Revision of the Australian Ground-Beetle Genus Porocara Sloane (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Odacanthinae)

Abstract

The Australian carabid genus Porocara Sloane is revised. For P. punctata Sloane a lectotype and paralectotypes are designated. The following new taxa are described: P. punctata kimberleyana, subsp. nov.; P. nigricollis, sp, nov.; P. occidentalis, sp. nov.; P. glabrata, sp. nov. The phylogenetic status of the genus is briefly discussed. Porocara is one of the most primitive genera of Odacanthinae with perhaps the most primitive habits found in odacanthines. Two species-groups are distinguished within Porocara: the more derivative glabrata-group (P. glabrata) and the more ancestral punctata-group (three species). The phylogenetic status of the species is discussed and presented in a cladogram. The known ranges of the species are mapped. The curious distribution pattern of three species in north- western Australia, but only one species in Queensland, is perhaps referable to several westward migrations from Queensland, resulting in the isolation of the immigrants in the northern and western refugia and in subsequent divergent evolution. The differing taxonomic status of the northern and western taxa, as well as the co-occurrence of two species, supports the hypothesis of several separate migrations.