Crowsoniella Explained

Crowsoniella is a genus of beetles in the order Archostemata. It contains only a single species, Crowsoniella relicta, and is the only member of the monotypic family Crowsoniellidae. It is known only from three male specimens collected in 1973 in the Lepini mountains of central Italy by Roberto Pace. In a degraded pasture, the beetles were found among the roots of a large hawthorn tree, in deep calcareous soil.^[1] No other specimens have been found since.^[2]

At only in length, this species is comparatively small for this suborder. They also feature several unusual morphological features such as missing alae, modified and reduced mouth parts, and smooth elytra (lacking window punctures characteristic of this suborder). Nothing is known about this species' biology.^[3] Some authors have proposed a close relationship to Micromalthidae.

Notes and References

1. Pace . R. . 1975 . An exceptional endogeous beetle: Crowsoniella relicta n. gen. n. sp. of Archostemata Tetraphaleridae from central Italy . Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona . 2 . 445–458.
2. Li . Yan-Da . Liu . Zhen-Hua . Jarzembowski . Edmund A. . Yin . Zi-Wei . Huang . Di-Ying . Cai . Chen-Yang . October 2019 . Early evolution of Cupedidae revealed by a mid-Cretaceous reticulated beetle from Myanmar (Coleoptera: Archostemata) . Systematic Entomology . en . 44 . 4 . 777–786 . 10.1111/syen.12355 . 2019SysEn..44..777L . 202852115 . 0307-6970.
3. 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2009.00476.x. The species-level phylogeny of archostematan beetles-where do Micromalthus debilis and Crowsoniella relicta belong?. 2009. Hörnschemeyer. Thomas. Systematic Entomology. 34. 3. 533–558. 2009SysEn..34..533H . 84795808 .