Euphoria Burmeister, 1842

Orozco, Jesus, 2009, A new generic and new specific synonym in the genus Euphoria Burmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae: Cetoniini), Insecta Mundi 2009 (65), pp. 1-4 : 1-2

Euphoria Burmeister, 1842

Euphoria Burmeister 1842: 370 .

Erirhipis Burmeister 1842: 385 .

Stephanucha Burmeister 1842: 394 .

Euryomia Lacordaire 1856: 525 (part).

Euphoriaspis Casey 1915: 298 .

Euphoriopsis Casey 1915: 298 NEW SYNONYMY.

Anatropis Casey 1915: 298 .

Casey (1915) created the monotypic genus Euphoriopsis for Euphoria hera Burmeister, 1842 . Euphoriopsis was not formally defined by Casey but only mentioned in a diagnostic key. According to Casey (1915), Euphoriopsis is separated from Euphoria based on the lack of a lateral marginal bead in the pronotum and the presence of clypeal teeth.

Phylogenetic data based on morphological evidence ( Orozco 2007; Orozco and Philips, in prep.) show no support for Euphoriopsis as a valid genus. These data place Euphoria precaria Janson as the sister species of E. hera , within the Euphoria clade. Analysis of 37 specimens of E. hera from different museums confirmed the presence of a lateral marginal bead on the pronotum as suggested by Hardy (1988) and contrary to what Casey (1915) stated. The other character listed by Casey (1915), the presence of clypeal teeth, is not exclusive to E. hera , but is also present in E. anneae Howden , E. areata (Fabricius) , E. bispinis Bates , E. pilipennis (Kraatz) , and E. verticalis (Horn) .

Euphoria hera ( Fig. 1 ) is known from the Andes

of Colombia and Venezuela ( Fig. 2 ). Adult speci-

mens of this species have been found in dry horse

dung (J.C. Neita, pers. comm.) and have been col-

lected at elevations greater than 1200m. The im-

mature stages are unknown.

Specimens Examined: COLOMBIA:

ANTIOQUIA: Medellin (1); BOYACA: Arcabuco (1);

CAUCA: No data (9); CUNDINAMARCA: La Mesa

(1), Sasaima (1); HUILA: Rio Aguacatal (3), Rivera

(2); SANTANDER: No data (1); VALLE DEL

CAUCA: Valle del Calima (1). VENEZUELA:

MERIDA: No data (12); TACHIRA: La Revancha

(5).

Figures

Figure 1. Euphoria hera. Scale bar = 1mm.

Figure 2. Distribution of Euphoria hera.