A NEW GENUS OF PRIMITIVE MELOIDAE 
FROM WEST TEXAS (COLEOPTERA) 1 
By Floyd G. Werner 
Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721 
The beetle described here is the most unusual meloid I have ever 
encountered. When Henry Howden sent me a male, several years 
ago, I examined it and placed it among the unidentified pedilids. 
But re-examination in relation to the pedilids convinces me that it 
is indeed a meloid, and probably one of considerable evolutionary 
interest. Since I first saw a specimen, Richard Selander (1966) has 
published a comprehensive study of the meloid subfamily Eleticinae, 
which is generally unfamiliar to students of North American beetles. 
The Eleticinae have some characteristics that are different from those 
of conventional meloids; part of these are shared by the new genus 
described here. The Eleticinae are so different from other Meloidae 
that Selander suggests that relationship would best be indicated if 
they were set up as a separate family, or as a subfamily of weight 
equal to one combining all other meloids. But, in the interest of 
avoiding major changes before relationships are certain, he has (1964, 
1966) followed a course of recognizing three subfamilies of Meloi- 
dae: Eleticinae, Meloinae, and Nemognathinae, with the Eleticinae 
considered the most primitive. The group has a disjunct distribution 
in the Old World (mainly Africa but including a few species in 
Southeast Asia) and South America, both of the tribes he recognizes 
in his 1966 paper having members on both sides of the Atlantic. This 
relict type of distribution certainly supports his opinion that this is an 
ancient group. Unfortunately, there are no observations on the be- 
havior of the subfamily, and the larval associations that have been 
made are based on supposition rather than observation. So only adult 
structures can be used in classification. 
Perhaps the single thing that is most meloid-like about the insect 
described here is the shape and conformation of the head (Fig. 2, 3). 
The only thing that is unusual at all is that the eyes are more coarsely 
faceted than is usual for the family. The general body shape ( Fig. 1 ) 
is also not greatly different from that of some other meloids ; the main 
points of difference are those of the Eleticinae: cuticle much firmer 
journal Paper No. 2266 of the Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. 
Manuscript received, by the editor February 20 , 1974. 
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