Homocopris, BURMEISTER AS A VALID

Vaz-de-Mello, Fernando Z., Génier, François & Smith, Andrew B. T., 2010, Reclassification ofHomocoprisBurmeister as a Valid Genus to Accommodate Three Species Formerly inDichotomiusHope (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Coprini), The Coleopterists Bulletin 64 (3), pp. 192-192 : 192

RECLASSIFICATION OF HOMOCOPRIS BURMEISTER AS A VALID GENUS TO ACCOMMODATE THREE SPECIES FORMERLY IN DICHOTOMIUS HOPE ( SCARABAEIDAE : SCARABAEINAE: COPRINI)

Burmeister (1846) created Homocopris as a subgenus of Copris Geoffroy for the Chilean species Copris torulosus Eschscholtz, 1822. Harold (1869) later moved C. torulosus to the genus Pinotus Erichson, 1847, thereby placing Homocopris in synonymy with Pinotus. The species Pinotus torulosus remained in this combination until Martínez (1951) determined Pinotus to be a junior synonym of Dichotomius Hope, 1838. Dichotomius is a very large genus centered in South America, but widely distributed in the New World. The purpose of this note is to reassess the status of Homocopris in order to facilitate use of the name in upcoming publications.

Our ongoing studies of Dichotomius have led us to reaffirm Burmeister’ s original conclusions about the taxonomic uniqueness of C. torulosus. It, along with two other species, Dichotomius achamas (Harold, 1880) and Dichotomius buckleyi (Waterhouse, 1891), share a combination of characters that distinguish them from other Dichotomius and related genera of Coprini. These characters are: a) a transverse, keel-like, ventral clypeal process (conical and usually bifurcate in Dichotomius); b) presence of a supplemental, lateral, pronotal carina above the carina separating the pronotum and hypomeron (supplemental carina lacking in Dichotomius); c) metatibial spur flattened and truncated apically (bifurcate or subapically dentate in Dichotomius); and d) the absence of a large medial lamella-copulatrix -like structure in the internal sac (present in Dichotomius). Based on this evidence, Homocopris Burmeister, new status, is hereby considered a valid genus of Coprini (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae). The type species of the genus is Copris torulosus Eschscholtz by monotypy. The species here included in the genus are: Homocopris torulosus (Eschscholtz), new combination, recorded from Chile, Argentina, and Brazil; Homocopris achamas (Harold), new combination, recorded from Colombia; and Homocopris buckleyi (Waterhouse), new combination, recorded from Ecuador. Several new species are also known to us and will be described in an upcoming revision of the genus.

We thank W. D. Edmonds for his constructive review of the preliminary manuscript. FZVM was sponsored by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Mato Grosso (570847 / 2008 and 447441 /2009) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq PDJ 151603/2007-3). Part of this work was funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais/Biota Minas (CRA-APQ 03554-0).