Sivacrypticus

Sivacrypticus taiwanicus, habitus

Scientific classification
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Coleoptera
Suborder	Polyphaga
Superfamily	Tenebrionoidea
Family	Archeocrypticidae
Genus	Sivacrypticus Kaszab, 1964

Sivacrypticus is the only genus of the family Archeocrypticidae (cryptic fungus beetles) occurring in Taiwan. Archaecrypticidae is a small family of Tenebrionoidea, recent papers revealed it as sister to Ulodidae^[1], to Ulodidae + Chalcodruidae + Promecheidae^[2], or sister to Anthicidae + Ischaliidae + Meloiidae^[3].

A single species S. taiwanicus Kaszab, 1964 is recorded from Taiwan. The species was described from the materials collected by Hans Sauter in ‘Pilam’(= Beinan township, Taitung County, southern Taiwan) ^[4]and are deposited in Museum of Natural History in Budapest, Hungary. Only females were known, male genitalia were only documented based on specimens from this project^[5] - they indicate that S. taiwanus is very similar to S. philippinus Merkl,1988 from Luzon (Philippies)^[6].

Occurrence in Taiwanese leaf litter fauna

The species is locally common in lowland forests in southern and central Taiwan.

Species

• Sivacrypticus taiwanicus Kaszab, 1964

Photos

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  Male genitalia of Sivacrypticus taiwanicus

References

^[1] Zhang S-Q, Che L-H, Li Y, Pang H, Ślipiński A, Zhang P (2018) Evolutionary history of Coleoptera revealed by extensive sampling of genes and species. Nature Communications, 9: 205. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02644-4

^[2] McKenna DD, Shin S, Ahrens D et al. (2019) The evolution and genomic basis of beetle diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(49): 24729–24737. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909655116

^[3] Cosandey V, Konvička O, Toussaint EFA (2024) Legacy molecular phylogenetics suggests restricting the concept of Melandryidae and resurrecting Osphyidae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea). Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny, 82: 621–627. https://doi.org/10.3897/asp.82.e131738

^[4] Kaszab Z (1964) The zoological results of Gy. Topál's collectings in South Argentina. 13. Coleoptera – Tenebrionidae. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici, 56: 353–387.

^[5] Hu F-S, Arriaga-Varela E, Biffi G, Bocák L, Bulirsch P, Damaška AF, Frisch J, Hájek J, Hlaváč P, Ho B-H, Ho Y-H, Hsiao Y, Jelínek J, Klimaszewski J, Kundrata R, Löbl I, Makranczy G, Matsumoto K, Phang G-J, Ruzzier E, Schülke M, Švec Z, Telnov D, Tseng W-Z, Yeh L-W, Le M-H, Fikáček M (2024) Forest leaf litter beetles of Taiwan: first DNA barcodes and first insight into the fauna. Deutsches Entomologisches Zeitschrift, 71(1): 17–47. https://doi.org/10.3897/dez.71.112278

^[6] Merkl O (1988) Novelties of Sivacrypticus Kaszab, 1964 and Enneboeus Waterhouse, 1878 (Coleoptera, Archeocrypticidae). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici, 80: 71–78.