Organisms
Research Projects	Research Group	Organisms	Collection	DNA Labs
Cholevid scavenging beetles Four new species of Ptomaphaginus from Borneo. Scale line is 1 mm. The Cholevidae (formerly known as Catopidae, and often considered a subfamily of the Leiodidae) form a relatively small family of scavenging beetles, with a world total of described species of c. 1,300. Thus, they are a small family by coleopteran standards, and they are also obscure in appearance and their way of life. Nevertheless, they have always attracted considerably attention from entomologists on account of their tendency to inhabit subterranean habitats and their consequent morphological adaptations (the most extremely-formed cave insects belong to this family and they are also among the insects that routinely inhabit bird and mammal nests and burrows). My own work on Cholevidae is limited to taxonomic and faunistic notes on the Dutch species, the description of a few new Ptomaphaginus species from Southeast Asia, and a revision of the Palearctic species complex Choleva agilis s.l. Related web sites: Taxonomic diagnosis of the Leiodidae by Lawrence et al.