Cyclocephala ovulum H. W. Bates, 1888

Hielkema, Auke J. & Hielkema, Meindert A., 2019, An annotated checklist of the Scarabaeoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) of the Guianas, Insecta Mundi 732 (732), pp. 1-306 : 177

Cyclocephala ovulum H. W. Bates, 1888

Cyclocephala ovulum H. W. Bates 1888: 306 (Amazon Basin, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama)

Distribution. Guyana: Bodkin 1919: 215; Moore et al. 2018b: 225. Suriname: MHCN - NEW COUN- TRY RECORD (Suriname, Para, 1 km W of Zanderij, (5°27′37″N, 55°13′21″W). 5-I-2011. A. J. Hielkema. On UV/HPL in savanna forest.); NZCS. French Guiana: Moore et al. 2018b: 225. “Guianas”: Arrow 1937b: 14; Blackwelder 1944: 252. Brazil: Arrow 1937b: 14; Blackwelder 1944: 252; Moore et al. 2018b: 225. Venezuela (EO): Kirmse and Ratcliffe 2019: 153 (EO). “Amazon Basin”: H. W. Bates 1888: 306. Other: H. W. Bates 1888: 306 (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama); Arrow 1937b: 14 (Guatemala, Paraguay); Blackwelder 1944: 252 (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay); Endrödi 1966a: 318 (treated as an aberration of C. testacea ), 1985a: 108, 146 (treated as an aberration of C. testacea ); Ponchel 2011 (not mentioned); Dupuis 2016b (not mentioned); Moore et al. 2018b: 225 (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay).

Note. In Endrödi (1966a: 318, 1985a: 108, 146) Cyclocephala ovulum is regarded as an aberration of C. testacea . It is reinstated as a species in Ratcliffe (2003: 180). It is noteworthy that, despite several collectors and authors being active in French Guiana, no reliable records of C. ovulum from the Guianas have been published after Blackwelder (1944: 252), even though Ratcliffe has identified Surinamese specimens from multiple locations in the first author’s collection as belonging to this species. However, C. testacea has recently been reported multiple times for French Guiana (see under that species). This likely means that either the Marowijne River between Suriname and French Guiana acts as a border for this species, or that either Surinamese or French Guianese specimens are consistently being misidentified, or that the validity of C. ovulum as a separate species is not (yet) accepted by French taxonomists. The only record for French Guiana that we are aware of is in Gruner (1971: 845), as C. testacea ab. ovulum , and in Moore et al. (2018b: 225), with the former being copied by the latter (M. Moore, pers. comm. 2018). Given the apparent overall untrustworthiness of Gruner (1971), we consider this record unreliable.