Biodiversity of histerid beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae) from Brazil. I. Southern region

Abstract

This contribution adds data to the conservation and distribution of Histeridae species (Coleoptera) in the Neotropical region through a survey of Brazil’s South region. More specifically, it provides: i) a list of local Histeridae species; ii) a list of species that are inside Conservation Units in southern Brazil; iii) biotic (biome, ecoregion and associations/affinities) and abiotic information (altitude and month of occurrence) for each species. In total, 66 genera and 164 histerid beetle species were recorded, distributed in seven subfamilies and 11 tribes. Among these, one genus and three species are new records for the region. Fifty percent of the species are known from a single geographic record. The Atlantic Forest is the richest biome in the South, in terms of number of species, and the Alto Paraná Atlantic forest is the richest ecoregion. Carcinops (s. str.) troglodytes (Paykull), Euspilotus (Hesperosaprinus) azureus (Sahlberg) and Omalodes (s. str.) angulatus (Fabricius) were recorded every month of the survey. Species’ richness was higher in October, December and January. Of the species recorded, 45 (27% of the total) are legally protected by Conservation Units in southern Brazil. Twenty-seven percent of the species recorded are associated with live animals. Collectively, the data presented here is a contribution to the taxonomic catalog of the Brazilian fauna.