Dichotomius (Dichotomius) protectus (Harold, 1867)

Chamorro, William, Marin-Armijos, Diego, senjo, Angelico & Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Z., 2019, Scarabaeinae dung beetles from Ecuador: a catalog, nomenclatural acts, and distribution records, ZooKeys 826, pp. 1-343 : 116-117

Dichotomius (Dichotomius) protectus (Harold, 1867) Plate 26C

Pinotus protectus Harold, 1867e: 98 (original description. Type locality: Columbia [= Colombia]).

Pinotus protectus : Harold 1869c: 130 (redescription); Gemminger and Harold 1869: 1010 (complete list of species); Gillet 1911a: 61 (complete list of species); Campos 1921: 56 (cited for Ecuador); Luederwaldt 1929: 34 (characters in key); Blackwelder 1944: 207 (list of species of Latin America); Contreras 1951: 222 (cited of Colombia).

Dichotomius protectus : Roze 1955: 44 (cited for Venezuela); Medina et al. 2001: 138 (cited for Colombia); Hamel-Leigue et al. 2006: 15 (cited for Bolivia); Sarmiento-Garcés and Amat-García 2009: 290 (diagnosis), 295 (characters in key); Carvajal et al. 2011: 320-321 (cited for Ecuador); Krajcik 2012: 92 (complete list of species); Sarmiento-Garcés and Amat-García 2014: 51 (characters in key), 64 (diagnosis); Ratcliffe et al. 2015: 197 (cited for Peru).

Dichotomius (Dichotomius) protectus : Chamorro et al. 2018: 94 (cited for Ecuador).

Type specimens.

Pinotus protectus Harold, 1867. Four syntypes examined deposited at the MZUSP. Lectotype to be designated in a future work on this species group.

Syntype (♂): "Loja / Oscordill. / Sabanilla / F. Ohs. 30.9.05 [p]", "forma a. [hw]", "Pinotus ♂ / protectus Har. / Lüd. det. 22 [hw]", "17200 [p]", "COTIPO [p, pink label, black margin]".

Syntype (♂): "Loja / Oscordill. / Sabanilla / F. Ohs. 30.9.05 [p]", "forma a. [hw]", "Pinotus ♂ / protectus Har. / Lüd. det. 25 [hw]", "17201 [p]", "COTIPO [p, pink label, black margin]".

Syntype (♂): "O. ECUADOR / Canelos / F. Ohs. 23.12.05 [p]", "Pinotus ♂ / protectus Har. / Lüd. det. 25 [hw]", "Forma a", "17202 [p]", "COTIPO [p, pink label, black margin]".

Syntype (♀): "Loja / Oscordill. / Sabanilla / F. Ohs. 30.9.05 [p]", "forma b. [hw]", "Pinotus ♀ / protectus H. / Lüd. det. 22 [hw]", "17203 [p]", "COTIPO [p, pink label, black margin]".

Distribution.

Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Records examined.

LOJA: Sabanilla [= El Tambo, ZAMORA CHINCHIPE] (3 specimens MZUSP). MORONA SANTIAGO: Chiguinda Río Blanco, 1730 m (2 specimens MUTPL); Macas, 1000 m (1 specimen CEMT). NAPO: Quebrada Granadillas Bosque Protector La Cascada, 1300 m, Parque Nacional Sumaco (1 specimen MUTPL); Pacto Sumaco, 1620 m (1 specimen MUTPL); Las Palmas (1 specimen MUTPL); Punte Río Quijos, 1400 m, Parque Nacional Sumaco (3 specimens MUTPL); Puente Río El Salado-Río Quijos, 1280 m, Parque Nacional Sumaco (1 specimen MUTPL); Santa Rosa (1 specimen MUTPL). PASTAZA: Canelos (1 specimen MZUSP), Puyo (1 specimen CEMT). SUCUMBÍOS: La Sofía, 1800 m (1 specimen MUTPL). TUNGURAHUA: 2 km N de Baños, 1800 m (1 specimen CEMT); 4.3 km de Río Negro, 1200 m (2 specimens MQCAZ); Baños, 2200 m (1 specimen CEMT); Baños, El Topo, 1590 m (44 specimens CEMT). ZAMORA CHINCHIPE: Cordillera la Curintza, 1790 m (12 specimens MECN); Chito Río Sangolas, 1540 m (2 specimens MUTPL); Chito Río San Francisco, 1800 m (1 specimen MUTPL); RVS El Zarza campamento las Peñas, Cordillera del Cóndor, conseción El Zarza, 1510 m (1 specimen MUTPL); RVS El Zarza campamento las Peñas, Cordillera del Cóndor conseción El Colibri, 1535 m (1 specimen MUTPL); Tundayme, campamento Mirador road to La Cara del Indio, 1670 m (1 specimen MUTPL); Tundayme campamento Mirador, La Mina, 1320 m (1 specimen MUTPL); Zurmi, Comunidad Miazi, 1380 m (1 specimen MUTPL; 1 specimen MEPN); Zurmi, Pachikuntza, 1685 m (1 specimen MUTPL; 1 specimen MEPN); road to Condor km 38, 1800 m (1 specimen CEMT).

Literature records.

LOJA: Sabanilla [= El Tambo, ZAMORA CHINCHIPE], 1900 m ( Luederwaldt 1923: 10). PASTAZA: Canolas [= Canelos] ( Luederwaldt 1923: 10).

Temporal data.

Collected in January, February, March, April, May, July, September, October, and November.

Remarks.

Inhabits the lower evergreen montane forests in the Amazonian range from 1300-1730 m a.s.l. In the Andean region, it was registered in the montane cloud forests from 1800-2200 m a.s.l. Collected manually and with pitfall traps baited with carrion and human feces.