Accepted by J. Klimaszewski: 24 Jul. 2012; published: 15 Oct. 2012 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2012 · Magnolia Press Zootaxa 3517: 1–52 (2012) www.mapress.com/ zootaxa/ Article 1 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F832C768-A8CA-4FEE-8C3B-BD933247FA6E Revision of the Seashore-dwelling Subgenera Emplenota Casey and Triochara Bernhauer (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: genus Aleochara) from Japan SHÛHEI YAMAMOTO 1, 2 & MUNETOSHI MARUYAMA 2, 3 1 Entomological Laboratory, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Fukuoka, 812-8581 Japan E-mail: s.yamamoto.64@gmail.com 2 The Kyushu University Museum, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Fukuoka, 812-8581 Japan 3 Correspoding author: E-mail: dendrolasius@gmail.com Abstract The Japanese species of the seashore-dwelling subgenera Emplenota Casey and Triochara Bernhauer of the genus Aleochara Gravenhorst are revised. Five species are recognised in Emplenota, of which three are described as new species: Aleochara (Emplenota) segregata n. sp., A. (E.) hayamai n. sp. and A. (E.) yamato n. sp. The remaining known species A. (E.) fucicola Sharp and A. (E.) puetzi (Assing) are redescribed. Three species recognised in Triochara, Aleochara (Triochara) trisulcata Weise, A. (T .) zerchei (Assing) and A. (T .) nubis (Assing) are redescribed. All species are keyed. For some species ecological data are reported. The phylogenetic relationships of the Japanese species are discussed, and the distributions of all species are mapped. Key words: biodiversity, coastal environment, identification key, Palaearctic, redescription, supratidal zones, sympatric species, taxonomy Introduction Recent studies have revealed the worldwide coastal staphylinid diversity (Moore & Legner, 1976; Hammond, 2000; Frank & Ahn, 2011), and the subfamily Aleocharinae is represented by 187 species throughout the world, representing the largest number of coastal staphylinid beetles (Frank & Ahn, 2011). The genus Aleochara Gravenhorst, 1802 is represented by 16 coastal species belonging to four subgenera (Frank & Ahn, 2011). Aleochara comprises more than 450 species, and is distributed worldwide, except for Antarctica (e.g., Bernhauer & Scheerpeltz, 1926; Klimaszewski, 1984; Maus et al., 2001). Most species are found near fly-infested habitats such as carrion, animal droppings, or decaying plant material. Most Aleochara species are characterised by unusual life histories, i. e., the parasitoid larvae use cyclorrhapheous fly puparia as hosts. Thus, they act as important natural enemies of many dipteran species (e.g., Klimaszewski, 1984; Klimaszewski & Jansen, 1993; Maus et al., 2001). Because of their importance in biological control, quite a few studies have been conducted on some species to clarify their biology (Maus et al., 2001). There are, however, several issues still remaining to be solved with regard to the taxonomy, systematics, phylogeny and life history of Aleochara. Numerous unpublished synonyms, lack of adequate keys for specific identification, use of superficial, and often useless, external characteristics, and a lack of pictures or illustrations pose major difficulties (Klimaszewski, 1984). Recent studies clarified the fauna of East Asian Aleochara partially such as the subgenus Xenochara Mulsant & Rey, 1874 in South Korea (Park & Ahn, 2010), the subgenus Aleochara Gravenhorst, 1802 in mainland China (Luo & Zhou, 2012), and some littoral subgenera (Assing, 1995; Ahn et al., 2000; Park & Ahn, 2004). In spite of these efforts, the current situation is still far from adequately worked out in Asia. Knowledge of the Japanese Aleochara fauna is also incomplete; to date, only 22 species have been recorded (Smetana, 2004; Yamamoto & Maruyama, 2009). Furthermore, many problems remain in the taxonomy of the Japanese Aleochara, such as doubtful interpretation of most species due to the absence of modern revisions of type material.