[Reproduction and ultrastructure of egg and first instar larvae of Gyriosomus kingi (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from the desert of Atacama].

Gyriosomus is an important Chilean genus of Tenebrionidae, inhabiting the coastal desert of this country. In this environment, the Gyriosomus-species are both eremic and endemic components of the epigean entomofauna. Despite the ecological importance of these species in the Chilean desert, there is a lack of knowledge on the preimaginal stages of them. In this paper we describe the egg and first instar larval morphology of G. kingi Reed, 1873, along with some bionomic aspects of the female. The eggs and larva were obtained from couples kept under laboratory conditions, after being captured during the spring of year 2002, in coastal sites of National Park Llanos de Challe, located in the southern border of the Atacama Desert (28 degrees 01' S, 71 degrees 03' W). The first third of the chorion presents subhexagonal cells lacking aeropyles. The larvae is oligopod and elongated. Its cephalic capsule is strongly chitinized with the prothoracic legs longer and thicker than the rest. According laboratory observations, each egg-laying includes seven to ten eggs each time, with a maximum of six egg-laying per female. The eggs are buried into the soil, covered by a mucilaginous layer which creates a clay-sandy film attached to the chorion.