Pempheres Pascoe, 1871

Genus Pempheres Pascoe, 1871 View in CoL

Type species: Pempheres trilineata Pascoe, 1871 (by present designation).

Diagnosis (modified after Pascoe (1871) and Heller (1894)): Funicle with antennomere 2 twice longer than 1; male without prosternal spines ( Fig. 3C, D View Fig ) and hairs on the ventral of protarsi; abdominal ventrite I with medial canaliculate structures ( Fig. 4C, D View Fig ). We regard two diagnostic characters—the sinuated protibia and the proximity of antennal scape to rostral base— as invalid for distinguishing this genus from other mecopine genera (see details in the DISCUSSION).

Remarks: The type species of this genus was not designated in the original description and remained so until now ( Pascoe 1871; Alonso-Zarazaga and Lyal 1999). Among the two species described in the original description of Pempheres , we designate P. trilineata as the type species. The decision is based on the type series of P. trilineata containing both male and female specimens, in contrast to the type series of P. habena containing only females, which provide less morphological information.

The presence of canaliculate structures on the abdomen of males suggests that Mecopus serrirostris Pascoe, 1871 and M. ceylanensis Heller, 1894 probably belong to this genus ( Heller 1894).