Chalepides pantanalensis Ratcliffe & Seidel, 2021

Ratcliffe, Brett C. & Seidel, Matthias, 2021, A new species of Chalepides Casey, 1915 (Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae, Cyclocephalini) from the Pantanal of Brazil, Evolutionary Systematics 5 (2), pp. 189-192 : 189

Chalepides pantanalensis Ratcliffe & Seidel sp. nov.

Figs 1 , 2 , 4 , 5

Type material.

Holotype male labeled "BRAZIL/ Pantanal-Fazenda/ Natureza 4.-8.11.2005/ lgt. Z. Tüdös” and with our red holotype label. Allotype female labeled "Brazil, Pantanal/ Fazenda 4 cantos, 7.-10.5.2012/ 18°36'54.40"S, 56°15'56.97"W / lgt. O. Konvicka" and with our red allotype label. One male and three female paratypes with same data as holotype and each with our yellow paratype label. Two male paratypes with same data as allotype and each with our yellow paratype label. Holotype deposited at the Zoological Museum (ZMH), Centrum für Naturkunde, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. Allotype and one male paratype deposited at the University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM), Lincoln, NE, USA; one male paratype deposited in the Matthias Seidel Collection (MSPC), Hamburg, Germany; and one male and three female paratypes deposited in the Ondřej Konvička Collection, Zlín, Czechia (OKPC).

Diagnosis.

Chalepides pantanalensis will key to couplet 11 in Endrödi (1985) which ends with C. comes Prell (Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil) where the character states do not match: degree of punctation of pronotum versus frons, pygidial sculpturing, and form of the parameres. In Joly and Escalona (2002), it will key to couplet 8 for C. osunai Joly & Escalona (Venezuela) and C. howdenorum Joly & Escalona (northern Bolivia), the only Chalepides species with a bulbous and rounded apex of the parameres (as in C. pantanalensis ). Chalepides pantanalensis has some character states seen in both of these species. The parameres are nearly identical to those of C. howdenorum , but the male of C. pantanalensis has a tooth on the venter of protarsomere 5 (absent in C. howdenorum , Fig. 3 ) and the larger protarsal claw is short and thick in C. pantanalensis (narrowly elongate in C. howdenorum ) (compare Figs 2 and 3 ).

The male of C. pantanalensis shares with C. osunai a tooth on the venter of protarsomere 5 and a larger short, thick protarsal claw, but C. pantanalensis has a greenish sheen (absent in C. osunai ), a densely punctate clypeus (sparsely punctate in C. osunai ), and shorter, suboval parameres (elongate in C. osunai ).

Description of holotype

(Fig. 1 ). Male. Length 16.7 mm; width 6.9 mm. Color black with faint olive-green sheen. Head: Frons with small, moderately dense, ocellate punctures. Clypeus with small, dense, ocellate punctures; apex broadly, shallowly emarginate, slightly reflexed. Frontal suture arcuate, complete. Interocular width equals 6.0 transverse eye diameters. Pronotum: Surface with small, sparse, ocellate punctures. Elytra: Surface punctate-striate; punctures small, ocellate, separated by about 1 puncture diameter in each row, moderately dense in intervals. Sutural stria a row of small punctures. Pygidium: Prepygidium elongated, coarsely and longitudinally strigose, with long, dense, tawny setae. Pygidium short; surface shiny with large, dense, setigerous punctures, punctures becoming small in lateral angles; setae short, moderately dense, tawny. Surface convex in lateral view. Legs: Protibia tridentate, teeth subequally spaced. Protarsus enlarged; tarsomere 4 and base of tarsomere 5 densely strigulose ventrally; tarsomere 5 longitudinally carinulate on inner margin and with distinctive tooth beneath (Fig. 2 ); median claw stout, short, strongly bent (Fig. 2 ). Metatarsus shorter than metatibia. Venter: Prosternal process long, thick, columnar, apex flattened with raised, round “button” on all but slender, setose posterior margin. Parameres: Each side of shaft at about midpoint with small tooth and then shaft expanded to rounded apex (Fig. 4 ).

Allotype. Female. Length 16.7 mm; width 6.9 mm. As holotype except in the following respects: Legs: Protarsi simple, not enlarged.

Variation.

Male (3 paratypes). Length 15.8-16.5 mm; width 6.8-7.3 mm. The paratypes do not differ from the holotype except in size, and the small tooth on the venter of tarsomere 5 is nearly obsolete in one specimen. Female (3 paratypes). Length 15.5-16.5 mm; width 7.0-7.7 mm. The paratypes do not differ from the allotype.

Etymology.

The specific epithet is an adjective and refers to the habitat type, the Pantanal, in which this species occurs.

Distribution.

Chalepides pantanalensis is known only from Brazil’s Pantanal Region (Fig. 5 ).

Locality records.

8 specimens examined.

Brazil (8) • MATO GROSSO DO SUL (8): Fazenda 4 Cantos, Fazenda Natureza (140 km NW Campo Grande).

Temporal distribution.

May (3), November (5).

Natural history.

Nothing is known of the life history of C. pantanalensis other than the specimens were presumably collected at lights as are other species of Chalepides .

Figures

Figure 1. Holotype, dorsal view, of Chalepides pantanalensis Ratcliffe & Seidel, sp. nov.

Figure 4. Parameres, caudal and lateral views, of Chalepides pantanalensis Ratcliffe & Seidel, sp. nov.

Figure 5. Location of type localities of Fazenda 4 Cantos and Fazenda Natureza, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Figures 2, 3. Male protarsal large claw of (2) C. pantanalensis Ratcliffe & Seidel, sp. nov. and (3) C. howdenorum Joly & Escalona.