Cerambycinae, Latreille, 1802

Nascimento, Francisco Eriberto de Lima, Botero, Juan Pablo & Lezama, Humberto, 2019, A new genus, a new species and taxonomic notes in Oxycoleini Martins & Galileo, 2003 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Cerambycinae), Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (Pap. Avulsos Zool., S. Paulo) 59, pp. 1-6 : 1-2

Cerambycinae

Oxycoleini Martins & Galileo, 2003

Oxycoleus Lacordaire, 1868

Oxycoleus Lacordaire, 1868: 484 ; Bates, 1880: 41; Julio, 1997: 2 (rev.); Martins & Galileo, 2003: 54 (rev.); Monné,2005:426 (cat.); Monné, 2012: 42 (cat.); Monné, 2018: 626 (cat.).

Stenoptrellus Bates, 1870: 314 ; Bates, 1880: 41 (syn.).

Oxylopsebus Clarke, 2008: 62 ; Monné, 2012: 42 (cat.); Monné, 2018: 628 (cat.). syn. nov.

Remarks

Lacordaire (1868) established Oxycoleus to allocate O. clavipes Lacordaire 1868 (monotypy), and reported on elytral shape (translated):“Elytra slightly longer than half of the abdomen, dehiscent almost from their base, obliquely narrowed at the inner side and very acute apically […] It is obviously close to the Stenopterus , but differs in the shape of the elytra, legs and abdomen of female…”. In describing the genus Stenoptrellus (currently synonymous of Oxycoleus ), Bates (1870) also mentioned that his species had dehiscent elytra. Later, Bates (1880) commented on Oxycoleus : “A curious genus of the Molorchina group, with abbreviated triangular elytra” and synonymized Oxycoleus and Stenoptrellus with Merionoeda Pascoe, 1858 .

Gounelle (1911) described Tethlimena gahani (currently Oxycoleus gahani ), and commented on the elytral shape (translated): “…elytral base wider than prothorax, base truncated, subparallel-sided from humeri to about middle, then gradually widened, and then narrowly arched at posterior quarter, sutural angle, obtuse…”.

As we can see in the Gounelle’s description, the elytral shape of O. gahani does not agree with the typical elytral shape (dehiscent), and this probably led other authors to describe species with non-dehiscent elytra in Oxycoleus .

Later, Melzer (1933) described a variation of the Gounelle species, Tethlimmena Gahani var. tristis (currently O. tristis ), and mentioned (translated): “I have a specimen collected by Mr. A. Maller in Mafra (Santa Catarina) which, except for coloring, agrees well with the original description of this species […] Although the difference in color is remarkable, I think nonetheless that it is only a new variety that I call: var. tristis ”.

Posteriorly, Zajciw (1964) described Merionoeda (Merionoeda) latipennis , which was later transferred to Oxycoleus by Monné & Giesbert (1992).

Julio (1997) revised the genus and summarized the shape of the elytra as follows (translated): “Elytra reaching or not the abdominal apex, slightly narrowed at middle, dehiscent, carinate (except in O. obscurus , O. tristis and O. gahani ). Julio (1997) considered T. gahani var. tristis as a distinct species, and considered O. latipennis Zajciw, 1964 synonymous of O. tristis .

Some years later, when proposing Oxycoleini (hitherto composed only by Oxycoleus ), Martins & Galileo (2003) described the elytral shape as “usually dehiscent”.

Oxylopsebus was described by Clarke (2008) to allocate O. brachypterus Clarke, 2008 . According to the author, Oxylopsebus differs specially by the strongly dehiscent elytra and commented:“…apart from the elytra, the differences between Oxylopsebus and Oxycoleus are less obvious…”. The other characteristics mentioned are: “…scape is strongly curved (a character shared with Oxycoleus tristis ); prosternal process laminiform at base, spatulate at apex and reaching well beyond coxal cavities (not flattened and acuminate, and failing to reach beyond coxal cavities); mesosternal process half as wide as coxae and excavate at apex (not almost as wide as coxae and truncate at apex); legs are very similar in both genera, longer in Oxycoleus , but in Oxylopsebus the hind legs are considerably larger than the others and all the tibiae curved, not just the metatibiae as in Oxycoleus . Finally, the elytra of the Oxycoleini not only almost cover the abdomen, but also opaque, and closely and coarsely punctured throughout (shortened, semi-translucent, and sparsely punctured in Oxylopsebus ).”

Probably, Clarke (2008) did not have access to other species of the genus, neither photos of the holotypes, and compared its new species only with the species deposited at MZSP (all with non-dehiscent elytra). One evidence of this is the key separating Oxycoleus from Oxylopsebus . In the former, the elytra would be parallel-sided and almost covering the abdomen, while in Oxylopsebus , the elytra would be shorter and acuminate ( Clarke, 2008).

We are, therefore, considering the monotypic genus Oxylopsebus as synonymous of Oxycoleus , because the former has the typical elytral shape of Oxycoleus and the other generic characteristics do not separate them.

Oxycoleus brachypterus ( Clarke, 2008) , comb. nov.