| Glacicavicola bathyscioides | |
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| Species: | G. bathyscioides |
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| Glacicavicola bathyscioides Westcott, 1968 | |
Glacicavicola bathyscioides is a species of blind cave beetle in family Leiodidae. It is endemic to caves in the western United States.
Glacicavicola bathyscioides is a shiny, translucent, brownish-orange, ant-like beetle, approximately 6 mm long by 2mm wide. It has become well-adapted to the troglobitic lifestyle: it has long thin antennae covered in fine setae, and slender legs (also covered in setae) which allow it to easily traverse the difficult terrain present in its environment. [2] The beetle is completely blind, lacking eyes and optic neuropiles. [3] Its abdomen exhibits false physogastry, which means that it appears larger than it truly is, due to the enlarged dome-like elytra which covers the entire abdomen.
Little is known about the biology of Glacicavicola bathyscioides due to its unique lifecycle and location. The beetles have been observed to feed on arthropod remains, as well as fungus, and it is speculated that they may eat bacteria as well. No larval form of the beetle has been observed. The beetles are suspected to have a lifecycle of around three years. [2] [4]
Glacicavicola bathyscioides was originally described by Richard Westcott in lava tube ice caves along the eastern Snake River Plain of Idaho. [5] It has since been discovered in similar localities, including a limestone cave in Wyoming. [4] The beetles have been associated with humid, cold cave temperatures and ice, and they die when exposed to higher temperatures, which limits their distribution. [6]
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera, in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal species; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 and 2.1 million total species. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.
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Agathidium is a genus of beetles in the family Leiodidae.
Cave-dwelling insects are among the most widespread and prominent troglofauna, including troglobites, troglophiles, and trogloxenes. As a category of ecological adaptations, such insects are significant in many senses, ecological, evolutionary, and physiological.
Leptodirus is a cave beetle in the family Leiodidae. The genus contains only the single species Leptodirus hochenwartii. It is a true troglobite, endemic to Slovenian, Croatian and, partly, Italian caves.
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The Tooth Cave ground beetle, Rhadine persephone, is an endemic beetle that lives only in karst caves in Texas. They are arthropods of the family Carabidae. The United States government considers these beetles endangered because they are only found in a single cave system. If these caves are destroyed, this beetle will likely go extinct. The cave system is currently threatened by pollution, urban development, and invasion by fire ants.
Subterranean fauna refers to animal species that are adapted to live in an underground environment. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna. Both are associated with hypogeal habitats – troglofauna is associated with terrestrial subterranean environment, and stygofauna with all kind of subterranean waters.
Zospeum tholussum or the domed land snail, is a cave-dwelling species of air-breathing land snails in the family Ellobiidae. It is a very small species, with a shell height of less than 2 mm (0.08 in) and a shell width of around 1 mm (0.04 in). Z. tholussum individuals are completely blind and possess translucent shells with five to six whorls. The second whorl of their shells has a characteristic dome-like shape. They are also extremely slow-moving and may depend on passive transportation through running water or larger animals for dispersal.
Natural Trap Cave is a pit cave in the Bighorn Mountains, in northern Wyoming, United States. Excavations in the cave are an important source of paleontological information on the North American Late Pleistocene, due to a rich layer of fossils from animals that became trapped in the cave.
Melville Harrison Hatch (1898–1988) was an American entomologist who specialized in the study of beetles. His long career at the University of Washington was highlighted by the publication of the seminal, five-volume work Beetles of the Pacific Northwest. Hatch is responsible for the identification and naming of 13 species.
Bruchidius siliquastri is a species of bean weevil. It was first found in pods of Cercis siliquastrum in China, and has thence been found in several continents. Its length ranges from 2.8 to 3.7 millimetres. Its body is short and ovate, with a black integument. The apex of its femora and the ventral part of its hind tarsi are reddish. Its vestiture is made of thin and short setae; dorsally setae are a whitish colour, denser on the scutellum. Its pygidium is also covered with setae. Its name is derived from its host plant.
Colilodion schulzi is a species of beetles belonging to the family Staphylinidae. This small, robust, reddish-brown rove beetle is known from a single specimen, a 2.37 millimetres (0.093 in) long female. It resembles the species C. concinnus and C. inopinatus with its enlarged antennomeres III, but it is easily distinguished by the greater maximum width and less variable width of these appendages, and by other morphological characteristics. Although its ecology is unknown, the presence of trichomes and the knowledge of related species, such as Staphylinidae suggests that this insect is myrmecophilous. The holotype was collected in 2009 in Palawan (Philippines) while sifting plant debris in a coniferous forest. The species was described in 2016 by the coleopterists Zi-Wei Yin from Shanghai Normal University and Giulio Cuccodoro from the Natural History Museum of Geneva, where the type specimen is part of the collection. The taxon's specific denomination is dedicated to the German myrmecologist Andreas Schulz, collector of the specimen.
Ptomaphagus brevior is a species of small carrion beetle in the family Leiodidae. It is found in North America.
Aglyptinus laevis is a species of round fungus beetle in the family Leiodidae. It is found in North America.
Aglyptinus is a genus of round fungus beetles in the family Leiodidae. There is one described species in Aglyptinus, A. laevis.
Rivacindela hudsoni is an Australian species of the family Cicindelinae or "tiger beetle" and is the fastest-running known insect. The genus Rivacindela is contentiously treated as a subgenus of the broader Cicindela and are typically found in saline habitats such as dry salt lakes and salt streams and are flightless. The species was discovered in South Australia and described in 1997, with an adult form of approximately 20–21mm in length and a running speed of 2.49 m/s, or 120 body lengths per second.
Annette Summers Engel is an American earth scientist who is Donald and Florence Jones Professor of Aqueous Geochemistry at the University of Tennessee. Her research considers how microbes interact with rocks and minerals. She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2019.
Dr Aola Mary Richards was a New Zealand entomologist specialising in the study of New Zealand and Australian cave crickets, or wētā (Rhaphidophoridae), and Australian ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae). She was the first New Zealand woman to gain a PhD in biology.
Batrisodes venyivi, also known as Helotes mold beetle, is an eyeless beetle in the family Staphylinidae. They are found exclusively in the dark zones of caves in the Southwest region of Texas. More specifically, they have been found in eight caves throughout Bexar County, Texas. Similar species include the eight other Bexar County invertebrates, such as Rhadine exilis or Rhadine infernalis. All nine of these species are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Despite the efforts of a small number of researchers, the logistical challenges of accessing this habitat greatly limit the amount and type of information. Very little is known of the species’ behavior, population trends, or general ecology.
