A Taxonomic Study On The Genus Ischnosoma And The Genus Lordithon Of China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Tachyporinae)

Staphylinidae is one of the largest family in Coleoptera, they occupy a wide variety of habitats and have a wide range of food-habits. They are essentially carnivorous (insect feeder), but some groups have become evolved as mycophagous, coprophagous, coprophagous, carpophagous, pollinophagous and so on. Some species have adapted to a parasitism of mammals. Their prosperity is inevitably causing direct interaction between them and mankind.The genus Ischnosoma belonging to the subfamily Tachyporinae of family Staphylinidae was established by Stephens (1829). Thomson(1859) designated Tachinus splendidus Gravenhorst (1806) as the type species for the genus. They are distributed in all continents excepts for the South America. Up to the present, 97 species of the genus have been known from the world and 17 from China ( 2 in Taiwan and 3 in both Mainland and Taiwan). (Kocian, 2003).The genus Lordithon belonging to the subfamily Tachyporinae of family Staphylinidae was established by Thomson in 1859. The type species is Oxyporus pygmaeus Fabricius. Up to the present, at least 134 species of the genus have been known from the world and 9 from China, 3 in Taiwan (Hermen L H, 2001).In China, however, taxonomic study on this two genus is relatively behind and only some of scholars separately studied on this field. Up to the present, systematic works concerning Chinese Ischnosoma and Lordithon has not been made, most of the Chinese known species were described by foreign scholars and the type specimens were deposited in foreign countries. For these reasons, it became difficulty for us to study Chinese Ischnosoma and Lordithon fauna.This study was based on the examinations of over 620 specimens, which were collected from a lot of places in China such as Xizang, Jilin, Shannxi, Sichuan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Guizhou and so on. The results of my research is summarized as follows:This paper was the first systematic study of the genus Ischnosoma and Lordithon of China. In the present paper, 16 Chinese species of genus Ischnosoma and 15 Chinese species of genus Lordithon were recognized, of which 1 species of Ischnosoma and 9 of Lordithon were described as new to science, 3 species of Lordithon were new to China, 1 species of Ischnosoma were new to China Mainland.All the species were described in detail, and their sexual characters were illustrated. The color photos for every species were also provided. The history review, collecting techniques, and major diagnostic characters of the two genus were discussed.The keys to the subgenera and the species of the genus were presented.A catalog of the genus Ischnosoma and Lordithon of the world was given.A database of all the known species of the genus Ischnosoma and Lordithon in the world was...