Mecodema crenicolle

Mecodema crenicolle is an endemic species of ground beetle from New Zealand.

Taxonomy
This species was described by François-Louis Laporte de Castelnau, a french naturalist in 1867. The type specimen is in the Genoa Museum, Italy.

Description
Mecodema crenicolle is a medium-large ground beetle with a length of 22–29 mm. As a member of the ducale group of Mecodema species, the pronotum carina is strongly crenulated and outer striae are coarsely punctured with star-shaped asetose punctures. These punctures are irregularly placed and deeper in the outer striae. A distinguishing character of M. crenicolle from its sister species, M. crenaticolle is that the punctures in elytral stria 7 are larger than stria 8 and cannot be distinguished at the base of the elytra.

Habitat and ecology
M. crenicolle is a burrowing ground beetle that lives in native forests, pine plantations and pastures. Their elevational distribution ranges from lowland to mountainous forests. Like all Mecodema species, M. crenicolle is flightless and a predator of other invertebrates.

Distribution
This species is only found in the in Marlborough, Nelson and the Brunner District in the South Island. North Island specimens are all M. crenaticolle as per Seldon & Buckley (2019).