STUDIES ON THE CAVERNICOLE PTOMAPHAGUS 
OF THE UNITED STATES 
(COLEOPTERA: CATOPIDAE) 1 
By Thomas C. Barr, Jr. 
Department of Zoology, University of Kentucky 
The cave beetles of the United States include members of the 
families Carabidae, Staphylinidae, Pselaphidae, Catopidae (=Lepto- 
diridae), and occasionally Brathinidae, Tenebrionidae, Cryptopha- 
gidae, and Dermestidae. Troglobite species (obligate cavernicoles) 
are found among the carabids (Trechini, Agonini), pselaphids (Bat- 
risini, Bythinini, and Speleobamini) , and catopids ( Ptomaphagini) . 
In comparison with the cave carabids and cave pselaphids, which have 
been the objects of recent and continuing studies by American authors 
(see Barr 1960a for bibliography of cave trechines, Barr 1960b on 
agonine cave carabids, and Park i960 on cave pselaphids), the cave 
catopids have received less attention. The most recent paper treating 
all known species of U. S. cave catopids is that of Jeannel (1949). 
Although the essentially European subfamily Bathysciinae includes 
numerous highly modified troglobitic species, catopids in U. S. caves 
are represented only by a few members of the genus Ptomaphagus 
Illiger and rarely on occasional Catops or Nemadus. All U. S. species 
of Ptomaphagus , epigean or cavernicole, belong to the subgenus A de- 
lops Tellkampf (type species: Adelops\ hirtus Tellkampf 1844, from 
Mammoth Cave, Kentucky). Twelve epigean species, 2 troglophile 
species, and 7 troglobitic species of A delops have been described from 
the United States, and 3 more troglobitic species are described in the 
present paper. The cavernicole species thus comprise half of the 
number of species known at the present time. These inhabit caves of 
Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Alabama, and Georgia. Seven species of the cavernicola group are 
clustered in northeastern Alabama and adjacent parts of Tennessee 
and Georgia, but otherwise, the cave species are distinctly allopatric, 
indigenous to cave systems widely separated from each other, either 
by non-caverniferous regions or cave areas where A delops has not been 
discovered. 
Acknowledgments : — T wish to thank the following for contribu- 
tion of specimens: Oscar Hawksley, Leslie Hubricht, Bro. G. Nicho- 
This investigation was supported by a grant (G-18765) from the National 
Science Foundation. 
Manuscript received by the editor July 25, 1962. 
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