Description of four new Medeopteryx Ballantyne (Coleoptera, Lampyridae, Luciolinae) species from Thailand and their phylogenetic placements based on mitochondrial DNA

Four new species of fireflies from Thailand have been discovered and identified. These new species belong to the genus Medeopteryx Ballantyne, a firefly genus originally assigned based on species found only in Australia and New Guinea. This discovery adds four more species to the existing 21 species members of this genus. This report presents the first fully described species of Medeopteryx from Thailand. Detailed descriptions of Medeopteryx alacauda sp. nov., Medeopteryx maehongsonensis sp. nov., Medeopteryx incisura, sp. nov. and Medeopteryx isaanensis, sp. nov. are provided along with a key to the species of this genus. Phylogenetic trees of the partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and concatenated 13 mitochondrial protein coding genes were constructed to analyse the relationship among these new Medeopteryx species and other related firefly taxa. The phylogenetic trees revealed a close relationship of four Luciolinae genera (i.e. Pteroptyx, Inflata, Medeopteryx and Trisinuata) grouped into one monophyletic clade which was sister to the remaining genera of this subfamily. The results from these analyses suggest a further taxonomic revision for this group of Luciolinae. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F850CFDF-9A60-4087-A49A-628EF9D2EB6C.