PSYCHE 
Vol. 75 June, 1968 No. 2 
A NEW CAVE CATOPID BEETLE FROM MEXICO, 
WITH A DISCUSSION OF ITS EVOLUTION * 
By Stewart B. Peck 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
Most obligately cave-inhabiting (troglobitic) beetles belong to 
the families Carabidae, Catopidae, and Pselaphidae. From Mexico, 
troglobitic species have been described in the Carabid tribes Trechini 
and Agonini (Barr 1966a, 1966b, and Bolivar y Peltain and Hen- 
drichs 1964). The family Catopidae contains numerous troglobitic 
species in several genera in Europe, and several species in the genus 
Ptomaphagus in the United States (Jeannel 1936, and Barr 1963). 
From Mexico, three species of Ptomaphagus have been recorded; 
P. (Tupania) forticornis Matthews, P. (A delops) inermis Jeannel, 
and P. spelaeus Bilimek (Jeannel 1936, Szymczakowski 1961). The 
last of these was described from Cacahuamilpa Cave, near Taxco, in 
the state of Guerrero. It does not possess any structures suggesting 
that it is limited to a cavernicolous life. 
During the past few years, collections of six undescribed Ptomapha- 
gus species from 12 Mexican caves have been sent to me by members 
of the Association for Mexican Cave Studies for inclusion in a 
revision of the genus. With the exception of a single female, these 
species show no structural specializations suggesting that they are 
limited to caves. However, a collection was recently made in a 
high altitude cave of a male of a highly modified species. This col- 
lection reinforces current ideas on the origin of tropical troglobitic 
beetles. The new species is described and discussed in this paper. 
This paper is the first in a series on the evolution and biology of 
the Ptomaphagus and other catopid beetles of North America. It 
includes a departure from the usual method of describing cavernic- 
olous species of Ptomaphagus. One morphological clue to the de- 
*Manuscript received by the editor June 6 , 1968 
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