Parhoplognathus Ohaus, 1915

Moore, Matthew R., Jameson, Mary L., Garner, Beulah H., Audibert, Cedric, Smith, Andrew B. T. & Seidel, Matthias, 2017, Synopsis of the pelidnotine scarabs (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae, Rutelini) and annotated catalog of the species and subspecies, ZooKeys 666, pp. 1-349 : 1

Parhoplognathus Ohaus, 1915 Fig. 52

Type species.

Areoda maculata Gory, 1833.

Species.

4 species; length 12-16 mm.

On first glance, the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal forest endemic genus Parhoplognathus appears similar to areodine leaf chafers such as Areoda MacLeay or Byrsopolis Burmeister due to their strongly convex form (in lateral view) and the apex of the metatibia that possesses many spinules. However, whereas areodine chafers possess a complete frontoclypeal suture, species in the genus Parhoplognathus have an obsolete frontoclypeal suture.

Ohaus (1934b) considered Chipita mexicana , to be a member of the genus Parhoplognathus , but several morphological characters (in addition to the disjunct distribution) provide rationale for the monotypic genus Chipita . The genera Parhoplognathus , Chipita , and Platyrutela (an anticheirine leaf chafer) share several similarities, and phylogenetic analyses could examine this overlap.

Species in the genus Parhoplognathus are diagnosed by the following characters: pronotum with apical bead obsolete or lacking medially; clypeal apex quadrate, reflexed, with or without emargination; external edge of protibia with 3 teeth; all claws simple (shared with Chipita and Platyrutela ); mandibular palp with horizontal/longitudinal sulcus.

A synopsis of the species in the genus was provided by Soula (2008), but identification key, natural history, and general distributional information were omitted. Natural history, larvae, and sister-group relationships have not been examined for any species in the genus.

Figures

Figure 52. Parhoplognathus limbatipennis (Ohaus) from USNM. A Dorsal habitus B Lateral habitus.