Boyane, Swapnil S. and Sen, Sandeep and Dharma Rajan, Priyadarsanan and Thunga, Pavan Kumar and Josh, Nikhil U. and Ghate, Hemant V. (2024) Integrative taxonomy of the genus Coridius Illiger, 1807 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Dinidoridae) reveals hidden diversity and three new species from North-East India. PLoS ONE, 19 (7): e0298176.

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Abstract

The genus Coridius Illiger, 1807 (Heteroptera: Dinidoridae) comprises a group of phytophagous terrestrial bugs consisting of 36 species distributed in the Afrotropical and Indo-Malayan regions. In several communities in northeastern India, insects are recognised as a delicacy, medicine, and a nutritional supplement, with Coridius being a popular delicacy. However, Coridius has received little taxonomic attention to date due to large intraspecific variations, inadequate taxonomic treatments, and the rarity of many species. To address this gap, an integrative taxonomy of the genus was performed. Two mitochondrial genes, viz., cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and 16S rRNA, were sequenced to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships within Coridius. We performed both maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) to develop a species tree, followed by the Bayesian implementation of the Poisson tree process (bPTP) and Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP) as an additional test to assess species boundaries and delimit operational taxonomic units. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of four key morphological characters was then performed to identify species groups. Overall, our analysis supported the establishment of three new species: Coridius adii sp. nov., Coridius esculentus sp. nov., and Coridius insperatus sp. nov., and revealed six distinct lineages within Coridius chinensis (Dallas, 1851). Linear discriminant analysis of morphological characters indicated the clustering of eight species. The species status of Coridius nigriventris (Westwood, 1837) stat. rev, formerly synonymized under Coridius nepalensis (Westwood, 1837), is reinstated in this study. Further, we revised the genus Coridius from India and rediscovered Coridius assamensis (Distant, 1902) and Coridius fuscus (Westwood, 1837) after 100 years.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Copyright of this article belongs to Boyane et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Subjects: A ATREE Publications > G Journal Papers
Divisions: SM Sehgal Foundation Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation > Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation Planning
Depositing User: Ms Library Staff
Date Deposited: 11 Dec 2025 08:38
Last Modified: 11 Dec 2025 08:38
URI: http://archives.atree.org/id/eprint/1303

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