Nymphister kronaueri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nymphister kronaueri | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Staphyliniformia |
| Family: | Histeridae |
| Genus: | Nymphister |
| Species: | N. kronaueri |
| Binomial name | |
| Nymphister kronaueri von Beeren & Tishechkin 2017 | |
Nymphister kronaueri is a species of histerid beetle native to Costa Rica. It was first discovered in 2014.[1] The discovery of the beetle received much media attention due to its unusual habit of hitchhiking on army ants.[2][3] It was formally described in 2017.[4]
The beetle was discovered by biologists Christoph von Beeren and Daniel Kronauer whilst investigating the relationships between army ants of the genus Eciton and their diverse fauna of symbionts in Costa Rica.[4][5] Alexey Tishechkin, together with Christoph von Beeren, named the new species after their colleague Daniel Kronauer, honoring his many discoveries in army ant research.[4]
Taxonomy
von Beeren and Tishechkin used DNA barcoding as well as the identification of morphological features to conclude that the new species is situated in the genus Nymphister, which previously contained only three other species N. monotonus, N. rettenmeyeri, and N. simplicissimus.[4] Nymphister is a genus in the histerid subfamily Haeteriinae, whose members are often associated with ants or termites.[6] These myrmecophiles or termitophiles often steal food from host colonies or even consume social insect brood.
