A new species of Petalacmis firefly from Bolivia, with a key to species (Coleoptera, Lampyridae).

Petalacmis Olivier, 1908 is a poorly known genus of firefly endemic to South America and is currently the only member of the subfamily Lampyrinae, tribe Lampyrini known to occur on the continent. Here, we describe a new species, Petalacmistriplehorni sp. nov. from Bolivia and compare it to the two other described species in the genus. A key to Petalacmis species based on male traits, as well as illustrations of morphological features, are given in detail for the first time. We present unique, previously neglected traits of Petalacmis species and compare them to other Lampyrinae.

A catalog of the Lampyridae (Coleoptera) of the West Indies.

The West Indies represents one of the world's hotspots for beetles in the family Lampyridae and includes many endemic taxa. Nine out of 19 genera and 181 out of 186 species of the currently described firefly taxa present in the West Indies are endemic to the region. The objective of this catalog and bibliography is to generate an exhaustive list of firefly taxa present in the West Indies. A short discussion of previous efforts to catalog this fauna is presented, and all published distribution data is herein synthesized. This catalog serves as a starting point for systematic and taxonomic research on the fireflies of this region and provides a full bibliography for each species. The following species were deemed subspecific and unavailable: Callopisma rufa var. humeralis E. Olivier, Lucidota fulvotincta var. flavicollis Mutchler, and Robopus magnus var. turquino (Mutchler).

Description of life cycle and preimaginal stages of Alecton discoidalis Laporte, 1833 (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) under laboratory conditions.

Alecton discoidalis Laporte, 1833 is the most widespread species of the only firefly genus endemic to Cuba. It is commonly found in limestone landscapes across the western half of the country. Larvae of A. discoidalis were collected at Pan de Matanzas and reared through the adult stage under laboratory conditions. Larvae were fed mainly terrestrial snails from the families Potamiidae and Helicinidae. Alecton discoidalis underwent between four and eight larval instars. Females had more larval instars than males likely due to the need to gain more body mass for egg production. Eggs, larvae and pupae are described and illustrated, with emphasis on general body shape, as well as details of the larval head, antennae and mouthparts. Alecton discoidalis females are both brachypterous and physogastric.