Batriasymmodes from Caves in the Virginias 
(Coleoptera: Pselaphidae) 
Thomas C. Barr, Jr. 
School of Biological Sciences, 
University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506 
ABSTRACT . — Batriasymmodes parki, n. sp., is described and illus- 
trated from a cave in Mercer County, West Virginia, and B. monstro- 
sus (LeC.) is newly recorded from a cave in Lee County, Virginia. 
The batrisine pselaphid beetles of the genus Batriasymmodes Park 
differ from the more common species of Batrisodes in the absence of a 
metatibial spur and in the large aedeagus with well-differentiated, spe- 
cific diagnostic characters. Males typically bear a recurved spine on the 
metatrochanter. Originally proposed as a subgenus of Batrisodes (Park 
1951), the group was elevated to generic status (Park 1960) and eventu- 
ally revised (Park 1965) to include 14 species. The majority of its species 
occur in forests in the Unaka mountain province in eastern Tennessee 
and western North Carolina or in caves of Alabama, Tennessee, and 
southern Kentucky. Two species are known from central Florida, and 
B. monstrosus (LeC.) is rather widely distributed in northeastern United 
States (see Park 1965). The four cavernicole species are probably all 
troglophiles rather than troglobites, and they exhibit no troglomorphic 
features suggesting long-term adaptation to caves or regressive charac- 
ters that might restrict them to caves. Furthermore, they usually retain 
metathoracic wings. 
Two male Batriasymmodes specimens sent to me for study by John 
R. Holsinger extend the known range of cavernicole representatives of 
the genus northward from Sullivan County, Tennessee (B. greeveri Park 
1965), into southwest Virginia and southeast West Virginia. 
Batriasymmodes monstrosus (LeConte) 
One male of this widely distributed northeastern species, with meta- 
thoracic wings, was taken by J. R. Holsinger and D. C. Culver in Poor 
Farm Cave, Lee County, Virginia, 27 August 1971. The specimen is 
slightly aberrant in obsolescence of the oblique vertexal carinae and the 
weak but distinct median vertexal carina, but such irregularities are not 
uncommon among species of the genus. The distinctly modified protibia 
and mesofemur are highly diagnostic, as is the structure of the aedeagus. 
This species has not been previously recorded from caves. 
Brimleyana No. 13:21-24, July 1987 
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