Coleoptera

Fikáček, Martin, Skuhrovec, Jiří, Šípek, Petr & Fikáček, for abstracts see, 2010, Abstracts of the Immature Beetles Meeting 2009, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 50 (1), pp. 321-340 : 324-325

The Immature Coleoptera Collection of the “Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo ” Brazil

Cleide COSTA

Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal 42.494, Cep 04218-970, São Paulo, SP, Brasil ; e-mail: [e-mail]

Although C. Costa has been studying the biology of the immature beetles since 1966, the increase of the Coleoptera Immature Collection of the “Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo ” has been more intensive with the collaboration of S. A. Vanin since 1977, when a long term project was elaborated to collect and rear immature beetles. Then it was necessary to include in the project the installation of a laboratory with the entire necessary infrastructure to rear larvae. In this way that collection has grown steadily ever since, also counting on the expressive assistance of S. A. Casari and S. Ide in the years that followed. Financial research support to this project was provided by “Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)” and “Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)”.

For about the last thirty years, we have made over 80 scientific expeditions to collect larvae mainly in the Atlantic Forest and “Cerrado” vegetation in Central Brazil. Part of the Amazon Forest and the “Restingas” areas of the South Coast of “ São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul ” have also been visited. The specimens come chiefly from the following regions: Pará: Belém ; Distrito Federal: Brasília; Mato Grosso: Cuiabá (Chapada dos Guimarães) ; Mato Grosso do Sul: Costa Rica; Goiás: Mineiros (Parque Nacional das Emas) ; Minas Gerais: Santa Bárbara ( Serra do Caraça ) ; Rio de Janeiro : Nova Friburgo ; São Paulo: Araras, Campinas, Campos do Jordão , Guapiara , Guarujá , Itanhaém , Paranapiacaba , Peruíbe, Salesópolis ( Estação Biológica de Boracéia ), São Paulo ; Paraná: Curitiba; Rio Grande do Sul: Pelotas, Rio Grande .

The methodology included the collection of larvae and of living adults for correlating immature and adults, and identifying the species. Sometimes, depending on the species, the correlation larva / adult was made on the spot and then both were fixed in an appropriate way. In other cases, depending on the larval instars, it was necessary to maintain them in the laboratory for not longer than two years. When we had a great larvae series of the same species and the laboratory rearing had been successful, it was possible to obtain and preserve larva, pupa and adult. Being the number of larvae small, we generally photographed the pupa and preserved the larva and the adult. If there was a single larva, the pupa was photographed, the larva and pupa exuviae were preserved and the adult was obtained. Consequently, a collection of about 18,521 larvae, 3,159 pupae and 17,480 adults was assembled: a collection in which the majority of immatures were correlated to the adults by means of their rearing.

So far, 27 scientific articles dealing with the specimens of that collection have been published in a series entitled “Larvae of Netropical Coleoptera ”. 19 more articles, including large revisions and a book on the “ Larvas de Coleoptera do Brasil ” have been produced.

The collection is maintained in flasks of glass of several sizes and preserved in ethanol 70%. Now it is zipped in 6 steel cabinets and in 145 steel lidless drawers. Most of the adults are conditioned together with the immature reared in the laboratory; part of them is mounted dried and kept in separate cabinets. It is the unique collection among its congeners in the world that includes material almost exclusively reared in laboratory (COSTA 1999).

In 1992 the use of the immature collection was made available after the creation of a database using “Access for Windows” that allows the input of the generated data, then making it easier to retrieve collection and to simplify the entering or deletion to information. Four linked files and their respective indexes form that database. The file Imat-col, the main one, contains information such as: number of the sample, localization of the sample in the collection, collection locality (coded), classification (coded) up to species level, data on sample movement (donations, exchanges, loans), description of the sample, generated publications, etc. There are files linked to it such as: Imat-loc, with data of the collection locality and collectors; Imat-cla, with the classification of the Coleoptera (LAWRENCE & NEWTON 1995) , structured in such a way that periodic upgrades are allowed; and, Imat-cri, with relating data to the breeding of the material in the laboratory.

Coleoptera is the richest and the most diversified order among Insecta with ca. of 25,000 genera and 350,000 species, corresponding to 40% of the total insects and 30% of the animals. Large part of that contingent are found in the tropical regions and especially in the Neotropical Region considered the biggest repository of the biodiversity in the planet. About 7,000 genera and 80,000 species are known to come from the latter and among them approximately 5,000 genera and 30,000 species are from Brazil. These figures show how incipient is the knowledge of the diversity of that group, and how enormous is the task of the coleopterists in general, especially those in Latin America.

The complete metamorphosis is considered one of the causes of the great diversity of the holometabolan insects; but in the Coleoptera , the presence of the elytra contributes to its adaptation practically to both terrestrial and fresh water habitats.

Fauna diversity is better understood from bionomics and systematic studies that favor more precise knowledge of the ecological, morphological adaptations, inter-specific associations, etc., besides offering basic information to the phylogenetic studies of the groups. The larvae and adults of Coleoptera possess independent adaptations that reflect a more complex evolution in some way. Systematic and cladistic analysis that involves characters of larvae and adults could offer a wider vision of the evolutionary process.

COSTA C. 1999: Coleoptera , cap.12. In: BRANDÃO C. R. F. & CANCELLO E.M. (eds.): Invertebrados terrestres, vol. 5. In: JOLY C. A. & BICUDO C. E. DE M. (orgs.): Biodiversidade do Estado de São Paulo, Brasil: síntese do conhecimento ao final do século XX. Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo –FAPESP, São Paulo, pp. 113–122.

LAWRENCE J. F. & NEWTON A. F. Jr. 1995: Families and subfamilies of Coleoptera (with selected genera, notes, references and data on family–group names). In: PAKALUK J. & ŚLIPIŃSKI S. A. (eds.): Biology, phylogeny, and classification of Coleoptera : papers celebrating the 80th birthday of Roy A. Crowson. Vol. 2. Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii, PAN, Warszawa, pp. 779–1092.