Received: 15 April 2020 Revised: 8 June 2020 Accepted: 14 June 2020 DOI: 10.1002/jmor.21232 RESEARCH ARTICLE Profound head modifications in Claviger testaceus (Pselaphinae, Staphylinidae, Coleoptera) facilitate integration into communities of ants Paweł Jałoszynski 1 | Xiao-Zhu Luo2 | Rolf Georg Beutel2 1Museum of Natural History, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland Abstract 2Institut für Zoologie und Evolutionsforschung, Clavigeritae is a group of obligate myrmecophiles of the rove beetle subfamily Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Jena, Pselaphinae (Staphylinidae). Some are blind and wingless, and all are believed to Germany depend on ant hosts through feeding by trophallaxis. Phylogenetic hypotheses sug- Correspondence gest that their ancestors, as are most pselaphines today, were free-living predators. Paweł Jałoszynski, Museum of Natural History, University of Wrocław, Sienkiewicza Morphological alterations required to transform such beetles into extreme myrmeco- ł 21, 50 335 Wroc aw, Poland. philes were poorly understood. By studying the cephalic morphology of Claviger tes- Email:
[email protected] taceus, we demonstrate that profound changes in all mouthpart components took Funding information place during this process, with a highly unusual connection of the maxillae to the AEI/FEDER, UE, Grant/Award Number: CGL2013 48950 C2 hypopharynx, and formation of a uniquely transformed labium with a vestigial prementum. The primary sensory function of the modified maxillary and labial palps is reduced, and the ventral mouthparts transformed into a licking/‘sponging’ device. Many muscles have been reduced, in relation to the coleopteran groundplan or other staphylinoids. The head capsule contains voluminous glands whose appeasement secretions are crucial for the beetle survival in ant colonies. The brain, in turn, has been shifted into the neck region.