Sandalus cuscoensis Yábar-Landa & Bustamante-Navarrete: a new species of Sandalus Knoch, 1801 (Coleoptera: Rhipiceridae), and the first documented record of the family in Peru.

Yábar-Landa E.; Bustamante-Navarrete A.A. · Boletin Cientifico del Centro de Museos (2025) · DOI: 10.17151/bccm.2025.29.2.10

Resumen

The Rhipiceridae family is a little-known group of beetles in the Neotropical region, with few documented records in South America. Until now, there had been no formal reports of this family in Peru, representing a significant gap in knowledge regarding the country's biodiversity. This study describes a new species, Sandalus cuscoensis Yábar-Landa y Bustamante-Navarrete (Rhipiceridae: Coleoptera), from south-eastern Peru. This constitutes the first documented record of the family in the country. Additional observations of Rhipiceridae from the citizen science platform iNaturalist are also included, and their verified data have been integrated into the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Combining taxonomic and citizen science data improves our understanding of the family's distribution and ecology in the region. Finally, the ecological and biogeographical aspects of the Rhipiceridae family in Peru are discussed, emphasising the importance of this discovery for documenting, researching and conserving the country's entomological biodiversity.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco