Taxonomy of the dung beetle genus Ochicanthon Vaz-de-Mello (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) of the Indian subcontinent, with notes on distribution patterns and flightlessness
Author
Latha, Mathews
Author
Cuccodoro, Giulio
Author
Sabu, Thomas K.
text
Zootaxa
2011
2745
1
29
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.276621
a6eb9c5a-9b0b-47df-a207-6c5ee54acebd
1175-5326
276621
Ochicanthon deplanatus
(Paulian)
(
Figs. 10–12
)
Phacosoma deplanatum
Paulian, 1983
: 615
.
Description.
Body (
Fig. 10
) predominantly black with two orange-yellow spots along lateral margin of each elytron. Punctation on head and pronotum (
Fig. 11
) consists of annular setiferous punctures separated by interval approximately equal to their diameter. Pronotum weakly convex, outline at base almost in line with that of elytral suture; laterobasal paramarginal ridge well marked, extended on slightly more than one third of pronotal length; setae almost indistinct, straight and recumbent. Elytra weakly convex; suture not raised; striae shallow, narrow, consisting of chains of oval depressions joined by straight sulci (
Fig. 11
); interstriae fairly flat, finely punctate, uneven; background microsculpture coriaceous; lateral ridge posteriorly extended to level of apex of second stria. Mesosternum smooth, meso-metasternal line weakly arcuate, metasternum coarsely punctate (
Fig. 12
). Pygidium covered with shallow annular setiferous punctures becoming finer and sparser ventrally. Protrochanter with outer margin arcuate.
Hind
wings present.
Male unknown.
Measurements
(mm; n = 1:
holotype
): TL = 6.0; BW = 3.8; PL = 1.8; PW = 3.0; EL = 3.0.
Material examined.
Holotype
(female,
MHNG
): “
India
Meghalaya, Khasi Hills, Cherrapunjee,
1200m
,
26.x.1978
, leg. Besuchet & Löbl, #28b” [below Cherrapunjee, sifting in forest at base of rocks].
Distribution and natural history.
Northeast
India
(Cherrapunjee, in the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion).
Diagnosis.
Ochicanthon deplanatus
is the only species of the Indian subcontinent to have each elytron with 2 orange-yellow spots and coriaceous elytral background microsculpture. These characters are shared with
O. obscurus
recorded from the eastern boundary of Arunachal Pradesh and beyond the northeast of the Indian subcontinent in
Myanmar
,
Laos
,
Vietnam
and
Thailand
(
Boucomont 1920
,
Hanboonsong & Masumoto 2001
,
Sewak 2006
), but
O. deplanatus
has the pronotum unicolored unlike
O. obscurus
with anterolateral lobes of pronotum orange-yellow.