Onthophagus hircus, Billberg, 1815

Kohlmann, Bert & Solís, Ángel, 2025, A review of the species groups of the Western Hemisphere Onthophagus Latreille (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) using COI barcoding and gene trees, Zootaxa 5604 (4), pp. 401-447 : 427

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5604.4.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6A95109D-6F33-4DE7-9D47-6A722DD26918
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15225839
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03AA2362-1479-FF8C-FF28-AD6CFC62A84B
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Onthophagus hircus
status

Treatment

Onthophagus hircus View in CoL species group.

This group is diagnosed by a male protibial apex with some short setae ( Figs. 1.8 View FIG –15); apical and internal margin of male protibia obtuse or with obsolete tooth ( Figs. 1.8 View FIG –15) ( O. confusus has long male protibiae with internoapical tooth distinct and acuminated); male protibial spur downward bent at the apex ( Figs. 1.8 View FIG –15); pronotum without horns; metafemur very short and stout ( Figs. 2.8 View FIG –15); apex of parameres poorly developed and defined.

Zunino & Halffter (1997) established an O. hirculus species group, later renamed O. hircus by Rossini et al. (2018a). Although Zunino & Halffter (1997) do not mention it, this group is based on and corresponds to the “5 e Groupe” of Boucomont (1932), to which they erroneously incorporated O. crinitus . In the Rossini et al. (2018a, 2018b) study of the O. hircus species group, the authors established five species complexes: O. curvicornis , O. hircus , O. ophion , O. osculatii , and O. rubrescens . The present analysis recovers an O. hircus species group formed by species of the O. hircus , O. osculatii , and O. rubrescens species complexes. The O. curvicornis species complex is elevated to a group level in this study, as suggested by the present mtDNA analyses. No members of the O. ophion species complex could be analyzed. The present analysis needs to contain a significant enough sample of analyzed species to validate all the proposed O. hircus species complexes. This group presents a distribution from Mexico to the peripheral Amazonian basin of South America, including the Lesser Antilles.

Interestingly, Emlen et al. (2005: fig. 4) recovered an O. hircus – O. nasutus clade in their phylogenetic analysis, thus suggesting a relationship between the two species groups. The present barcoding analysis ( Figs. 1–2 View FIG View FIG ) recovers the same relationship, whereas the bootstrap ( Fig. 8 View FIG ) and the partition ( Fig. 9 View FIG ) analyses suggest the O. nasutus species group as a sister group to the O. clypeatus – O. dicranius species groups. A more comprehensive analysis is needed. Breeschoten et al. (2016) register an O. hircus species group with a bootstrap value of 61 with an estimated crown age of approx. 10.5 Mya and a stem age of approximately 14 Mya. Schwery & O'Meara (2021) recovered also an O. hircus species group with a bootstrap support of 74. Moctezuma et al. (2024) proposed a stem value of around 17.5 Mya for the species group and a crown value of around 11 Mya.

References

Figures

FIG. 1. Neighbor-joining tree for the Western Hemisphere Onthophagus species, based on K2P genetic distances comparisons between COI-5P mitochondrial barcoding sequences. Figs. 23–25 belong to the O. eulophus species group. Figs. 44 and 63 are not assigned to any species group. The male protibiae of the following species are depicted: 1, O. acuminatus; 2, O. batesi; 3, O. incensus; 4, O. nitidor; 5, O. stockwelli; 6, O. striatulus striatulus; 7, O. tristis; 8, O. basicarinatus; 9, O. hircus; 10, O. marginicollis; 11, O. nyctopus; 12, O. onorei; 13, O. osculati; 14, O. ptox; 15, O. ranunculus; 16, O. atriglabrus; 17, O. genuinus; 18, O. rostratus; 19, O. sharpi; 20, O. tapirus; 21, O. villanuevai; 22, O. violetae; 23, O. anewtoni; 24, O. arnetti; 25, O. browni; 26, O. championi; 27, O. guatemalensis; 28, O. mexicanus; 29, O. cartwrighti; 30, O. velutinus; 31, O. alluvius; 32, O. altivagans; 33, O. anthracinus; 34, O. brachypterus; 35, O. chryses; 36, O. landolti; 37, O. lecontei; 38, O. schaefferi; 39, O. concinnus; 40, O. cynomysi; 41, O. hecate hecate; 42, O. medorensis; 43, O. orpheus orpheus; 44, O. polyphemi sparsisetosus; 45, O. chevrolati; 46, O. cyanellus, 47, O. hippopotamus; 48, O. oaxacanus; 49, O. reyesi; 50, O. salvadorensis; 51, O. sanpabloetlorum; 52, O. skelleyi; 53, O. subtropicus; 54, O. totonicapanus; 55, O. vespertilio; 56, O. crinitus; 57, O. gazellinus; 58, O. onthochromus; 59, O. aciculatulus; 60, O. coscineus; 61, O. hoepfneri; 62, O. igualensis; 63, O. lebasi; 64, O. pennsylvanicus; 65, O. subanaeus; 66, tuberculifrons; 67, O. barreti; 68, O.breviconus; 69, O. contrapositus; 70, O. dicranius; 71, O. dorsipilulus; 72, O. humboldti; 73, O. kohlmanni; 74, O. micropterus; 75, O. neomirabilis; 76, O. orphnoides; 77, O. petenensis; 78, O. subcancer; 79, O. andersoni; 80, O. belorhinus; 81, O. grataehelenae; 82, O. limonensis; 83, O. maya; 84, O. praecellens; 85, O. propraecellens; 86, O. rhinolophus; 87, O. rhinophyllus; 88, undescribed species of Onthophagus; 89, O. viridivinosus; 90, O. xanthomerus. See Table 2 for an explanation of the specimen codes. See Table 7 for the author names of the species listed.

FIG. 2. A summarized neighbor-joining tree for Western Hemisphere Onthophagus species, based on K2P genetic distances comparisons between COI-5P mitochondrial barcoding sequences. Figs. 23–25 belong to the O. eulophus species group. Figs. 44 and 63 are not assigned to any group. The male metafemora of the following species are depicted: 1, O. acuminatus; 2, O. batesi; 3, O. incensus; 4, O. nitidor; 5, O. stockwelli; 6, O. striatulus striatulus; 7, O. tristis; 8, O. basicarinatus; 9, O. hircus; 10, O. marginicollis; 11, O. nyctopus; 12, O. onorei; 13, O. osculati; 14, O. ptox; 15, O. ranunculus; 16, O. atriglabrus; 17, O. genuinus; 18, O. rostratus; 19, O. sharpi; 20, O. tapirus; 21, O. villanuevai; 22, O. violetae; 23, O. anewtoni; 24, O. arnetti; 25, O. browni; 26, O. championi; 27, O. guatemalensis; 28, O. mexicanus; 29, O. cartwrighti; 30, O. velutinus; 31, O. alluvius; 32, O. altivagans; 33, O. anthracinus; 34, O. brachypterus; 35, O. chryses; 36, O. landolti; 37, O. lecontei; 38, O. schaefferi; 39, O. concinnus; 40, O. cynomysi; 41, O. hecate hecate; 42, O. medorensis; 43, O. orpheus orpheus; 44, O. polyphemi sparsisetosus; 45, O. chevrolati; 46, O. cyanellus, 47, O. hippopotamus; 48, O. oaxacanus; 49, O. reyesi; 50, O. salvadorensis; 51, O. sanpabloetlorum; 52, O. skelleyi; 53, O. subtropicus; 54, O. totonicapanus; 55, O. vespertilio; 56, O. crinitus; 57, O. gazellinus; 58, O. onthochromus; 59, O. aciculatulus; 60, O. coscineus; 61, O. hoepfneri; 62, O. igualensis; 63, O. lebasi; 64, O. pennsylvanicus; 65, O. subanaeus; 66, tuberculifrons; 67, O. barreti; 68, O.breviconus; 69, O. contrapositus; 70, O. dicranius; 71, O. dorsipilulus; 72, O. humboldti; 73, O. kohlmanni; 74, O. micropterus; 75, O. neomirabilis; 76, O. orphnoides; 77, O. petenensis; 78, O. subcancer; 79, O. andersoni; 80, O. belorhinus; 81, O. grataehelenae; 82, O. limonensis; 83, O. maya; 84, O. praecellens; 85, O. propraecellens; 86, O. rhinolophus; 87, O. rhinophyllus; 88, undescribed species of Onthophagus; 89, O. viridivinosus; 90, O. xanthomerus. See Table 2 for an explanation of the specimen codes. See Table 7 for the author names of the species listed.