Notes on the genus Mormolyce Hagenbach (Coleoptera, Carabidae)

The present memoir contains some notes and observations on the taxonomy and biology of the beetle genus Mormolyce Hagenbach. Though only too well known among coleopterists ever since their discovery, these remarkable carabids do not appear to have been critically studied in recent years. As a matter of fact, very little information on them has been supplied during the last fifty years or so, nearly all observations of more than passing interest being contained in what may be aptly called “classical” memoirs, written by some earlier students whose works are listed in the literature cited at the end of this paper. The present authors, therefore, have gratefully accepted this opportunity to put on record the results of a fresh study of these insects by reviewing the facts already known in a joint attempt to check previous investigations against their own. The junior author has revised the systematics, taxonomy and early stages of Mormolyce, his studies being based on a rich supply of material including specimens and illustrations of great historical interest. To the senior author has fallen the task of establishing some localities with more precision and of narrating on his own experiences with Mormolyce phyllodes Hagenbach while on a collecting trip to the Malay Peninsula, these field notes having, in fact, initiated the studies presently carried out. However fragmentary, the above investigations put together may, it is hoped, contribute in some measure to our knowledge of Mormolyce generally. Much of the material which forms the basis of this paper is lodged in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden. Other specimens were made available for study by the authorities of the British Museum (Natural History), London; the Zoologisch Museum, Amsterdam; and the University Museum, Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford. The writers are indebted to Mr. P. H. van Doesburg Sr., Baarn, for supplying locality records of beetles in his collection, and also to Messrs. M. A. Donk, of the Rijksherbarium, Leiden, and C. A. W. Jeekel, of the Amsterdam Museum, who both gave important information on the nomenclature of bracket-fungi and epizoic Laboulbeniaceae.