Aciliini

Sunburst diving beetle Thermonectus marmoratus, from Insectarium de Montréal, René Limoges.

Belongs within: Dytiscinae.

The Aciliini are a clade of diving beetles, distinguished by the possession of bifid metatibial spurs, and extremely long gonocoxae with expanded and rounded apices and apicolateral margins concave (Miller 2003). Members of the Aciliini lay their eggs in cracks in wood, moss or other cryptic locations (Miller 2001). Within the Aciliini, members of the Holarctic genus Acilius are characterised by large, dense punctation over much of the body surface in contrast to the finer, sparser punctation found in other genera. The genus Thermonectus includes two species, T. marmoratus and T. zimmermanni, that are strikingly patterned with bright yellow markings (Bouchard 2014).

<==Aciliini [Thermonectini]
    |  i. s.: Tikoloshanes eretiformis M01
    |         Aethionectes M01
    |           |--A. apicalis M01
    |           `--A. optatus M01
    |--Thermonectus Dejean 1833 M03, RL01
    |    |  i. s.: T. succinctus R89
    |    |         T. zimmermani B14
    |    |--T. marmoratus Hope 1832 M03, B14
    |    `--+--T. basilaris M01
    |       |--T. circumscriptus M03
    |       |--T. margineguttatus M01
    |       |--T. nigrofasciatus M03
    |       |--T. nobilis M01
    |       `--T. ornaticollis M01
    `--+--Rhantaticus Sharp 1882 M03, LM87
       |    `--R. congestus (Klug 1833) (see below for synonymy) LM87
       `--+--Sandracottus Sharp 1882 M03, LM87
          |    |--*S. mixtus (Blanchard 1853) [=Acilius mixtus] LM87
          |    `--S. bakewelli (Clark 1864) [=Hydaticus bakewelli; incl. S. guttatus Sharp 1882] LM87
          `--+--Graphoderus Dejean 1833 M03, RL01 (see below for synonymy)
             |    |  i. s.: ‘Dytiscus’ cinereus Linnaeus 1758 [=*Prosciastes cinereus] NR97
             |    |         G. occidentalis M01
             |    |         G. perplexus M01
             |    |--G. liberus M03
             |    `--+--G. fascicollis M03
             |       `--G. zonatus M03
             `--Acilius Leach 1817 M03, RL01 [incl. Heteroelytrus Ádám in Mahunka 1993 NR97]
                  |  i. s.: A. athabascae RL01
                  |         A. japonicus I92
                  |         A. kishii Nakane 1963 I92
                  |         A. mediatus RL01
                  |--A. sulcatus (Linnaeus 1758) M03, NR97 [=Dytiscus sulcatus NR97, *Heteroelytrus sulcatus NR97]
                  `--A. (Acilius) M01
                       |  i. s.: A. (A.) abbreviatus M01
                       |--A. (A.) semisulcatus M01, M03
                       `--+--A. (A.) sylvanus M01, M03
                          `--A. (Homoeodytes Régimbart 1878) M01, LM87
                               |--‘*Homoeodytes’ scutellaris (Germar 1848) (see below for synonymy) LM87
                               |--‘Homoeodytes’ atratus (Fabricius 1801) (see below for synonymy) LM87
                               `--A. (H.) mediatus M01

Graphoderus Dejean 1833 M03, RL01 [incl. Derographus Portevin 1929 RL01, Graphothorax Motschulsky 1853 RL01, Prosciastes Gistel 1856 RL01]

‘Homoeodytes’ atratus (Fabricius 1801) [=Dytiscus atratus; incl. Cybister goryi Aubé 1838] LM87

‘*Homoeodytes’ scutellaris (Germar 1848) [=Cybister scutellaris; incl. C. incognitus Gschwendtner 1931] LM87

Rhantaticus congestus (Klug 1833) [=Hydaticus congestus; incl. H. signatipennis Castelnau 1834, *Rhantaticus signatipennis] LM87

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B14] Bouchard, P. (ed.) 2014. The Book of Beetles: A lifesize guide to six hundred of nature's gems. Ivy Press: Lewes (United Kingdom).

[I92] Iwahashi, J. (ed.) 1992. Reddo Deeta Animaruzu: a pictorial of Japanese fauna facing extinction. JICC: Tokyo.

[LM87] Lawrence, J. F., B. P. Moore, J. E. Pyke & T. A. Weir. 1987. Zoological Catalogue of Australia vol. 4. Coleoptera: Archostemata, Myxophaga and Adephaga. Australian Government Publishing Service: Canberra.

[M01] Miller, K. B. 2001. On the phylogeny of the Dytiscidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) with emphasis on the morphology of the female reproductive system. Insect Systematics and Evolution 32: 45–92.

[M03] Miller, K. B. 2003. The phylogeny of diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) and the evolution of sexual conflict. Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 79: 359–388.

[NR97] Nilsson, A. N., & R. E. Roughley. 1997. The genus- and family-group names of the Dytiscidae—additions and corrections. Beiträge zur Entomologie 47 (2): 359–364.

[R89] Régimbart, M. 1889. Enumération des Haliplidae, Dytiscidae et Gyrinidae recueillis par M.^r le Prof. L. Balzan dans l’Amérique méridionale et description de quelques autres espèces voisines. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, Serie 2^a, 7: 256–268.

[RL01] Roughley, R. E., & D. J. Larson. 2001. Dytiscidae Leach, 1815. In: Arnett, R. H., Jr & M. C. Thomas (eds) American Beetles vol. 1. Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga, Polyphaga: Staphyliniformia pp. 156–186. CRC Press: Boca Raton.

Last updated: 26 October 2018.