Longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) of southeastern Mongolia with particular emphasis on the genus Anoplistes Audinet-Serville, 1833 (Cerambycinae: Trachyderini)

New data on the distribution, bionomy, and taxonomy of the longhorned beetles that occur in the poorly studied region of southeastern Mongolia (Ömnögovi, Dornogovi, and Sükhbaatar aimags) are presented together with a list of all taxa that are known from this area. The literature records for all known species from this area were summarized, verified, and mapped. Chlorophorus caragana Xie & Wang, 2012 is recorded from Mongolia for the first time. New localities of some little-known taxa that are endemic to Mongolia and adjacent territories, such as Anoplistes halodendri minutus Hammarström, 1892, Anoplistes kaszabi Karpiński, 2020, and Eodorcadion gorbunovi Danilevsky, 2004 are given. High-quality stacked images of several unique species, e.g., Anoplistes gobiensis (Namkhaidorzh, 1973), Ch. caragana, and Chlorophorus obliteratus (Ganglbauer, 1889) are presented for the first time along with photographs of their habitats. New remarks on highly complex taxonomic issues concerning some species in the genera Anoplistes, Chlorophorus, and Eodorcadion are also provided.

Anelaphus villosus (Fabricius) and A. parallelus (Newman) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) can be accurately distinguished using body measurements and DNA barcoding

Anelaphus villosus (Fabricius) and A. parallelus (Newman) are longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae: Elaphidiini) that closely resemble each other in appearance. In practice, if antennomere 3 is distinctly longer than antennomere 4, the specimen is considered to be A. villosus, but the accuracy of this methodology is unknown. Authorities disagree about the ease of separating these two species based on morphological traits, and recent work hypothesises that they should be synonymised due to the difficulty of distinguishing them by either morphology or natural history. Assuming correct initial species determinations of curated specimens, as well as of those determined with DNA barcoding and by the primary author, data from 23 body measurements were collected from 50 A. villosus and 60 A. parallelus specimens. Stepwise discriminant analyses and discriminant functions were used to evaluate the ability to distinguish these species based on morphology. Species assignments from discriminant functions were very accurate and were supported by assignments determined with DNA barcoding. The ability to distinguish A. villosus and A. parallelus based on morphological and molecular differences provides evidence against the taxonomic hypothesis of synonymy under one species. A need for greater ecological understanding of these species remains.

Diversity of longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in the Caribbean region of Colombia: temporal variation between two fragments of tropical dry forest

The tropical dry forest is under constant threat from many anthropic activities which are conducted indiscriminately, modifying the forest, and therefore, affecting species that are closely related to its phenology, such as longhorned beetles (Cerambycidae). The spatio-temporal variation of the cerambycid diversity in two fragments of tropical dry forest (Reserva Campesina la Montaña and La Flecha) in the Caribbean region of Colombia was analyzed. At each locality, four squared plots were delimited, and the beetles were collected with fruit traps, beating sheets and manual capture, and with light traps in the center. Five hundred eighty-seven specimens representing 128 species were collected, of which members of the tribe Ectenessini (Cerambycinae) were the most abundant. At the subfamily level, Cerambycinae was the most abundant (465 specimens) and diverse (73 species), followed by Lamiinae and Prioninae. The highest values of richness (110 species), abundance (428), biomass (21.18 g), and as well as the highest values of true diversity (1D= 73.44, 2D= 34.30) were found during the first precipitations. Regarding beta diversity, temporal variation was determined and mainly explained by a high percentage of turnover (> 70%). Lastly, the high diversity of Cerambycidae was associated with high values of relative humidity and canopy cover during the rainy season. This showed that the structure of the cerambycid community in the tropical dry forest of the Caribbean region of Colombia depends on these variables, which are closely related to precipitation.

Identification of Putative Venom Proteins from Dastarcus helophoroides (Coleoptera: Bothrideridae) Larvae, an Ectoparasitoid of Longhorned Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Dastarcus helophoroides (Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Bothrideridae) is a naturally occurring ectoparasitoid of wood-boring longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). To determine mechanisms involved in this host–parasitoid relationship, we extracted and partitioned the proteomes from neonate and the late-stage D. helophoroides larvae using iTRAQ-based HPLC-MS/MS analysis, followed by functional enrichment and protein–protein interaction analyses. In all, 50 putative venom proteins were identified from the proteome of D. helophoroides larvae. Of those, 19 were identified as arginine kinases, 10 were chitinases, and 21 were either proteases or protease inhibitors. These results serve as a major advance in understanding the parasitism mechanism of this ectoparasitoid, as well as the potential for developing environmentally safe chemistries based upon these venom proteins that might be used in cerambycid control in forest management.