''Mecodema aoteanoho'' is a medium-sized (19–24 mm length, 5.5–7 mm width)
ground beetle
Ground beetles are a large, cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family (biology), family of beetles, the Carabidae, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, around 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe. As of 2015, it ...
, the only such beetle endemic to
Great Barrier Island
Great Barrier Island () lies in the outer Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, north-east of central Auckland. With an area of it is the sixth-largest List of islands of New Zealand, island of New Zealand. Its highest point, Mount Hobson, Great Barrier ...
(Aotea),
Hauraki Gulf
The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2, ''Mecodema aoteanoho'' is a sister species to '' Mecodema haunoho, M. haunoho'' (
Little Barrier Island
Little Barrier Island, or Hauturu in Māori language, Māori (the official Māori title is ''Te Hauturu-o-Toi''), lies off the northeastern coast of New Zealand's North Island. Located to the north of Auckland, the island is separated from the ...
) and is closely related to the
Coromandel
Coromandel may refer to:
Places India
*Coromandel Coast, India
** Presidency of Coromandel and Bengal Settlements
**Dutch Coromandel
* Coromandel, KGF, Karnataka, India
New Zealand
*Coromandel, New Zealand, a town on the Coromandel Peninsula
*Cor ...
(mainland) species, '' M. atrox'', all of which are species within the monophyletic ''curvidens'' group (4–6 setae along each side of the prothoracic carina). There are a number of other characters that distinguish ''M. aoteanoho'' from all other North Island '' Mecodema'', especially the pattern of the striations on the elytra.
For a detailed description of ''M. aoteanoho'' see Seldon & Buckley 2019.
Description
''Mecodema aoteanoho'' is dull to shiny black in colour. They are flightless: in fact they have no wings under the sutured
elytra
An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...
(wing cases).
Natural history
Little is known about the life cycle of ''Mecodema'' in general.
They are nocturnal predators and scavengers, feeding on a range of ground and soil-dwelling invertebrates in the native broadleaf forests of Aotea.
Conservation status
Under the
New Zealand Threat Classification System
The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand.
The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had s ...
, this species is listed as "Naturally Uncommon" with the qualifiers of "Island Endemic" and "One Location".