Ontherus bridgesi Waterhouse, 1891

Rosa, Cecilia Lozano De La, Cupello, Mario & Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Z., 2024, The dung beetles of Venezuela (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): catalogue and updated distribution, European Journal of Taxonomy 959 (1), pp. 1-272 : 227-229

Ontherus bridgesi Waterhouse, 1891

Erroneous literature records for Venezuela

Vulcano & Pereira 1967: 583 ( Venezuela). — Génier 1996: 67 ( Venezuela?).

Actual distribution

The eastern slopes of the Andes, from southern Peru to northern Argentina ( Génier 1996) . Génier (1996) mentioned the examination of two specimens labelled as though coming from outside this area, one from Colombia, the other from Venezuela, neither bearing further locality data. In the absence of additional, more precisely labelled material from either country, he deemed these records doubtful, most likely the result of mislabelling. Judging from characters known to vary geographically in the species, both specimens seem to have actually come from Argentinian populations ( Génier 1996). We agree with Génier and, given the distance from the nearest trustful record (Cuzco, southern Peru), we rule out the presence of the species in Venezuela. Vulcano & Pereira’s (1967) assertion that the species was endemic to the country was certainly a lapse, for information available to them already indicated, if not the implausibility of the Venezuelan occurrence as we now know, at least that O. bridgesi was also certainly present elsewhere (viz., the type locality “ Bolivia ” provided by Waterhouse 1891a).