Alfred Francis Newton

We present the most complete synthetic overview of the diversity of the order Coleoptera in Mexico to date. A list of all families known in Mexico is provided, as well as those likely distributed in Mexico but not yet officially recorded, including the number of described species recorded in the country for each. A summary of the state of knowledge for each family is included. Based on our data, Mexican beetles are represented by all four suborders, seven series, 24 superfamilies, and 129 families, plus eight families not yet recorded but probably distributed in the country based on their distribution in neighboring countries. Currently, 21,755 beetle species are recorded from Mexico.

We describe and illustrate Zavoticus yini gen. et sp. nov., a fossil beetle of Euaesthetinae (Staphylinidae) from mid‐Cretaceous Kachin amber, and evaluate its phylogenetic placement based on morphological characters. Zavoticus shares several key features with the Octavius generic group, including a distinct metendosternal stalk, two pairs of parasclerites on abdominal segments IV–VI, and apically attached abdominal intersegmental membranes. It differs from the two extant genera of the Octavius generic group, Octavius and Protopristus, primarily by having only a very weak and indistinct dorsal nuchal depression. The discovery of Zavoticus adds to the limited but growing fossil record of Euaesthetinae and provides new insight into the early diversification of this group.

The Coleopterists Bulletin publishes a wide variety of articles, notes, and book reviews regarding the biology, taxonomy and ecology of beetles (Coleoptera).

Based on a phylogenomic analysis, we here update the higher classification of the rove beetle subfamily Staphylininae, an insect mega‐lineage comprising over 9000 described species. All established or newly proposed higher taxa are statistically robust and biogeographically plausible monophyla identified by morphological characters, many of which are putative synapomorphies. Novel molecular and morphological evidence corroborate the previously challenged broad concept of Staphylininae, and the newly proposed division of Staphylinini into the tribes Staphylinini stat. rev. and Tanygnathinini stat. rev. Our fossil‐calibrated dating of the phylogeny revealed consistent temporal congruence between major cladogenetic events and plate tectonics throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras; for example, the divergence of Tanygnathinini stat. rev. from Staphylinini stat. rev. is contemporaneous with the break‐up of Pangea, and the first divergence within Tanygnathinini stat. rev. coincides with the separation of South America and Africa. Similarly manifold evidence, including the evaluated performance of the alternative statistical phylogenetic models, supports all proposed new subtribes: Ctenandropina subtrib. nov. and Nitidocolpina subtrib. nov. within Tanygnathinini; Descarpentriesiellina subtrib. nov. and Valdiviodina subtrib. nov. within Staphylinini. Keys, diagnoses and descriptions are provided for all involved higher taxa in the extensive taxonomic part.

Glyptoma Erichson (Staphylinidae: Osoriinae) is a genus of rove beetles including 22 species restricted to the Neotropical region, with 13 species recorded from Brazil. The subtribe Glyptomina of Thoracophorini includes, besides Glyptoma, eight other genera. Up to now, the larvae of this subtribe have not been formally described, despite many of them exhibiting subcortical habits and cohabitation of adults and larvae. Here, we provide a redescription of the adult and description of the larva of Glyptoma denieri (Bernhauer), the first larval description for the subtribe. Our examination of the diagnostic structures of male and female adults as well as larvae, in comparison to these structures in other species belonging to different genera within the subtribe, and members of other subtribes of Thoracophorini, compels us to review the status of the subtribe Glyptomina. Based on this new evidence, we propose that this group be elevated to tribal status as Glyptomini stat. nov., and distinguish this group from Thoracophorini sens. nov., with revised diagnoses of adults and larvae of both tribes and indication of taxa included for each.

A new species of the extant staphylinid genus Vicelva Moore & Legner, V. rasilis sp. nov., is reported from mid‐Cretaceous Kachin amber of northern Myanmar. Vicelva rasilis is distinguishable from extant members of Vicelva by the smoother dorsal surface of head, pronotum and elytra, less prominent median projection of clypeus, unnotched mesal edge of mandibles, semiglabrous antennomere 6, and longer tarsomere 1. The pollen‐containing coprolite attached to the beetle and the crystals within the beetle body provide valuable information about the biology and taphonomy of the fossil.

The Coleopterists Bulletin publishes a wide variety of articles, notes, and book reviews regarding the biology, taxonomy and ecology of beetles (Coleoptera).

Large carrion beetles (Silphidae) are the focus of ongoing behavioral ecology, forensic, ecological, conservation, evolutionary, systematic, and other research, and were recently reclassified as a subfamily of Staphylinidae. Twenty-three analyses in 21 publications spanning the years 1927–2023 that are relevant to the question of the evolutionary origin and taxonomic classification of Silphidae are reviewed. Most of these analyses (20) found Silphidae nested inside Staphylinidae (an average of 4.38 branches deep), two found Silphidae in an ambiguous position, and one found Silphidae outside Staphylinidae, as sister to Hydrophilidae. There is strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that large carrion beetles evolved from within Staphylinidae and good justification for their classification as the subfamily Silphinae of the megadiverse, and apparently now monophyletic, Staphylinidae. Considerable uncertainty remains regarding the interrelationships and monophyly of many staphylinid subfamilies. Nonetheless, the subfamily Tachyporinae was found to be the sister of Silphinae in more analyses (7) than any other subfamily.

The mouthparts and protarsi of adult rove-beetles of the Staphylinine group are examined in detail. We provide descriptions and image plates based on scanning electron micrographs taken from 36 species representing all 10 subfamilies comprising this large staphylinid subunit. We establish groundplan features of the mouthparts for the Staphylinine group and discuss, in detail, aspects and functions of structures that compose the feeding apparatus. A phylogenetic scheme is used to conduct an ancestral character reconstruction of the morphological characters. The potential groundplan features of the characters rendered in our parsimony analysis for the Staphylinine group are: labrum subquadrate or longer than wide; mandible without subapical teeth and retinaculum, with prostheca present, not forming lobe-like projection, and with a mola; maxillary palpomere 4 well-developed, fully sclerotized, similar in width to palpomere 3; ‘glossa’ integrated with prementum plate, sometimes represented by pairs of sensilla basiconica; ‘paraglossa’ with unmodified antero-lateral lobes; labial palpomere 3 from as wide to half as wide as penultimate palpomere. To explain the shape variation of the mandibles, a geometric morphometric analysis was carried out. A character mapping analysis of mandible shapes revealed a trend in the Staphylinine group toward a falcate shape with a narrow base, typically present in some predatory species.