Scarites Fabricius, 1775

Bousquet, Yves, 2012, Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico, ZooKeys 245, pp. 1-1722 : 275

Genus Scarites Fabricius, 1775

Scarites Fabricius, 1775: 249. Type species: Scarites subterraneus Fabricius, 1775 designated by Andrewes (1929: 225). Etymology. From the Greek scaritis (gem of the color of the fish named scaros, probably a wrasse, in Pliny the Elder) [masculine].

Diversity.

About 190 species (Lorenz 2005: 137-140) arrayed in four subgenera: Orientolobus Dostal (eight Indo-African species), Parallelomorphus Motschulsky (15 Old World species), Scarites s.str. (about 130 species), and Taeniolobus Chaudoir (about 40 Neotropical species). The genus is more diversified in term of species in the tropics of the Old World (about 60.5% of the world fauna) than anywhere else.

Identification.

Bänninger (1938) reviewed the species and provided keys for their identification. Three new North American species were subsequently described. Bousquet and Skelley (2010) published a key to all Nearctic species except Scarites lissopterus Chaudoir.