Fauna of New Zealand 69 - Landcare Research

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AMNZ Auckland Institute and Museum, Auckland, New
Zealand.
ANIC Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra,
Australia.
BBNZ B. I. P. Barratt private collection, Dunedin, New
Zealand.
BMNH The Natural History Museum, London, U.K.
CMNH Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
CMNZ Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand.
DBPC D. Brzoska private collection, Naples, Florida,
U.S.A.
FMNH Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago,
Illinois, U.S.A.
JNNZ J. Nunn private collection, Dunedin, New Zealand.
LUNZ Entomology Research Museum, Lincoln University,
Lincoln, New Zealand.
MNHN Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris,
France.
MONZ Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,
Wellington, New Zealand.
NMV Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
NZAC New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare
Research, Auckland, New Zealand.
PHNZ P. Howe private collection, Timaru, New Zealand.
Collecting and preparation
Detailed accounts on the collecting and preparation of
adult ground-beetles can be found in Larochelle & Larivière
(2001, 2005, 2007a).
Taxonomically relevant characters
The characters presented in the keys and descriptions
are subsets of the totality of adult characters studied, and
represent the most important or easily seen differences
between, or variation amongst, closely related taxa.
Body length was measured from apex of mandibles
to apex of elytra (with the specimen in dorsal view), and
is cited as a range.
Characters with the highest diagnostic value at the
species level have been photographed or illustrated, including
the most diagnostic aspects of the male genitalia.
Most illustrations provided in this work represent the
Larochelle & Larivière (2013): Carabidae (Insecta: Coleoptera)
most commonly encountered state of a character. The
user must allow some degree of variation when working
with individual specimens.
The male genitalia offer the most stable characters
and the ultimate criteria for species recognition. The second
best diagnostic character for the majority of taxa is
the configuration of the pronotum.
Although it is necessary to dissect male genitalia
within the context of taxonomic revisions, it is often sufficient
to pull out the apex of the aedeagus with a pin
when mounting specimens to expose enough of the genitalia
for identification.
Identification keys
Keys are somewhat artificial. They are intended as an aid
to identification, not a statement of the authors’ opinion on
phylogenetic relations. Additional supporting characters
(e.g., body length, distribution) have sometimes been
included between key couplets to help identification.
Illustrations and digital photographs
Illustrations and maps were prepared using the software
package CorelDRAW® graphics suite. All figures were
laid out using this software package. Photographs were
captured using Leica stereomicroscopes (MZ12.5 and
M205A), digital cameras (LeicaDC500 and Nikon DS-
Ri1), and the image stacking software Helicon Focus.
Photos of larger ground-beetle species were taken using a
Canon EOS 40D digital SLR camera with a 50 mm macro
lens and life-size converter, and were montaged using the
software Zerene Stacker. Further photo-processing was
done with the software packages Adobe® Photoshop®
and CorelDRAW® graphics suite.
An attempt was made to include habitus photos of
all species and subspecies but specimens suitable for
photography could not be secured for the following
taxa: Migadopini – Loxomerus huttoni (Broun, 1902)
and Taenarthrus pluriciliatus Johns, 2010; Trechini
– Maoritrechus stewartensis Townsend, 2010 and Duvaliomimus
walkeri brittoni Jeannel, 1938.
Taxonomic concepts
The authors’ approach regarding genus and species
concepts has been thoroughly discussed in Larochelle &
Larivière (2005, 2007a).
In the current work a number of subspecies of tiger
beetles (tribe Cicindelini) are recognised. The subspecies
concept used generally agrees with Mayr & Ashlock’s
(1991) definition: “A subspecies is an aggregate of phenotypically
similar populations of a species inhabiting a