The Ceratocanthinae of Ulu Gombak: high species richness at a single site, with descriptions of three new species and an annotated checklist of the Ceratocanthinae of Western Malaysia and Singapore (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea, Hybosoridae)
Author
Alberto Ballerio
Author
Munetoshi Maruyama
text
Zookeys
2010
34
77
104
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.34.268
553C91CE-FEA1-4867-929B-2865647E4B2E
Besuchetostes jaccoudi
Paulian, 1977
Known distribution: West Malaysia (Pahang) (Paulian 1977).
Remarks. This is another flightless species known up to now by the holotype (in the collection of the Museum National d’Histoire naturelle, Paris) and a few further specimens from the type locality (MHNG, ABCB). Examination of all available material revealed that this species does not belong to
Besuchetostes
. Paulian placed this species in the genus
Besuchetostes
mainly because of the lack of genal canthus/ dorsal ocular area, a character to which he gave much importance. However, according to a preliminary analysis carried out by the first author, the presence/absence of a genal canthus seems often the result of the fusion of the genal canthus with the occipital area of the head surface, a character that could be related to an adaptation to live in dark environments (leaf litter, dead logs), so it is highly homoplastic in the group and not particularly reliable for defining genera. Based on the aforesaid analysis the genus
Besuchetostes
is now characterized by a combination of characters involving mouthparts morphology, pronotum posteriorly swollen and protruding backwards, male genitalia and, above all, the shape of antennal scape and pedicellus. In
Besuchetostes
the antennal scape is regularly gradually swollen proximad and the pedicellus is very large (about as wide as the apical portion of scape), whereas in
B. jaccoudi
the scape is securiform, with pedicellus smaller than the apical portion of the scape. The overall morphology of
B. jaccoudi
would suggest its placement in the
Perignamptus
genus group, as defined by Ballerio (2009), although currently it is not possible to assign it to any given genus, due to the messy systematics of the genera belonging to the group.