Taxonomic Study Of The Genus Lobrathium From China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Paederinae)

Lobrathium belongs to the subfamily Paederine subtribe Lathrobiina, familyStaphylinidae of the order Coleoptera. It was established by Mulsant&Rey in1878,with type species Lathrobium multipunctum Gravenhorst1802. They are medium tolarge in size, morphologically similar predators commonly found in forest andfarmland ecosystems. They are believed to act as an essential link in food chain andfood web, and have significant importance of ecological equilibrium.Before this study, the genus Lobrathium is represented in the Palaerctic region by120species,49of them were recorded from China (30species from mainland Chinaand20from Taiwan, with Lobrathium hongkongense distributed both in mainlandChina and Taiwan). The faunas of the genus in China have been poorly studied. Thisis mostly caused by the followings factors:1) Type material of many known speciesdescribed by foreign workers, are housed in respective foreign museums.2) Propersamplings using modern techniques have never been conducted in many biodiversityhotspots in China, the true diversity of the China is significantly greater than currentlyknown. Therefore, a large-scale investigation and a through taxonomic study on theChinese species of Lobrathium is necessary and in urgent need.During the present study, based on the examination of the over400specimensand the related references results indicated: there’re22species recognized,9of whichwere descirbed as new and published in2013: Lobrathium anatinum Li&Li(Guangxi)，L. diaoluoense Li&Li (Hainan)，L. dufui Li&Li (Hubei)，L. lirunyuiLi&Li (Guizhou), L. pengi Li&Li (Guangxi)，L. quyuani Li&Li (Hubei)，L.uncinatum Li&Li (Qinghai). Allspecies are described in detail, their diagnosticcharacters are illustrated. Key to species of the genus from the mainland China isprovided. Catalog of the Chinese species of the Lobrathium is also presented. Adatabase containing the taxonomic information for all known species in China is built.