Aenictoteratini
Aenictoteratini
Tribe of beetles
Aenictoteratini is a myrmecophilous tribe of rove beetles in the subfamily Aleocharinae which contains 10 genera, 7 of which are monotypic.[1] In total, there are 17 species currently listed as Aenictoteratini.[1]
| Aenictoteratini | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Staphylinidae |
| Subfamily: | Aleocharinae |
| Tribe: | Aenictoteratini Kistner, 1993 |
| Genera | |
| |
| Synonyms | |
|
Aenictobiini | |
Most Aenictoteratini genera are found in East Asia, specifically China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, while Weiria australis (Ashe, 2003) is the only species known from Australia.[2] All species are found inside of nests of the ant genus Aenictus.[3]
Members of this tribe are highly adapted to life among ants, with body shapes resembling those of their hosts.[3]
Many genera placed in Aenictoteratini when the tribe was created in 1993 have subsequently been moved to the Myrmedoniina, a subtribe of Lomechusini, after phylogenetic analyses revealed that the group was not monophyletic.[3][2][4] Many of the characteristics first used to define the tribe, such as an antlike "pseudo-gaster" narrowed abdomen, can be found in other lineages of myrmecophilous Aleocharinae that resemble ants, making this a case of convergent evolution.[3][2][4]
- Orlov, Igor; Newton, Alfred F.; Solodovnikov, Alexey (November 8, 2021). "Phylogenetic review of the tribal system of Aleocharinae, a mega‐lineage of terrestrial arthropods in need of reclassification". Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 59 (8): 1903–1938. doi:10.1111/jzs.12524. S2CID 239071401.
- Maruyama, Munetoshi; Parker, Joseph (March 2017). "Deep-Time Convergence in Rove Beetle Symbionts of Army Ants". Current Biology. 27 (6): 920–926. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.030. PMID 28285995. S2CID 3982685. Retrieved 10 May 2023.