Cratocerus Dejean 1829

Grzymala, Traci L. & Will, Kipling W., 2014, Taxonomic review of Cratocerus Dejean, 1829 (Coleoptera, Carabidae) with the description of six new species, ZooKeys 416, pp. 77-112 : 80-81

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Carabidae

Cratocerus Dejean 1829

Cratocerus Dejean 1829: 3, 12-13; Hope 1838: 84; Chaudoir 1852: 77-79; Lacordaire 1854: 257, 263-264; Gemminger and Harold 1868: 250; Chaudoir 1872: 17-18; Bertkau 1873: 269; Chapuis 1876: 269; Horn 1881: 163; Bates 1882: 90; Sloane 1923: 249; Csiki 1929: 493; Blackwelder 1944: 34; Reichardt 1973: 324-325; Whitehead and Ball 1974: 595; Reichardt 1977: 407; Straneo 1977: 108, 115; Straneo 1979: 346, 352; Lorenz 2005: 248; Bouchard et al. 2011: 124.

Type species:

Cratocerus monilicornis Dejean 1829: 14-15.

Diagnosis.

Medium to small, rufopiceous to black beetles with a compact, convex body form. Head is relatively broad with prominent eyes and moniliform antennae. Elytral striae are distinctly sulcate. Tergite VIII is divided into hemitergites and those divided into epitergites. This combination of characters distinguishes members of Cratocerus from all other carabids within their range including similar genera, e.g. Catapiesis and Moriosomus Motschulsky.

Description.

Microsculpture. Head dull in appearance with isodiametric microsculpture; pronotum shining with markedly transverse microsculpture; procoxa distinctly granulate isodiametric; abdominal sternites with transverse microsculpture. Head. Prominent supraorbital ridge, occasionally with slight rugosity; one or two pairs of supraorbital setae. Frons glabrous. Fronto-clypeal suture distinct. Clypeus with pair of setae present mediolaterally. Labrum with six anterior marginal setae, outer pair length 1/3 × middle pair, middle pair length 1/3 × inner pair; apex of labrum often slightly medially emarginate. Mentum with one pair of setae and prominent medial tooth, submentum with two pairs of setae; transverse suture between mentum and submentum complete. Scape glabrous except for one dorsal seta; pedicel length 1/3 × length of scape, constricted at base with slight apical expansion, with one ring of testaceous setae surrounding apex, antennomere 3 length 1 ½ × that of scape, longer than wide, with several rings of testaceous setae confined to apical 2/3; antennomeres 4-10 transverse and subequal to one another, covered with dense pubescence similarly colored to integument laterally, resulting in matte appearance, midline of antennomeres moderately pubescent; antennomere 11 slightly longer than 10 and broadly rounded apically; antennal length extended to pronotal base. Thorax. Pronotal disc 1.1-1.4 × wider than long. Median impression distinct, single basal fovea laterad or pair of fovea laterad with additional fovea overlaying medial impression. Pronotal hind angles sharply denticulate. Elytral length 2.3-2.9 × pronotal length and 1.3-1.6 × elytral width; striae moderately impressed, impunctate or crenulostriate, striae 1, 2, and 7 reaching elytral apex; striae 3 and 4 anastomozing anterad of elytral apex; striae 5 and 6 anastomozing anterad of elytral apex; intervals slightly convex or subtectiform; elytral humeri sharply denticulate; apex rounded, not truncate; plica absent. Legs. Protarsomeres 1-4 of males with paired rows of ventral setal pads formed from squamate setae; females with ventral mediolateral spines. Metatrochanter with one basal seta. Metafemur anterior face with one seta basally located and one medially located. Abdomen. Abdominal sternites IV–VII glabrous except for a single pair of ambulatory setae; males without setiferous fovea; males and females with single pair of setae on sternite VII. Males with parameres glabrous, left paramere larger than right paramere, left paramere with simple to complex curvature (Fig. 11 a–g). Females without medial sclerotized ramus at base of gonocoxa; gonocoxa IX clearly separated into basal and apical aspects, gonocoxite 1 and gonocoxite 2; gonocoxite 2 apex pointed and curved laterad, with short, single, broad lateral ensiform seta and short, single, broad dorsal ensiform seta, apical sensory furrow with two nematiform setae; spermathecal gland lacking.

Distribution.

The genus is distributed (Fig. 13) from southern Mexico throughout Central America, and into the South American countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, French Guiana, Brazil, and Argentina.

Ecology.

Adults are often collected under the bark of fallen tree branches.

Additional literature.

Dejean and Boisduval 1834: 15-17; Schaum 1853: 190; Schaum 1860: 174; Scudder 1882: 81; Emden 1942: 34, 65; Darlington 1962: 507; Freitag 1969: 90; Erwin and Erwin 1976: 219; Erwin 1979: 558; Allen and Ball 1979: 491; Ball and Erwin 1982; 485, 498; Erwin and Sims 1984: 361, 376; Erwin 1990: 40, 54, fig. 53; Erwin 1991: 7; Will et al. 2000: 467; Will 2004: 640.