Macrodontia Lacordaire, 1830

Macrodontia Lacordaire, 1830 View in CoL

Reviewer:

Ronald D. Cave ( USA) - http://zoobank.org/ 23337FBC-F0D0-427D-80EF-45AEBB59C7DD - https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5209-5975

1. Dorsal habitus. 2. Ventral habitus. 3. Lateral habitus. 4. Head, frontal view. 5. Aedeagus, lateral habitus. 6. Aedeagus, dorsal habitus. 7. Aedeagus, ventral habitus.

FAUNITAXYS - ISSN (Print): 2269 - 6016 - ISSN (Online): 2970 - 4960

8 - 13. Macrodontia crenata ( Olivier,1795) . 8. Head and pronotum, ♂, specimen 1, from Brazil (Mato Grosso, Corumbá ) ( MZSP 16306 View Materials ) . 9. Head and pronotum, ♂, specimen 2, from Brazil (Pará, Óbidos ) ( MZSP 16308 View Materials ) . 10. Head and prothorax, ventral view, ♂, specimen 2. 11. Head, lateral view, ♂, specimen 2. 12. Head and pronotum, ♀ from Brazil (Mato Grosso, Corumbá ) ( MZSP 13303 View Materials ) . 13. Head and prothorax, ventral view, ♀ ( MZSP 13303 View Materials ) .

14. Macrodontia dejeanii Gory, 1839 , ♀ from Colombia, head and prothorax, ventral view.

15. Macrodontia batesi Lameere, 1912 , holotype ♀, head and prothorax, ventral view.

Macrodontia crenata ( Olivier, 1795) View in CoL

( Fig. 1-15)

Prionus crenatus Olivier, 1795: 27 View in CoL .

Prionus quadrispinosus Schönherr, 1817: 346 View in CoL .

Macrodontia castanea Blanchard, 1848: 210 View in CoL .

Macrodontia ehrenreichi Kolbe, 1894: 42 View in CoL .

Remarks. – Among the species of Macrodontia , M. crenata is the species with the greatest amount of morphological and chromatic variation not associated with a geographical region. The most common variations in both sexes are:

1. Vertex smooth ( Fig. 8, 12), sparsely punctate, or abundantly punctate (in the latter case, sometimes rugose-punctate) ( Fig. 1, 4, 9);

2. Central plate on the pronotum smooth ( Fig. 8, 12), sparsely punctate, abundantly and finely punctate ( Fig. 9), abundantly and coarsely punctate ( Fig. 1), or densely rugose-punctate;

3. Elytra proportionally narrow and elongate or moderately wide and short;

4. Elytra distinctly longitudinally carinate or carina slightly evident or absent;

5. Elytra from yellowish brown to dark brown; rarely, with longitudinal blackish bands between yellowish-brown areas ( Fig. 1), or darker dorsally than laterally.

Bleuzen (1994) stated: “In the large number of specimens that I have been able to study, I have been able to note a certain number of variations. Firstly, there is the colour, which varies from brown ochre to dark brown. This seems to me to be principally due to the ageing and desiccation of the specimens, as material which is old or overexposed to sunlight is always light whilst fresh and correctly killed material is dark coloured (the elytra being slightly translucent). The other variations are: the more or less strong presence of ribs, punctation and the microstructure of the pronotum in both sexes. Over the whole range of specimens, a progressive gradation has become evident. It appears that the less punctate specimens come from the Amazon basin whilst the most coarsely punctate ones come, in general, from the outlying areas such as the Guyanan plateau, the start of the Andean foothills and the Mato Grosso plateau.”

In addition to these variations, males, especially those of small size ( Fig. 1 - 4), can also have mandibles like females ( Fig. 12 -13). In the males with mandibles similar to those of females, the submentum ( Fig. 2) is also equal to that of females ( Fig. 13), i.e., the anterior punctate region is longer and less transverse than in typical males ( Fig. 10) and is not tuberculate laterally close to eyes (tuberculate in males ( Fig. 11) with typical masculine mandibles).

We illustrate a male ( Fig. 1 -7) with mandibles and submentum as in females, but also with distinct blackish bands on the elytra. This male can be recognized as M. crenata rather than a member of the group of species that always have these bands ( M. antonkozlovi Santos-Silva, 2016 ; M. batesi Lameere, 1912 ; M. castroi Marazzi, Pavisi & Marazzi, 2008 ; M. dejeanii Gory, 1839 ; M. marechali Bleuzen, 1990 ; and M. mathani Pouillaude, 1915 ) by the shape and sculpturing of the submentum as in females of M. crenata . Furthermore, we already saw photograph of a male with the typical mandibles of large males of M. crenata with the elytral blackish bands. In females of the other species, the punctures on the anterior region of the submentum are less distinct ( Fig. 14, 15). Although we see any males of M. antonkozlovi , M. batesi , M. castroi , M. dejeanii , M. marechali , and M. mathani with mandibles like in females, it is expected that they also have the submentum as in females.

According to Schönherr (1817): “[ Prionus ] Crenatus . Fabr. S. El. II. p. 264.35. Loc. India.” Therefore, he provided a replacement name for Olivier’s species: “ Quadri-spinosus. Prion . crenatus . Oliv. Ent. IV. 66. p. 27.29. T. 2. f. 45. Loc. Cayenna.” Gory (1839) refuted the replacement name (translated): “I do not know what reason M. Schoenherr may have had, in his synonymy, for preceding the name of Prionus crenatus, Oliv. , with that of quadri-spinosus, without the name of the author; I therefore believe I should restore the name originally adopted.” Lameere (1904) stated (translated): “It is wrong that Schönherr changed the name of this species, probably because the nomenclature contained in 1817 a second Prionus crenatus : the latter, which is a Macrotoma , was only published by Fabricius in 1801 (Syst. Eleuth, II, p. 264), and it is he who should have been renamed.” According to Bousquet (2016), the work in which Fabricius described Prionus crenatus was published in 1802; and on the work in which Olivier described Prionus crenatus : “This volume is usually dated 1795, the date on the title page. However, due to a diplomatic and scientific mission of Olivier to the Ottoman Empire, livraison 23, which comprised about 3/4 of the volume (?starting at page 81 of Capricorne), was published in 1800. It was recorded on the Fructidor an VIII (= 18 August–22 September 1800) issue of the Journal général de la Littérature de France.” Therefore, the synonymy proposed by Gory (1839) is correct: Prionus quadrispinosus is an unnecessary replacement name and thus a junior synonym of Prionus crenatus Olivier. Lameere (1904) synonymized Macrodontia castanea and M. ehrenreichi with M. crenata . Photographs of the holotypes of M. castanea and M. ehrenreichi ( Pirkl 2023) confirm the synonymies proposed by Lameere (1904).

Currently, M. crenata is recorded from Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia (Beni, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz), Brazil (Acre, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul), and Paraguay (Monné 2023; Bezark 2023; Tavakilian & Chevillotte 2022).

Male genitalia ( Fig. 5 - 7). – In lateral view ( Fig. 5), aedeagus slightly arched; tegmen shorter than penis; parameres ( Fig. 5 - 7) gradually narrowed toward rounded apex, with moderately abundant, short and long, yellowish-brown setae; phallobase 4.0 times longer than parameres.

Material examined (only the specimen with blackish elytral bands). PERU, Loreto: Requena , 1 ♂, 13.I.1999, local collector ( IMQC) .