| Members of the pollen beetle subfamily Meligethinae Thomson,1859(Coleoptera:Nitidulidae)are feeding on flowers and inflorescences of several different plant families,both as larvae and adults,and are distributed throughout the Holarctic,Afrotropical,Oriental,and Australasian Regions.Due to the poor knowledge of Meligethinae fauna in China,this dissertation is a systematic study on this large group from our country.Twelve genera including as a whole ca.130 species of this group were recorded,among which 1 genus and34 species are new to science,3 species are new records from China,and 8 species(1 of them present in China)are new combinations.Keys are given to all genera and species.The rate of examined type specimens was 70.7%,and of named specimens was 98.4%.Only 2species have not been examined.The phylogenetic status and the division of the inner subunits of the genus Meligethes are very controversial,and their relationships with the larval host plants are not yet clear.This dissertation also represents the first comprehensive phylogenetic study combining morphological,molecular and biological information on the insect-host plants relationships of members of the genus Meligethes.We analyzed 56 morphological adult characters of all known 63 Meligethes species and 7 additional species representative of 7 different Meligethinae genera,selected as outgroups to investigate their morphological phylogeny.A preliminary parallel molecular study was based on 3 different genes(COI,ITS2,28S),26 representative species from Meligethes,and 3 additional species from 3 different Meligethinae genera,selected as outgroups.Both morphological and molecular phylogenetic reconstructions confirmed the monophyly of Meligethes.Two recognized subgenera Meligethes(Meligethes),and Meligethes(Odonthogethes)were recovered.Combined evidence from morphology and ancestral state parsimony reconstruction of larval-host-plant associations,suggested that Rosaceae of the subfamily Rosoideae likely represented the ancestral host plants for Meligethes,with a subsequent series of independent host shifts during the evolution and radiation of the clade,in association probably first with Rosa,and later with the related genus Rubus and allied genera,as well as with several members of the less closely related subfamily Spiraeoideae.130 plates,and a checklist of all known genera and species of Meligethinae worldwide are attached at the end of this dissertation.The new taxa are listed as follows:New genus: Teucriogethes gen.nov.New(thus far unpublished)species: Afrogethes auropubescens,Cyclogethes tibialis,Lamiogethes amissus,Lamiogethes falcatus,Lamiogethes haopingensis,Lamiogethes hastipenis,Lamiogethes limaelytralis,Lamiogethes meridionalis,Lamiogethes nitidirubescens,Lamiogethes obtusitibiis,Lamiogethes pseudoviridiangustus,Lamiogethes pui,Lamiogethes punctiformis,Lamiogethes sagittalis,Lamiogethes subconjungens,Lamiogethes unditibiis,Lamiogethes viridiangustus,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)gansuensis,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)gemipectoralis,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)latipectoralis,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)parapectoralis,Meligethinus hainanensis,Sagittogethes murinus,Teucriogethes pseudoobscurus spp.nov.Other recently published species: Lamiogethes convexistrigosus Liu,Huang,Cline &Audisio 2017,Lamiogethes forcipenis Liu,Huang,Cline & Audisio 2017,Meligethes(Meligethes)auropilosus Liu,Yang,Huang,Jelínek & Audisio,2016,Meligethes(Meligethes)macrofemoratus Liu,Yang,Huang,Jelínek & Audisio,2016,Meligethes(Meligethes)yak Liu,Yang,Huang,Jelínek & Audisio,2016,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)aurorugosus Liu,Yang,Huang,Jelínek & Audisio,2016,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)inexpectatus Liu,Huang,Cline,Sabatelli & Audisio,2017,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)luteomaculatus Liu,Huang,Cline & Audisio,2018,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)trapezithorax Liu,Huang,Cline & Audisio,2018,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)tricuspidatus Liu,Huang,Cline & Audisio,2018.New records: Cyclogethes spathulatus Kirejtshuk,1979,Meligethes(Odonthogethes)ferrugineus Reitter,1873,Pria adumbrata Cooper,1982 rec.nov.New combinations(all transferred from Sagittogethes): Lamiogethes ancestor(Kirejtshuk,1980),Teucriogethes distinctus(Sturm,1845),Teucriogethes hladili(Jelínek,1982),Teucriogethes hoffmanni(Reitter,1871),Teucriogethes lindbergi(Rebmann,1940),Teucriogethes nuragicus(Audisio & Jelínek,1990),Teucriogethes obscurus(Erichson,1845),Teucriogethes minutus(Brisout de Barneville,1863)comb.nov. |
