Polynoncus erugatus Scholtz, 1990, 1425

Costa-Silva, Vinícius, Strümpher, Werner P., Thyssen, Patricia J. & Vaz-de-Mello, Fernando Z., 2024, Taxonomic revision of the South American genus Polynoncus Burmeister, 1876 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Trogidae), Journal of Natural History 58 (1 - 4), pp. 14-166 : 70-71

Polynoncus erugatus Scholtz, 1990

( Figures 26–27 )

Polynoncus erugatus Scholtz, 1990: 1425 (original description); Gómez 2008: 515 (key to Argentinean species); Zidek 2013: 9 (checklist); Zidek 2017: 100 (checklist); Costa-Silva and Diéguez 2020: 271 (records from Argentina)

Type specimens examined. HOLOTYPE. (♀ IFML – Figure 26 ) First label [light brown, typeset]: ‘ ARGENTINA / TUCUMAN / El Infiernillo / 3.000 m / 3.I.1974 / Col. A. Willink’. Second label [white, aged, with red border, Clarke Scholtz’s handwriting]: ‘ Polynoncus / erugatus / C.H. Scholtz, 1988 / HOLOTYPE’. Third label [yellow, typeset]: ‘COLECCTION / INST. – FUND. M. LILLO / (4000) – S.M. TUCUMAN / TUCUMAN – ARGENTINA’. Forth label [white with black border, typeset]: ‘TCOL238’ ( Figure 26c ). Type locality: ‘ El Infiernillo’ [also called El abra del Infiernillo], Tucumán, Argentina .

PARATYPE (♀ IFML) . First label [light brown, typeset]: ‘ ARGENTINA / TUCUMAN / El Infiernillo / 3.000 m / 3 .I .1974 / Col . A . Willink’ . Second label [white, aged, with red border]: ‘ Polynoncus / erugatus / C .H. Scholtz , 1988 [handwritten] / PARATYPE [red, typeset]’. Third label [yellow, typeset]: ‘COLECCTION / INST . – FUND. M. LILLO / (4000) – S.M. TUCUMAN / TUCUMAN – ARGENTINA’. Fourth label [white with black border, typeset]: ‘TCOL424 ’.

Differential diagnosis. In its external morphology, this species is very similar to P. pampeanus . However, P. erugatus can be distinguished from the latter by the presence of slightly raised, usually glabrous, basal pronotal tubercles which are obsolete/absent in P. pampeanus . For details of description, see Scholtz (1990, p. 1425).

Geographic distribution. This species appears to be restricted to the Cordillera Mountain range in north-western Argentina ( Figure 27 ).

Examined non-type material (9 specimens). ARGENTINA: Catamarca, San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca , 540 m, April 2005, G . E Acuña leg . (1 CEMT). Salta, Capital , 15 January 1985, J .E . Barriga leg . (1♂ CVMD) . Tucumán, El Infiernillo, 9 November 1995, G . Flores and S . Roig leg . (1♂ and 2♀ CEMT; 2♂ and 2♀ CVMD) .

Remarks. Scholtz (1990) described Polynoncus erugatus from three female specimens (see Scholtz 1990, p. 1425) collected in ‘El Infiernillo – Tucuman’. During this study, we found several male specimens from the same locality with identical external morphology to that of the females of P. erugatus . However, with regards to the morphology of the male genitalia, there was no difference between males of what we consider to be P. erugatus and males of P. pampeanus . Despite the similarity of male genitalia, we will keep both species as valid until new data can confirm the possible synonymy.

Figures

Figure 26. Holotype of Polynoncus erugatus Scholtz, 1990: habitus in a, dorsal and b, lateral view; c, labels. Photos by Emília Perez (IFML). Length of specimen: 15 mm.

Figure 27. Distribution map of Polynoncus erugatus (red circles), P. furcillifer (green triangles), and P. gemmifer (blue squares) in South America. The records with a black dot in the centre indicate the type locality of the respective species.