DOI: 10.15468/pw54y6
title: Arboreal Beetles Of Neotropical Forests: Agra Fabricius, Larval Descriptions With Notes On Natural History And Behaviour (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiini, Agrina)

description: This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Arndt, Erik, Kirmse, Susan, Erwin, Terry L. (2001): Arboreal Beetles Of Neotropical Forests: Agra Fabricius, Larval Descriptions With Notes On Natural History And Behaviour (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiini, Agrina). The Coleopterists Bulletin 55 (3): 297-311, DOI: 10.1649/0010-065X(2001)055[0297:ABONFA]2.0.CO;2, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1649/0010-065x(2001)055[0297:abonfa]2.0.co;2AbstractUsing a mobile crane system covering a canopy area of about 1.4 ha in a rain forest in southern Venezuela, adults of several species of Agra Fabricius were observed and captured. Adults of 17 species were kept in the laboratory. Movements and foraging behaviour in the forest canopy and in the laboratory are reported. Larvae of four Agra species are described. Larvae of all four species are highly modified. Short antennae, multiple setae FR8/9, elongate head capsule with enlarged frontale, trochanter and femoral spines or spin­like tubercles, absence of a lacinia, markedly long, multisetose and multisegmented urogomphi, a pygopod with two groups of hooks, as well as bifid­toothed tarsal claws are larval apomorphies of Agra. The enlarged pulvillus is shared with larvae of other genera in Lebiini that are regarded as related to Agra based on adult characters. Amongst themselves studied larvae show a number of differences. The larva of the Agra cajennensis ­group has small abdominal egg bursters on terga I–VIII that were previously known only from coleopteran suborder Polyphaga; these are not present in the other first instars studied. From larval attributes, it is hypothesized that Agra larvae live under bark and are predatory.Tropical rain forest canopies are‘ ‘the last biotic frontier’’ (Erwin 1983). These biomes are extremely complex. Their ecological connections are poorly known beginning with their still very incompletely known faunas. Beetles of the family Carabidae represent one of the better­examined insect groups in rain forests; even so, there remain thousands of unnamed species. There are numerous arboreal ground beetle genera known which include high numbers of species, but often are represented by single specimens and many of those lack data regarding ecology and life history.One of these mysterious ground beetle taxa is the genus Agra Fabricius described in 1801, thus knowledge of the life cycle comes some 200 years after discovery of the adults. Agra species are restricted to the Neotropical Region and subtropical edges of the Nearctic and Neoaustral Regions. One described and two undescribed species occur northwards as far as the southern United States in Texas. There are 567 Agra species validly described in total, but more than 1500 more are in museums, yet to be described (Erwin: http:// entomology.si.edu: 591/entomology/carabids/search.html). Recent collections made with the insecticidal fogging technique indicate that many more species remain yet to be discovered. Agra individuals are strictly arboreal and collecting them seems to be mostly possible at light or with fogging techniques. Erwin (1979) and Erwin and Pogue (1988) demonstrated many arboreal adaptations, thus classifying Agra species as‘ ‘leaf running.’’ They assumed that Agra species occupy their habitat in a very fine­grained way that allows a high number of species to co­exist in a diverse forest. Details about their natural history are not known or have yet to be published; what is known is summarized by Erwin (1978 a), who supposed that Agra adults might be snail predators because of the labial palpi resembling those of the snail­eating Cychrini. However, evidence of their foraging behaviour has not yet been published.One of us (SK) observed several species of Agra in their natural habitat using canopy crane facilities in southern Venezuela. One aim of this paper is to report the ecological, behavioural and larval morphological data of two species representing different species groups of Agra observed, and secondly to present information on larvae of two additional Agra species from the western Amazon Basin collected by Erwin. This is a first attempt to understand the life history of these extraordinary insects that Erwin (1978a) called the‘ ‘top predators among beetles in term of size’’ in rain forest canopies.