J.F. Lawrence’s research while affiliated with Australian National Insect Collection, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and other places

... These estimations are supported by recently obtained palaeontological data. The most ancient beetles identified as possible representatives of Polyphaga and Adephaga, or at least their closest ancestors (stem lineages), were found in the late Middle Permian of China ) and in the Upper Permian of Australia (Ponomarenkium belmontensis: Yan et al. , 2018a. The terminal-Permian insect assemblages of the Tunguska and Kuznetsk basins in Siberia were dominated by beetles that probably belonged to both of these suborders; among those were the oldest Trachypachidae (Petrodromeus asiaticus (Martynov 1936): Ponomarenko and Volkov 2013), Gyrinidae (Tunguskagyrus planus: Yan et al. 2018b), Triaplidae, and possible Haliplidae (Ponomarenko and Prokin 2015), etc. ...

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First Triassic record of the beetle family Permocupedidae (Insecta: Coleoptera): a peculiar example of a Lazarus taxon

... Adults are mostly collected from foliage but can be collected in Malaise, flight intercept (FIT), or light traps and also by canopy fogging. Larvae are saproxylic or found in leaf litter and, rarely, in social insect nests (e.g., Lawrence et al. 1990;Yanega & Leschen 1994;Klimaszewski & watt 1997;Chandler 2002;Arias et al. 2008;. Most of the previously described species of New Zealand aderids were based upon one or only a few specimens. ...

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Sexual Dimorphism of New Zealand Puppet Beetles (Aderidae, Coleoptera, Tenebrionoidea): Systematic Revision, Description of Three New Genera, and Phylogeny for Zenascus, gen. n

... Native Range. Palaearctic (Bowestead 2007). ...

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Synopsis of adventive species of Coleoptera (Insecta) recorded from Canada. Part 3: Cucujoidea.

... At the family level, different modifications were reported for Eucnemidae (various degrees of abdominal ventrite connation in certain groups; Lawrence et al., 2007), Lampyridae (differences in numbers of ventrites among various groups; Branham, 2010), Lycidae (origins of larviform females; and Elateridae (incompletely sclerotized lineages; Kundrata & Bocak, 2011;Bocak et al., 2018). Outside Elateroidea, analogous modifications are known also in Dermestidae, where most lineages have five ventrites and the intercoxal process on the first ventrite, but Thylodrias Motschulsky with the neotenic female has eight ventrites and lacks the intercoxal process on the first ventrite (Lawrence & Ślipiński, 2010). ...

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Molecular phylogeny reveals the gradual evolutionary transition to soft-bodiedness in click-beetles and identifies sub-Saharan Africa as a cradle of diversity for Drilini (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

... In spite of this, the paleodiversity of Coleoptera in Baltic amber has been insufficiently studied for the majority of families. The family Zopheridae is a moderatesized group in the Recent World fauna, consisting of about 1700 species and 190 genera placed in two subfamilies (Ślipiński et al. 2011;Ślipiński & Lawrence 1999Ślipiński & Lawrence , 2010Lawrence 2016), and it is no exception. The first attempts to formally describe the elements of the zopherid fauna living in Eocene amber forest habitats have been made (Alekseev & Lord 2014;Alekseev 2015Alekseev , 2022Alekseev & Alekseev 2019;Alekseev & Pankowski 2020;Alekseev & Nabozhenko 2023); however, the known list of taxa from Baltic amber is incomplete and perhaps far from being completed. ...

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A revision and addition to Zopheridae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea) in Baltic amber: possible connections between modern Holarctic distributions and Eocene 'amber forests'

... Particularly, Tenebrionids of arid environments have developed several morphological and physiological adaptations to enduring thermal rigor. For instance, tegument coloration may facilitate thermoregulation because dark-colored species heat up and cool down faster than lighter-colored insects ( Rajpurohit et al. 2008, Matthews et al. 2010. Accordingly, dark, or black, colors are common in soil beetle's inhabitants in arid coastal, or desert areas as is the case of Tentyria species. ...

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Environmental factors affecting phenology and distribution of Tentyria species (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in Doñana National Park (Southern Iberian Peninsula)

... Very little is known about their biology and ecology. Adult mordellids generally feed on pollen and nectar (Lawrence and Ślipiński 2010;Selnekovič and Ruzzier 2019) and some taxa have been reported feeding on fern (Ruzzier 2015;Takakuwa 2000) or fungal spores (Franciscolo 1984;Tsuru 2004). ...

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First Observation of Variimorda (Variimorda) holzschuhi Horák, 1985 (Coleoptera: Mordellidae) as a Woodborer on Vitis vinifera L.; Possible Pest or Co-Occurrent Species?

... The monophyly of the family Phloeostichidae was supported by the anterolateral genal projection (apomorphy), carinate sides of pronotum, well-developed metendosternal laminae, well-separated bases of frontal arms, and labrum partly or completely fused to head capsule. The genus Pleuroceratos indeed possesses all the diagnostic characters of Phloeostichidae (Leschen et al., 2005;Lawrence & Ślipiński, 2010) including an elongate, parallel-sided, subglabrous and tuberculate body, 11segmented antennae with a 3-segmented club, prothorax distinctly narrower than elytral bases, complete prosternal process, slightly transverse procoxae with exposed trochantins, mesocoxal cavities separated, abdomen with 5 ventrites, and enlarged femora. The genera Bunyastichus and Pleuroceratos share the presence of the frontoclypeal suture, antennal insertions somewhat concealed from above, and tridentate mandibles that distinguish both genera from other representatives of the family. ...

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Pleuroceratos jiewenae sp. nov.: A new Cretaceous phloeostichid beetle (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea: Phloeostichidae)

... Length was measured from the midline of the anterior pronotal margin to the tip of the abdomen, and width was measured from the greatest width of the pronotum and the elytra. Morphological terms are based on Lawrence et al. (2010Lawrence et al. ( , 2011. ...

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Three New Genera of New Zealand Synchitini (Coleoptera: Zopheridae: Colydiinae)

... This work is based primarily on the author's own materials collected in the Far East: Amur Region (1978), Jewish Authonomous Region (1978, Primorsky Krai (1987, 2009, 2024), Kunashir Island (1989-1992, 2011), Sakhalin Island (2011 The author also considered it appropriate to publish here his comments on the modern taxonomic status of the Pselaphinae. ...

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Pselaphinae of the Russian Far East (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) with comments about the current taxonomic status of the subfamily