SPEOCOLPODES , A NEW GENUS OF 
TROGLOBITIC BEETLES FROM GUATEMALA 
(COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE)* 
By Thomas C. Barr, Jr. 
School of Biological Sciences 
University of Kentucky 
Lexington, Kentucky, U. S. A. 40506 
In early January, 1973, Mr. Henry Frania and Mr. Michael 
Shawcross visited Seamay Cave, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, and 
discovered two specimens of a remarkable troglobitic carabid beetle. 
“One was collected after dusk running over flowstone near pools 
of water several hundred yards into the cave. The second was 
found the next morning, less than 200 yards from the entrance 
under a rock in a dry, silt-covered flowstone pool, but still well 
within the dark zone.” (H. Frania, in litt.). Subsequently Mr. 
Frania referred the specimens to me for study. 
The Seamay Cave beetle is of special interest for two reasons: 
1 ) It is the first troglobitic beetle known from Guatemala, and 
the cave is the farthest south of any troglobitic beetle type locality 
in North America. 
2) The beetle clearly belongs to the Agonini and in body form 
resembles the species of Rhadine LeConte, but the possession of long 
setae on the underside of the tarsi and conspicuous lobes on the fourth 
tarsal segments indicates that its affinities lie not with Rhadine but 
with the large, heterogeneous group of agonines currently placed in 
Colpodes M’Leay. 
Only one other group of colpodines is known to regularly inhabit 
caves and to include apparent troglobites, — the various species of 
Mexisphodrus Barr, from the uplands of central Mexico. These 
have recently been described by Barr (1965, 1966) and Hendrichs 
and Bolivar (1966, 1973). Although the sphodrine appearance of 
some of the first species of Mexisphodrus which came to my attention 
led me to consider them primitive sphodrines, more recent study of 
the material now available suggests that they are not true sphodrines 
at all, but a specialized, rather distinctive-looking line of colpodines. 
The status of the name Mexisphodrus will depend upon future 
taxonomic revisions of the colpodines, but I believe it will be useful 
* Manuscript received by the editor November 4, 1973. 
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