Alyculus Kasantsev, 1999

Takahashi, Naoki, Bocak, Ladislav & Abd, Idris, 2016, Discovery of a new species of the brachyelytrous net-winged beetle genus Alyculus (Coleoptera: Lycidae) from Peninsular Malaysia, Zootaxa 4144 (1), pp. 145-150 : 146

Alyculus Kasantsev, 1999

Alyculus Kasantsev, 1999: 252 .

Diagnosis. Body length 1–3 mm; antennae 11–segmented; mouthparts with reduced mandibles; pronotum strongly transverse and widest at posterior margin with laterally prominent hind angles; scutellum bifurcate at apex, each distal process curved laterad; elytra abbreviated; hind wings fully developed, exposed and only longitudinally folded; aedeagus with slender phallus, parameres widest in basal part and about as long as phallus.

Distribution. Southeast Asia: Sunda Shelf Islands (Borneo, Java, Sumatra) and the Malay Peninsula.

Remarks. Alyculus is the only net-winged beetle with abbreviated elytra occurring in the Oriental Region. Females are unknown despite quite a high number of specimens collected in recent years. Due to its morphological similarity to other lyropaeine beetles with unknown females ( Antennolycus Bocáková & Bocák, 1999 , Skrivania Bocáková & Bocák, 1999, Microlyropaeus Pic, 1929 , etc.) and inferred relationships in molecular analyses ( Bocakova et al. 2007; Bocak et al. 2008), we suggest that Alyculus females are also larviform when sexually mature.