First Record of the Soft-Wing Flower BeetleGenus Kuatunia (Coleoptera: Melyridae) in Korea

Abstract

The family Melyridae Leach includes more than 300 genera and 6,000 species consisting of four subfamilies (Dasytinae, Malachiinae, Melyrinae, Rhadalinae). Members of the subfamily Malachiinae is distributed all over the world except for New Zealand and prefer warmer, arid or semi-arid regions. Among the malachiine genera, a genus Kuatunia Evers includes 17 species worldwide, mainly distributed in East Asia. In this study, the genus and its described species, Kuatunia oblongula (Kiesenwetter), is newly added to the Korean fauna. A diagnosis, habitus photographs, and illustrations of diagnostic characters are provided, with a key to species of the genus in East Asia.