Taxonomy of Indian Lebiinae (Coleoptera: Carabidae)

Abstract

Lebiinae is a large and diverse subfamily of ground beetles (Carabidae) with 334 species currently recorded from India. Most of the early taxonomic work on Indian Lebiinae was done by Andrewes during the period 1919-1947, and his 1935 classification framework, with 179 species, guided Indian studies until today. However, this system is now outdated, and no identification keys at the tribal, generic, or species levels have been developed for Indian Lebiinae under the updated system. Consequently, subsequent studies have largely relied on outdated generic and species keys and have primarily focused on taxa originally described by Andrewes. Taxonomic keys and an updated checklist for Indian Lebiinae, together with a pictorial key, and supplementary descriptions prepared for the species identified in the present study will help streamline and clarify the taxonomy of Indian Lebiinae. The study documented 77 species belonging to 34 genera under five tribes, including four new species (Cymindoidea seoniensis Anagha, Sabu & Kushwaha, 2023, Ophionea vvrei Anagha & Sabu, 2024, Taridius devagiriensis Anagha & Sabu, 2025, and Taridius tamilnadensis Anagha & Sabu, 2025), alongside one genus (Andrewesia Liebke, 1938) and four species [Andrewesia apicalis (Chaudoir, 1872), Archicolliuris distigma (Chaudoir, 1850), Mimocolliuris bicoloripes Baehr, 2016, and Ophionea ceylonica (Baehr, 1996)] recorded from India for the first time. On a regional scale, the study establishes multiple new distribution records, including four species and one subspecies from south India, five species from central India, four species from north India, and one species each from north-east India and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. At the state level, first records are reported for eight species and one subspecies from Kerala, 14 species and one subspecies from Tamil Nadu, five species from Madhya Pradesh, three species from Uttarakhand, two species each from Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, one species each from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Manipur. The updated checklist comprises 334 species under 69 genera and five tribes. A total of 22 new and 27 modified taxonomic keys were prepared. In addition, the study documented seven species endemics to biodiversity hotspots, including six species from the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka hotspot and one species from the Indo- Burma hotspot. The study also includes the lectotype designation of Ophionea indica (Thunberg 1784) and documentation of wing polymorphism in Masoreus orientalis Dejean, 1828. The deposition of verified specimens in recognized national repositories, will provide valuable reference resources for future studies.