Cotinis Burmeister, 1842

Woodruff, Robert E., 2008, The genus Cotinis Burmeister in the eastern United States, with description of a new species from the Florida Keys, including a checklist of the genus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae), Insecta Mundi 2008 (51), pp. 1-13 : 1-2

Genus Cotinis Burmeister, 1842

Type species. Gymnetis mutabilis Gory and Percheron (1833: 334) , by subsequent designation of Casey (1915: 277). The name Cotinis was synonymized under Gymnetis MacLeay by Martinez (1949), but Goodrich (1964) successfully petitioned the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to conserve (un- der plenary powers) the names Cotinis and Gymnetis , as defined by Burmeister (1842) and in common usage for over a century.

Subgenera. The genus Cotinis contains 3 subgenera: The typical subgenus Cotinis Burmeister contains the bulk of species, with the subgenus Criniflava Goodrich (1966: 566) containing 2 species, and the subgenus Liberocera Deloya and Ratcliffe (1988: 39) a single species.

Generic Diagnosis. Cotinis (Fig. 1, 4, 32) is a member of the tribe Gymnetini . Within the tribe, Cotinis is unique in possessing a median, upturned, lobiform process on the anterior margin of the clypeus (Fig. 9-12) in both sexes. The head possesses a central, horn-like, frontal process, extending from the vertex toward the clypeus (Fig. 9, 11). Species may be shiny or matte, and green to black, but they all lack dorsal scales (found in the related genus Balsameda Thompson ). Species in the similar genus Gymnetis lack the clypeal process, and often have bright color patterns.

Species-level characters include size and shape of the clypeal process; the extent, size, and amount of fusion of the frontal process; body color, sculpture, and vestiture; anterior tibial dentition (usually bidentate or tridentate); size and shape of the male genitalia (in a few species the internal sac is useful); and pygidial color and sculpture. There is little external sexual dimorphism. However, in some species, the last abdominal sternite is punctate over its entire surface in females, smooth medially in males; in a few species (including C. aliena ) anterior tibiae are bidentate in males and tridentate in females (wear may affect the teeth).

Variation. Many species within the genus Cotinis are extremely uniform in appearance, but others show considerable variation in size, color, vestiture, punctures, and clypeal processes. Variation is espe-

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cially noticeable for C. nitida (L.) and C. mutabilis (Gory and Percheron) , and it caused Goodrich to synonymize all of the 9 species and 10 subspecies described by Casey (1915), as well as many others.