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Mecodema crenicolle
Species of beetle From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mecodema crenicolle is an endemic species of ground beetle from New Zealand.
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Taxonomy
This species was described by François-Louis Laporte de Castelnau, a French naturalist in 1867. The type specimen is in the Genoa Museum, Italy.[2]
Description
Mecodema crenicolle is a medium-large ground beetle with a length of 22–29 mm. As a member of the ducale group of Mecodema species, the pronotum carina is strongly crenulated and outer striae are coarsely punctured with star-shaped asetose punctures. These punctures are irregularly placed and deeper in the outer striae. A distinguishing character of M. crenicolle from its sister species, M. crenaticolle[3] is that the punctures in elytral stria 7 are larger than stria 8 and cannot be distinguished at the base of the elytra.[2]
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Habitat and ecology
M. crenicolle is a burrowing ground beetle that lives in native forests, pine plantations and pastures. Their elevational distribution ranges from lowland to mountainous forests.[4] Like all Mecodema species, M. crenicolle is flightless and a predator of other invertebrates.[4]
Distribution
This species is only found in the in Marlborough, Nelson and the Brunner District in the South Island.[4][2] North Island specimens are all M. crenaticolle as per Seldon & Buckley (2019).
References
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