Hycleus Latreille, 1817

Bologna, Marco A., Amore, Valentina & Pitzalis, Monica, 2018, Meloidae of Namibia (Coleoptera): taxonomy and faunistics with biogeographic and ecological notes, Zootaxa 4373 (1), pp. 1-141 : 56

Genus Hycleus Latreille, 1817

The value of the speciose genus Hycleus (about 450 species) was debated for a long time and it was recently supported by both morphological (see for a synthesis: Bologna 1991; Bologna & Pinto 2002) and molecular evidences (Bologna et al. 2005, 2008c; Pan et al. 2013; Salvi et al., in preparation). Three sections of the genus were described in the literature ( Pardo Alcaide,1954, 1955), primarily based on the shape of the mesosternum: without (Mesogorbatus), or with a small (Mesotaeniatus) or wide (Mesoscutatus) modified fore area, usually named “mesosternal scutum”. These sections are greatly heterogeneous and were not considered as subgenera by Bologna & Pinto (2002) and Bologna & Turco (2007), who preferred consider them as phyletic macro-lineages. In particular, the distinction between the species having a wide (Mesoscutatus) or a narrow (Mesotaeniatus) modified fore area of mesosternum is very scarce.

Several well defined groups of species can be recognized inside each macro-lineage according to the shape of head and mandibles, that of male maxillae and palpomeres, the structure of antennomeres, pronotum and mesopleures, the number and position of penis hooks. Some Palaerctic and Afrotropical groups of species were defined and discussed by Pardo Alcaide (1954, 1955, 1958a, 1958b, 1963, 1966, 1968, 1969), Bologna (1978, 1979, 1990, 1991, 1994), and Bologna & Turco (2007). We define here new Afrotropical groups of species.

Most African species of Hycleus have been described as Mylabris , Zonabris , Coryna , Decapotoma . In a preliminary checklist of the Namibian Meloidae, Bologna (2000a) defined several new combinations of Hycleus species and only new combinations are here provided.