Carabidae) of Arthurs Pass

MÄURI ORÄ, 1980, 8: 55-67 55 GROÜND BEETLES (CARABIDAE) OF ARTHURS PASS NATIONAL PARK P.M. JOHNS Department of Zoology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand ABSTRACT Fifty species of Carabidae are recorded from Arthurs Pass National Park. One synonymy is established and several species and one genus have been found to be undescribed, but these are left to await formal reviews of their groups. The species present have been placed in several groupings or faunules, these being related to the general environment based mainly on * rainfall and Vegetation cover. The main populations of the species of these faunules lie mainly to the north and the small populations of some species could be considered as relicts. INTRODUCTION Arthurs Pass National Park (Fig. 1) comprises about 100,000 ha of mountains and glacial Valleys. Although the Valleys may have flat floors at about 700m a.s.l. in the east and 300m in the west, the topography is rough with 21 peaks rising above 1800m and ten over 2100m. The Main Divide is within the western portion of the Park. Most of the eastern slopes and flats are covered in an almost uniform mountain beech forest (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides) with minor pockets of N. fusca and N menziesii. In the high rainfall western portion a diverse podocarp forest dominates at lower levels and this passes into rata/mountain totara forest above. The upper margin of the forest is at about 1200m and the area of subalpine to alpine scrub, tussock and rock zones is about equal to that of the forest below. Arthurs Pass National Park has long been a collecting area for entomologists. Its diverse habitats, from rainforest on the west, to the central highland swards, screes and crags, thence to the dry forests, tussocks and river beds of the east, have been sources of a wide variety of arthropods. A preliminary checklist records 523 species of arthropods from the area (Johns unpub.) and of these 137 species have the Park as their 56 MÄURI ORÄ, 1980, Vol. 8 Fig. 1. Location of Arthurs Pass National Park in the high country of central South Island, New Zealand. type locality. The percentage, 26%, is the highest known in New Zealand and it could be rivalled perhaps only by the unknown percentages of types from Tongariro National Park or the Mt Arthur region of Nelson. This percentage could be raised if the species of the nearby Cass, Craigieburn and Porters Pass areas are added. A list for the nearby Cass Biological Station area (Anon 1977) was provided in part by the author and the distributions and biologies of some of the species have been reported (Johns 1977). Some notes are also provided in the "Natural History of Canterbury" (Johns 1969) and this book, along with the Arthurs Pass National Park Handbook (Burrows 1974), review the general geology, geomorphology, soils and Vegetation of the area. The biologies of some species of carabids complement the biologies of the millipedes of the area, especially those of the lowland Canterbury fauna which extends into the intermontane Valleys (Johns 1970, 1979). JOHNS - ARTHURS PASS CARABIDAE CHECKLIST OF ARTHURS PASS NATIONAL PARK CARABIDAE (Subfamilies as in Britton 1970) Migadopinae Amarotypus edwardsi Bates, 1872 Loxomerus capito Jeannel., 1938 New genus and species Broscinae T Mecodema rugiceps rugiceps Sharp, 1886 Mecodema metallicum Sharp, 1886 Mecodema costellum lewisi Broun, 1908 Mecodema allani Fairburn, 1945 Mecodema new species Mecodema fulgidum Broun, 1881 Diglymma clivinoides (Castelnau, 1867) Metaglymma monilifer Bates, 1867 Zolinae Zolus helmsi Sharp, 1886 Oopterus latipennis Broun, 1903 Oopterus parvulus Broun, 1903 Oopterus laeviventris (Sharp, 1886) Oopterus lewisi (Broun, 1912) Oopterus new species Bembidiinae Bembidi on mao rinum Bates, 1867 Bembidi on deh iscens Broun, 1893 Bembidi on cha rile Bates, 1867 Bembidi on tai ruaense Bates, 1878 Bembidi on cha lceipes Bates, 1878 Bembidi on ach onoderum Bates, 1878 Bembidi on hok itikense Bates, 1878 Nesambl yops o reobius (Broun, 1893) Psydrinae T Solenochilus syntheticus (Sharp, 1886) T Molopsida debilis (Sharp, 1886) Molopsida puncticollis (Sharp, 1883) Mecyclothorax rotundicollis White, 1846 Pterostichinae Megadromus lobipes (Bates, 1878) Megadromus antarcticus (Chaudoir, 1865) Megadromus enysi (Broun, 1882) Megadromus new species Neoferonia ardua (Broun, 1893) Holcaspis hudsoni Britton, 1940 Agoninae Agonum helmsi Sharp, 1886 Agonum integratus Broun, 1908 Notagonum submetallicum (White, 1846) Notagonum feredayi (Bates, 1878) Zabronothus Oblongus Broun, 1910 Colpodes haasti(Broun, 1886) Licininae Dichrochile flavipes Broun, 1917 Dichrochile thoracica Broun, 1908 Harpalinae Syllectus anomalus Bates, 1878 Hypharpax abstrusus Bates, 1878 58 MAURI ORA, 1980, Vol. 8 Lebiinae Demetrida dieffenbachi White, 1843 Demetrida nasuta White, 1846 Pentagonicinae Scopodes versicolör Bates, 187 8 Scopodes laevigatus Bates, 1878 Odacanthinae Actenonyx bembidioides White, 1846 T indicates that the species has A.P.N.P. as its Type Locality. HABITAT AND DISTRIBUTION The carabid fauna of New Zealand has not been completely reviewed and few keys are available. Britton (1940, 1970) gives keys to the subfamilies and has reviewed the Pterostichinae (1940), Broscinae (1949) and the Lebiinae and Pentagonicinae (including Odacanthinae) (1941). The Migadopinae has been reviewed by Jeannel (1938) but more than half the species of this subfamily in New Zealand are known to be undescribed and this work covers only some of the common ones. A review of the Zolinae (syn. Merizodiinae (Johns 1974)) and a review of the genus Megadromus are in preparation (Johns in prep.). The Agoninae, Psydrinae (syn. Nomiinae) and Licininae are all in need of basic revisions although most of the Arthurs Pass species are easily identified through their original descriptions. AMAROTYPUS EDWARDS! BATES, 1872. This is a remarkable member of the New Zealand carabid fauna and is one which is confined to the trunks of trees, predominantly in Nothofagus forests. Although the genus is monospecific at present there is a further species in the alpine zone of north Westland and western Nelson. It is widespread in the South Island and moderately common in most of the Arthurs Pass forests. There are no confirmed records of it being taken away from living trees. On suitable nights it may be seen wandering on trunks, among the mosses and lichens. Common associates are Artystona spp. (Tenebrionidae), Rhygmodus spp. (Byrrhidae), Celatoblatta spp. (Blattodea) and rhaphidophorid wetas (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae). Larvae of Artystona spp, young cockroaches and wetas, and collembola may well be the prime food of this carabid. It is virtually confined to Nothofagus forests on the main islands but it is known from kamahi-kohekohe forest on Inner Chetwode Island and kamahi-podocarp forest on Stewart Island. Nothofagus is absent from both these islands. LOXOMERUS CAPITO JEANNEL, 1938. The record of this species from Arthurs Pass could well be its northernmost for it is a rare, generally subalpine, insect of western Otago, south Westland and Southland. At Arthurs Pass it is known only from two specimens taken from the edge of the Otira Glacier stream at 1220m, its immediate habitat being the mosses beside the stream. A similar habitat has been noted for it in Westland National Park (Townsend pers. comm.), but at Coronet Peak and further south it has been JOHNS - ARTHURS PASS CARABIDAE 59 taken near rocky streams in Nothofagus forest and even near sea level in the far south. There is no apparent morphological Variation between these populations. Its close relative, Loxomerus brevis of the subantarctic Auckland Islands, is also found in a similar ränge of habitats (Johns 1974). * MIGADOPINAE NEW GENUS AND NEW SPECIES. A very small beetle which is known only from Temple Col (1567m) and nearby. It was found under fine stones beside large rocks or crags and where there was very little Vegetation nearby. A few Celmisia plants were present. Other undescribed species of the same genus are known from similar high alpine screes of South Canterbury, and this species may be also represented by two specimens from Mt Miromiro near Hanmer Springs. MECODEMA RUGICEPS RUGICEPS SHARP, 1886. This species is perhaps the characteristic carabid of the wet, mountain forests of the South Island. However, in Arthurs Pass National Park it is absent from most of the higher forest and subalpine scrub and is rare in the drier, eastern portions. It is more common in the relict Stands of Nothofagus fusca - N. menziesii forest. Its füll distribution is given by Townsend (1965) . The original specimens were taken near "Bealey" in 1884. MECODEMA METALLICUM SHARP, 1886. This is usually found in the lowland podocarp-Metrosideros forests of Westland and the one record of the species from the very western part of the Park is consistent with this. -* MECODEMA COSTELLUM LEWISI BROUN, 1908. Nowhere is this species common (Townsend 1965). Within the Park it is confined to a few small terraces which are probably relict portions of the shores of Glacial Lake Speight, a large lake which once filled * the Waimakariri Valley between the present Hawdon and Poulter Rivers. It is a burrower and its burrow usually opens near the edge of a log or into the space under a log. This subspecies, formerly given füll species rank, is virtually confined to the Park (Townsend 1965). MECODEMA ALLANI FAIRBURN, 1945. This is one of the rarities of the Park and its populations are small and isolated. It was first described from Pylon Gully, near Cass and within the Park it has been found only in the Andrews Valley, Hallelujah Fiat and near the Trust Hut in the Poulter Valley. Within and to the north of the Park (Hurunui Valley and Lewis Pass) this species is generally associated with the Nothofagus fusca - N. menziesii forest but it is not restricted to this type of Vegetation. Its southern populations (recorded by only three specimens at Pylon Gully and in the Wilberforce Valley) are certainly within pure Stands of Nothofagus solandri v.

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