Los Carabidae (Coleoptera) del Altiplano de los Andes del Perú

Abstract

In the current work, the fauna composition of the Carabidae family is studied in the Peruvian Altiplano (Andes of southern Peru), a region of fauna very little known before. The field work was carried out between 2009 and 2019, at altitudes between 3.299 and 5.231 m. Altogether this has meant the study of 26.902 specimens of Carabidae. An extensive bibliographic review has been carried out and the previously published citations of the species located in the Peruvian Altiplano have been located; as well as the known data about the ecology of these species. The report includes new data on the ecology, morphology and distribution of 63 species, being the subfamilies with the highest number of species present: Trechinae, Platynae and Pterostichinae. Among the results obtained in this work, the description of nine new species for Science stands out: Trechisibus apukhapiensis Ruiz-Tapiador y Delgado, 2016; Trechisibus delestali Delgado and Ruiz-Tapiador, 2016; Oxytrechus juani Delgado and Ruiz-Tapiador, 2019; Oxytrechus alexei Delgado and Ruiz-Tapiador, 2019; Pelmatellus amicorum Delgado and Ruiz-Tapiador, 2020; Trechisibus bravoi Delgado and Ruiz Tapiador, 2020; Trechisibus elisae Delgado and Ruiz-Tapiador, 2020; Trechisibus silviae Delgado and Ruiz-Tapiador, 2020 and Trechisibus jorgeluisi Delgado and Ruiz-Tapiador, 2020. 12 species are also cited for the first time for Peru and the distribution limits of 38 species are modified. In addition, it should be noted that the endemic species of the Peruvian Altiplano constitute 98% of the carabidological fauna. As a consequence of the biogeographic analysis carried out, it is concluded that the predominant influence on the fauna as a whole is the tempered component, made up of the austral-antarctic and temperate pan-american elements. Most of the Trechisibus species, and all the Oxytrechus and Aputrechisibus species have a restricted distribution at higher altitudes, forming an altitudinal band for this tribe. There are some species that are indifferent to altitude. Finally, from the comparison with other regions studied, it can be deduced that the most related fauna is located in the páramos of Ecuador.