A new eyeless species of cave-dwelling trechine beetle from northeastern Guizhou Province, China (Insecta: Coleoptera: Carabidae: Trechinae)

Qianaphaenops emersoni n. sp. is described from Gan Dong, a limestone cave in Yanhe Xian, northeastern Guizhou Province, China. Likely to be a narrow range endemic species, Q. emersoni is only known from two almost adjacent type locality sites in Gan Dong cave. Q. emersoni is the fifth species to be described in this genus of eyeless troglobitic trechine beetles, known only from caves in northeastern Guizhou; a distributional map of the genus Qianaphaenops Uéno is provided. Q. emersoni belongs to the Qianaphaenops tenuis species group which contains two described species: Q. tenuis and Q. rotundicollis (Uéno, 2000). Q. emersoni is very similar to Q. rotundicollis Uéno, but easily distinguished from the latter by its broader head and elytra, narrower pronotum and its more elongate and slender aedeagus. Some explanation of the exploration of Gan Dong is provided, along with habitat details of the trechine beetle Type Locality sites located approximately 950 metres into the cave. The subsequent discovery of an efflux cave, presumed to be the Gan Dong Resurgence, is also discussed.