为姐妹群。这种位置是由几个幼虫特征支持的，包括改良的口器。由于其无翅雌虫的有限扩散能力和隐蔽的生活方式，以及它们对长期稳定栖息地的依赖，发现了一个新的甲虫科，这突出了巴西大西洋雨林作为自然保护的首要重点地区的重要性。
