The pselaphine Bergrothia saulcyi shows features seemingly linked with life in deep soil layers, such as greatly reduced and non-functional compound eyes, a sensorium of long tactile setae, long appendages, and flightlessness. However, the tiny beetles occur in forest leaf litter, together with a community of beetles with wings and well-developed eyes. We hypothesize that B. saulcyi moves into deep soil under dry conditions, and returns to upper layers when humidity increases again. Despite the evolutionary cost of a reduced dispersal capacity, this life strategy may be more efficient and less hazardous than moving to different habitats using flight and the visual sense in an environment periodically drying out. We also discuss cephalic features with potential phylogenetic relevance. Plesiomorphies of B. saulcyi include the presence of anterior tentorial arms, well-developed labral retractors, and a full set of extrinsic maxillary and premental muscles. Apomorphic cephalic features support clades Protopselaphinae + Pselaphinae, and Pselaphinae. A conspicuous derived condition, the clypeo-ocular carina, is a possible synapomorphy of Batrisitae and genera assigned to Goniaceritae. A complex triple set of cephalic glands found in B. saulcyi is similar to a complex identified in the strict myrmecophile Claviger testaceus (Clavigeritae). It is conceivable that glands linked with food uptake in free-living pselaphines were genetically re-programmed in ancestors of inquilines, to enable them to appease the host ants. We suggest that behavioral studies are necessary to understand the poorly known life habits of B. saulcyi. Additional information is required to explain why a species with irreversibly reduced visual sense and other adaptations typical of endogean or cave-dwelling beetles was only collected from the upper leaf litter layer.
Keywords: 3D reconstruction; micro-CT; micro/anophthalmy; musculature; rove beetles.
© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Morphology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.