SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION OF 
FOREST LITTER ADELOPSIS 
IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS* 
(COLEOPTERA: LEIODIDAE; CATOPINAE) 
By Stewart B. Peck 
Department of Biology 
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S, 5B6, Canada 
The beetle genus Adelopsis was described by Portevin in 1907, 
and was proposed for a microphthalmic soil-inhabiting species 
from Bolivia. Since then, some 20 additional species have been 
described, and the genus is known to be distributed through the 
Neotropics from Mexico to southern Brazil and adjacent Argentina. 
The species are generally large-eyed and winged, and are probably 
all scavengers of decaying organic matter in mesic tropical lowland 
and montane forests. They may occasionally occur in caves. The 
beetles are seldom represented in collections, but they may be 
frequently collected by sifting forest litter, or by using dung or 
carrion-baited pitfall traps. My field program of such collecting in 
the Neotropics since 1966 shows the genus to be far more diverse, 
abundant, and widespread than indicated in the present literature 
(Peck, 1977). 
Adelopsis was first found to occur outside the Neotropics when I 
(Peck, 1973) realized that Adelops mitchellensis (Hatch, 1933) from 
Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina, actually belonged in the genus 
Adelopsis . Some authors had placed the species in the genus 
Ptomaphagus. At that time I noted that I also had material of other 
species from North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and 
West Virginia. My indication that they were also in New Mexico 
was in error (Peck, 1978). The purpose of this paper is to describe 
these species which occur in forest litter and soil habitats in the 
southeastern United States, and to consider their distributional and 
evolutionary history. 
Generic diagnosis. The characters are those oI/Leiodidae, Cato- 
pinae, Ptomaphagini (as given in Peck, 1973). As such they are 
small beetles with a loose antennal club, with segment 8 always 
smaller than 7 and 9. They have transverse pronotal and oblique 
* Manuscript received by the editor May 1, 1979. 
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