A NEW LELEUPIDIINE CARABID BEETLE 
FROM INDIA* 
By P. J. Darlington, Jr. 
Museum of Comparative Zoology 
The tribe Leleupidiini Basilewsky (1951, 1953, 1954) is a group 
of small-eyed, flightless, ant-like carabids (Fig. 1) related to (per- 
haps eventually to be considered a subtribe of) the tribe Zuphiini 
but differing in form, in having the first antennal segment not scaphi- 
form and the palpi remarkably modified (labial palpi with apical 
segments greatly enlarged), and in other details. Little is known 
about the ecology or behavior of these insects, but one New Guinean 
species apparently lives in leaf litter on the floor of rain forest, and 
this may be the habitat of other members of the tribe. They may 
mimic some of the small ants that forage on the ground in forest. 
The tribe has a relict distribution, with several genera localized 
in Africa, one (below) in North India and Sikkim, and one ( Colasidia 
Basilewsky 1954) known from one species from Singapore (Basilew- 
sky) and two from New Guinea (Darlington ms). All known species 
are flightless, but the group is evidently derived from a winged 
ancestor, and its dispersal may have been effected by flight. 
Individuals are usually very rare. The two previously described 
Asiatic and the two New Guinean species are all known from single 
individuals. The finding of a third Asiatic species, based on two 
specimens, is therefore an event of some evolutionary and zoogeo- 
graphic interest, at least to students of Carabidae. 
Formally, the genus concerned is: 
Genus gunvorita Landin 
Landin 1955. 
Type species: G. elegans Landin (1955) of Sikkim. 
Notes: This genus differs rather strikingly in form from the only 
other known Oriental leleupidiine genus, Colasidia Basilewsky of 
Singapore and New Guinea. However, I am not prepared to discuss 
generic characters or relationships, but wish now merely to record 
the following new species. 
Gunvorita indica n. sp. (Fig. 1) 
Description. Form as in Fig. 1, strikingly ant-like, very convex; 
dark brown, appendages reddish yellow; whole upper surafce with 
* Manuscript received by the editor September 1, 1968 
208 
