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Although extensively studied by different authors over the past 150 years, the taxonomy of Canthon Hoffmannsegg, 1817 and allied genera (which are here informally referred to as 'Canthon sensu lato') still remains problematic. With the aim of resolving some of the questions surrounding these taxa, the present work reviews the taxonomy of one of them, the genus Sylvicanthon Halffter & Martínez, 1977. As defined here, Sylvicanthon is distributed mainly throughout the vast areas of tropical rainforests in the Neotropical region and includes 15 species divided into two groups: the enkerlini group, with a single species, S. enkerlini (Martínez et al., 1964) comb. nov., and the candezei group, with five subgroups: the candezei subgroup, with S. candezei (Harold, 1869), S. genieri sp. nov. and S. foveiventris (Schmidt, 1920); the aequinoctialis subgroup, with S. aequinoctialis (Harold, 1868) comb. nov. and S. proseni (Martínez, 1949) stat. et comb. nov.; the bridarollii subgroup, with S. bridarollii (Martínez, 1949), S. seag sp. nov., S. edmondsi sp. nov. and S. attenboroughi sp. nov.; the furvus subgroup, with S. furvus (Schmidt, 1920), S. monnei sp. nov., S. mayri sp. nov. and S. obscurus (Schmidt, 1920); and the securus subgroup, with a single species, S. securus (Schmidt, 1920) comb. nov. Three species originally included in Sylvicanthon are here (re)transferred to Canthon: Canthon xanthopus Blanchard, 1846 and C. machadoi (Martínez & Pereira, 1967) comb. nov., as well as C. cobosi (Pereira & Martínez, 1960) stat. et comb. nov., which had been previously in synonymy under C. xanthopus. Descriptions, redescriptions, illustrations and comparative tables on the external morphology (including the genital capsule) of the genus and its species are presented, as well as a detailed discussion on their biogeography, comparative morphology, hypotheses on their phylogenetic relationships, data on natural history and a detailed historical revision of the classification of 'Canthon sensu lato'. Finally, we also discuss the socalled 'species problem' (i.e., the definition of the scientific term 'species') and its consequences to dung beetle taxonomy and favour the solution offered by the Biological Species Concept.
The gigas species group of the subgenus Canthidium (Neocanthidium) is defi ned and described. This species group is composed of three described species [C. gigas Balthasar, 1939, Brazilian Atlantic Forest, including intrusions into Cerrado, C. bokermanni (Martínez et al., 1964), Chaco and western Cerrado in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina, and C. kelleri (Martínez et al., 1964), Brazilian Cerrado and neighbouring open areas] and three new species: Canthidium stofeli sp. nov. from the western and southern regions of the Brazilian Amazon, Canthidium feeri sp. nov. from French Guiana, and Canthidium ayri sp. nov. from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We present descriptions and redescriptions, illustrations, an identifi cation key and comments on the distributions of the species of the gigas group.