An update to the taxonomy of the genus Macroderes Westwood 1842 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) with descriptions of new species from South Africa
Author
Abdalla, Ishtiag H.
Author
Deschodt, Christian M.
Author
Scholtz, Clarke H.
Author
Sole, Catherine L.
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-10-23
4504
1
41
75
journal article
28091
10.11646/zootaxa.4504.1.3
0b803003-244e-4511-aaf4-5e9c3f863861
1175-5326
2606164
52BA28B6-4280-4BD0-8B38-C794F04E4A66
Macroderes spectabilis
Péringuey, 1901
Macroderes spectabilis
Péringuey, 1901
: 300
;
Janssens 1939
: 27
;
Ferreira 1969
: 322
;
Frolov & Scholtz 2005
: 392
.
Type
locality.
Cape
Colony
(no exact locality)
.
Type
material examined.
None.
Type
specimen may be lost, it was not found at any
South African
museum
.
Remarks.
We have not seen the
type
specimen of this species at any of the South African museum throughout our study, thus we support
Frolov & Scholtz (2005)
assumption that the
type
specimen of this species may be lost. However, Péringuey in his original description (1901: 300) mentioned that the length of the specimen is
12.75 mm
and the width is
8.5 mm
. The species is different from its congeners in that it has a remarkable retuse and lobate pronotum in front and the absence of elytral stria 9. In his description,
Péringuey (1901)
added that the species has dense, equally distant and close pronotal punctures with the presence of deep impression antero-laterally.
The absence of elytral stria 9 is not known among
Macroderes
species, however, other above mentioned characteristics put the species in close similarity to
M. bias
.
Frolov & Scholtz (2005)
suggested that the species might be “an aberrant specimen” of
M. bias
and attributed the absence of elytral stria 9 to uncompleted separation of the striae from each other.