The travertine beetles (Coleoptera: Lutrochidae): a morphological phylogenetic study of a poorly known aquatic dryopoid family

Lutrochidae are a small and poorly known family of aquatic beetles with seventeen described species, though much of the diversity in the group remains unexplored. As with many of their close relatives, they live in lotic habitats, often in forested streams. This monogeneric family is restricted to the New World and ranges from southern Canada to Argentina.

The Lutrochidae are unique among beetles in that they are one of the few lineages of beetles that have an aquatic wood-boring life history. As such, this small and unusual group of beetles has potential to provide insights into the evolution of Byrrhoidea and the evolution of wood-boring habits in Elateriformia. However, taxonomic research on Lutrochidae is lacking and the phylogenetic relationships between the members of the family and others in the superfamily Byrrhoidea have been unexplored in a cladistic framework.

Here, I present a phylogenetic hypothesis of the evolution of Lutrochidae, based on morphological evidence.