P. J. Darlington, Jr.
West Indian Carabidae VI. The Jamaican Species and their Wings.
Psyche 48(1):10-15, 1941.

This article at Hindawi Publishing: https://doi.org/10.1155/1941/91396
CEC's scan of this article: http://psyche.entclub.org/pdf/48/48-010.pdf, 484K
This landing page: http://psyche.entclub.org/48/48-010.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted automatically from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

Psyche
[March
WEST INDIAN CARABIDB VI.
THE JAMAICAN SPECIES, AND THEIR WINGS
Museum of Comparative Zoology
This paper is the sixth of my series on the carabid beetles of the West Indies. It is the first comprehensive treatment of the Carabidse of Jamaica. All known Jamaican species (80) are listed taxonomically, and the list is annotated with data on the insects' wings and flight. At the end of the list, the distribution of flying and flightless species in Jamaica is summarized and discussed. The facts here put on record concerning the atrophy of wings of certain species in the mountains of Jamaica will be referred to again in a paper which I have in manuscript, on the wings of Cara- bid2 of mountains and islands.
The Museum of Comparative Zoology possesses a good representation of Jamaican Carabidse collected by Mr. A. E. Wight, Prof. C. T. Brues, Mr. Chester Roys, and myself, and by some other persons. Besides this, I have had for study as a loan from the United States National Museum about 320 specimens of Carabidas collected in Jamaica by Dr. E. A. Chapin and Dr. R. E. Blackwelder during the winter of 1937. This borrowed collection really provided the stimulus which has called forth the present paper. It adds several genera and species to the Jamaican list, and contains also numerous specimens taken "flying at dusk" in nets attached to automobiles. Records of species taken actually in flight are unusual, and are very interesting in connection with my studies of Carabid wings. Species included in the following list without exact locality data are known in Jamaica only from the lowlands, below 1,000 ft. altitude, or are known merely from "Jamaica," presumably from low altitudes. Species noted as "winged" have the inner wings fully developed and apparently fitted for flight in one or more Jamaican speci- mens.
Pswhe 48:10.15 (1941). hup//psycheeiHclubo~/4gM8-010 html



================================================================================

19411 West Indian Carabidse VI 11
LIST OF THE CARABIDB OF JAMAICA
Calosoma alternans alternans (Fab.) . Winged. Pachyteles sp. Blue Mt. Peak, Dec. 13, 1890 (unique in M. C. Z.; collector unknown). This specimen has been submitted to Mr. M. Banninger, who is not yet ready to describe it.
Flightless ; wings vestigial.
Distichus granulipygus Bts. Winged.
Clivina dentipes Dej. Winged.
Clivma insularis (J.-D.). Winged.
CZivina biguttutu Putz. Winged.
Oxydrepanus rufus (Putz. ) . Winged ; "flying at dusk" (Chapin & Blackwelder).
Schizogenius arirnao Darl. Winged.
Bembidion jumaicense Darl. Slopes of Blue Mts. up to about 4,500 ft., along streams. Winged.
Bembidion darlingtoni Mutch. Winged.
Bembidion sparsum (Bts.) . Winged ; flies actively. Bembidion chevrolati (G. & H.) . Winged. Be3rn bidion f astidiosum (Laf. ) . Winged. Pericompsus blandulus Schm. Winged.
Tachys occultator Csy. (provisional det.) . Winged. Tachys brudycellinus Hayw. Winged.
Tachys carib Darl. In Jamaica, from near sea level to about 4,500 ft. altitude, by streams. Winged ; "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Tachys abruptus Darl. In Jamaica, from sea level to about 4,500 ft. altitude, usually by streams. Winged. Tachys trechulus Darl. Known only from the types from Blue Mt. Forest Reserve, 5,000-7,000 ft., under deeply buried stones in damp cloudforest, not by streams. Flightless, wings vestigial.
Tachys filax Darl. Winged ; "flying at dusk" (C. & B.) . Tachys pumilus (Dej.) . Winged.
Tachys striax Darl. Winged; "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Tackys cubax Darl. Winged; "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Tachys vorax Lee. Winged.
Tachys proximus (Say). A single in the Chapin and Blackwelder collection is the first specimen of this North American species to be found in the West Indies. Winged.




================================================================================

Psyche [March
Tachys scitulm Lee. Winged.
Tachys (near) corruscus Lee. Winged ; "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Limnastis capito Bts. Winged; "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Micratopus insularis Darl. Winged.
Perileytus jeanneli Darl.
Near sea level to 4,500 ft.,
by swift streams. Winged; "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Perileptus rninutus Darl. Winged.
Panagasus quadrisignatus Chev. Winged.
Morion georgise (Beauv.) . Winged.
Morion costigerus Darl.
Known only from Cinchona
in the Blue Mts., at about 5,000 ft. altitude, in rotten wood and under loose bark of dead trees. Flight-
less, wings vestigial.
Agonum extensicolle cubanurn Darl. Winged. Colpodes. This is the principal genus of mountain- inhabiting Carabidse in the West Indies: 50 species have been found in the Greater Antilles, almost all at considerable altitudes. A few of the species are winged, but the majority are flightless, with atro- phied wings. Wing atrophy has evidently occurred independently in several different Antillean stocks of the genus.
Colpodes cinchonas Darl.
Known only from localities
in the Blue Mts., at and above 5,000 ft., under vari- ous cover in damp forest. Wings vestigial. Colpodes faber Darl. Known only from Blue Mt. Forest Reserve, 5,000-6,000 ft., under cover in wet forest, but (like most other Colpodes) not by open water. Wings vestigial, elytra ankylosed.
Colpodes vugepunctatus Darl.
Known definitely only
from Newton, 3,000 ft. Flightless, wings reduced. Colpodes macer Darl. Known from Mandeville (prob- ably mountains near), and from Cinchona in the Blue Mts., 5,000 ft. altitude. Wings vestigial. Colpodes subovalis Darl.
Known only from Blue Mt.
Forest Reserve, about 5,000 ft., in rotten logs and piles of dead vegetation in damp forest. Flightless, wings reduced.




================================================================================

19411 West Indian Carabidse VI 13
Colpodes bromeliarum Darl. From near Bath and Portland, at 300 and 1,000 ft. altitude, in epiphytic bromeliads. Winged.
Colpodes roysi Darl. Near Bath, in an epiphytic brome- liad. Winged.
Colpodes punctus Darl. Known only from Cinchona in the Blue Mts., at 5,000 ft.; habits unknown, but rela- tionship to two preceding species suggests life in epiphytes.l Winged.
Colpodes bruesi Darl. Known only from Newton, 3,000 ft.; also a member of the bromeliarum group. Winged.
Colpodes sp. (Van Emden MS). Known only from Hartham ; apparently another bromeliad species, the most highly specialized in structure of the group. Apparently winged (I have seen a specimen of this species, but did not examine the wings). Colpodes sequinoci5alis (Chd.).
In Jamaica, on slopes
of the Blue Mts. below 4,500 ft., along large streams. Winged.
Colpodes latelgtra Darl.
Known from a unique from
Portland Gap, Blue Mt. Forest Reserve, 5,000 ft., from a pile of recently cut grass; the species may be arboreal. Winged.
Lachnophorus leucopterus Chev. Lowlands and slopes of Blue Mts. below 4,500 ft., by streams, Winged, flies actively.
Anchonoderus subtilis Bts. Winged, flies actively. Euphorticus pubescens (Dej.) . Winged.
Perigona niariceps (Dej. ) . Winged, "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Chiasmus jamah Darl. Winged.
Stenous duodecimstriatus (Chev.) . Winged. Stenous tibialis ( Chev. ) . Winged.
Selenophorus fiavilabris fiavilabris Dej . Winged. Selenophorus chalybeus Dej. Winged.
Selenophorus alternans Dej. Winged.
1Since this was written, I have seen specimns of punctus in the Philadelphia Academy, collected by Mr. J. A. G. Rehn, definitely "from epiphytic bromeliads", "in mountain forest" at 4,980 and 5,600 ft. in the Blue Mts.




================================================================================

Psyche
[March
Selenop horus sinuatus ( Gyll. ) . Winged. Selenophorus discopunctatus Dej. Winged. Selenophorus puncticollis Putz. Winged.
Selenophorus aeneocupreus Dej. Winged.
Selenophorus nonseriatus Darl. Winged.
Bradycellus cubanus Darl. Winged.
Brad~cellus velatus Darl. Winged.
Acupalpus (Stenolophus) och~opezus (Say). Winged, "flying at dusk" (C. & B.).
Masoreus brevicillus Chev. Winged.
Le bia bitaeniata Chev. Winged.
Lebia cyanea Dej. Winged.
Lebia abdominalis Chd. Winged.
Microlestes poeyi (J.-D.) .
The single Jamaican speci-
men I have seen is winged, but poeyi has dimorphic wings in Cuba.
Apenes marginalis ( De j . ) .
Winged.
Apenes coriacea (Chev.) . Winged.
Apenes parallela (Dej .) .
Winged.
Apenes aptera Darl. Known only from Blue Mts., 5,000-7,000 ft., under stones in damp forest. Wings vestigial.
Pentagonica flavipes picipes Darl. Winged. Colliuris tetrastigma Chd. Winged ; related species fly actively.
Colliuris limbatus (Waterh.).
This is the only species
of Carabidse recorded from Jamaica which is un- known to me. It is probably related to C. picta (Chd.) , and is probably winged.
Pseudaptinus apicalis Darl. Winged.
Pseudaptinus insularis Mutch. Winged.
Pseudaptinus dorsalis (Brull6) . Winged. Of the 80 species of Carabidse listed from Jamaica, some 63 occur in the lowlands, below 1,000 ft. altitude. All of these 63 species, in all the diverse lowland habitats, are winged. Some of them are known to fly well, and it is likely that all, or almost all, fly occasionally. The middle slopes of the Jamaican mountains, above 1,000 and below 5,000 ft., have not yet been very thoroughly eol- lected for beetles, but a certain number of Carabidse have been found there. Most are winged. Half a dozen or so winged riparian species follow the mountain brooks up to an alti-



================================================================================

19411 West Indian Carabidas VI 15
tude of about 4,500 ft., which is about as high as there are brooks in the Jamaican mountains. Some of the same species occur also along lowland streams; others are con- fined to the banks of the mountain torrents. Two or more winged Colpodes of the bromeHarum group occur on the mountain slopes, and probably live between the leaf bases of broad-leaved, pineapple-like bromeliads, in trees. And other winged Carabidse, some of them lowland species but others perhaps peculiar, are to be expected in proper habi- tats on the lower and middle mountain slopes. With increasing altitude, a few flightless Carabidse, with reduced or vestigial wings, begin to appear among the winged ones, and from the 5,000 ft. level to the highest summit (7,388 ft.) flightless species predominate. Ten species of Carabidse have been found at or above 5,000 ft. in the Jamaican mountains. Only 2 of the these species, both perhaps arboreal, have fully developed wings. The other 8 species have reduced or vestigial wings, and are flightless. They live chiefly or entirely on the ground in damp cloudf orest.
Of course, there is still much to be learned about the de- tails of distribution of Carabidse in Jamaica, but the main pattern is already very clear. In the lowlands, there is a rather numerous and diverse fauna of Carabidse, all winged. On the middle slopes of the mountains, there is a smaller, mixed, transition fauna. And at highest altitudes there is a small fauna which is predominantly flightless. Similar conditions are found throughout the Greater Antilles (cf. Darlington, Memorias de la Sociedad Cubana de Historic, Natural 13, 1939, pp. 79-80). Throughout the lowlands of each island are found numerous and diverse Carabidse, all or nearly all of which are winged. But wher- ever mountains rise above 5,000 ft. a few endemic, alti- coline, flightless species occur, most of them apparently derived in situ, independently on the different mountain tops, from winged ancestors.
This is not an accidental phenomenon. It appears to be the result of the action of powerful environmental forces. But it is difficult to say just what the forces are, for they are complex as well as powerful. I shall try to deal with them in another paper.




================================================================================