Cyclocephala tylifera Höhne, 1923

Gasca-Alvarez, Héctor Jaime, 2013, New Records of Cyclocephala Dejean (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) Associated with Caladium bicolor (Aiton) Vent. (Araceae), The Coleopterists Bulletin 67 (4), pp. 416-418 : 417

Cyclocephala tylifera Höhne, 1923

At the San Luis de Gaceno locality, one male and one female were found in a single C. bicolor inflorescence during anthesis. Little is known about the biology of the species. Cyclocephala tylifera has been reported in the inflorescences of Philodendron squamiferum Poepp. in French Guiana ( Gibernau and Barabé 2002; Ponchel 2006).

Cyclocephala tylifera is widely distributed in northern South America, and it is recorded from Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Guyana, French Guyana, and Suriname ( Endrödi 1985). The species is recognized by the unique form of the male parameres (rounded and wide in the basal half and slender in apical half).

All beetles were found inside the spadix of the inflorescence of C. bicolor . In several genera of Araceae , such as Philodendron and Xanthosoma , the spathe forms a special chamber where the beetles congregate. These heated floral chambers are energy savers for the beetles, and they are used as shelters and mating sites ( Seymour et al. 2003). Aroid floral visitation patterns observed in this study are consistent with many angiosperms (Gottsberger and Amaral 1984; Pellmyr 1985; Gibernau et al. 1999; Gibernau and Barabé 2002; Maia and Schlindwein 2006; Maia et al. 2010). Early developmental stages of flowers in C. bicolor and Philodendron species are similar (Barabé and Lacroix 2002), suggesting similar conditions. Data obtained also represent new information about floral visitation patterns by dynastine beetles in Colombia. Another three Cyclocephala species have been reported as flower visitors and as potential pollinators in Xanthosoma daguense Engl ; Cyclocephala . amblyopsis Bates, Cyclocephala gregaria Heyne and Tashenberg , and Cyclocephala kaszabi Endrödi (Garcia-Robledo et al. 2004; Garcia-Robledo et al. 2005). Observations obtained in this study are a contribution to understanding Cyclocephalini- Araceae relationships in the Neotropics.