Arboreal beetles of Neotropical forests: Agra Fabricius, larval descriptions with notes on natural history and behaviour (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiini, Agrina)

Using a mobile crane system covering a canopy area of about 1.4 ha in a rai n forest in southern Venezuela, adults of several species of Agra Fabricius were observed and captured. Adults of 17 species were kept in the laborato ry. Movements and foraging behaviour in the forest canopy and in the labora tory are reported. Larvae of four Agra species are described. Larvae of all four species are highly modified. Short antennae, multiple setae FR8/9, el ongate head capsule with enlarged frontale, trochanter and femoral spines o r spin-like tubercles, absence of a lacinia, markedly long, multisetose and multisegmented urogomphi, a pygopod with two groups of hooks, as well as b ifid-toothed tarsal claws are larval apomorphies of Agra. The enlarged pulv illus is shared with larvae of other genera in Lebiini that are regarded as related to Agra based on adult characters. Amongst themselves studied larv ae show a number of differences. The larva of the Agra cajennensis-group ha s small abdominal egg bursters on terga I-VIII that were previously known o nly from coleopteran suborder Polyphaga; these are not present in the other first instars studied. From larval attributes, it is hypothesized that Agr a larvae live under bark and are predatory.