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The Brazilian scarab beetle genus Microchilus Blanchard (Rutelinae: Geniatini) is reviewed. Based on examination of type specimens, Microchilus beckeri Martínez is transferred to the genus Leucothyreus becoming L. beckeri (Martínez), new combination; Leucothyreus bucki Machatschke is a new junior synonym of L. beckeri (Martínez).Microchilus is limited to two species, M. beckeri (Martínez) and a new species,Microchilus rodmani Jameson, here described. Characters that circumscribe the genus, biology, and species distribution are discussed. A key to the species is provided.
The Southeast Asian scarab beetle genus Peltonotus Burmeister (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) is associated with aroid flowers and possesses a unique, articulated maxillary tooth. We describe five new species of Peltonotus: P. animus and P. cybele from Sumatra, P. favonius from Vietnam, P. mushiyaus from Borneo, and P. tigerus from Thailand. The circumscription of P. karubei Muramoto is broadened to include new color variation, and the body size range for the genus is increased with Peltonotus mushiyaus, n. sp., now being the smallest member of the genus. We provide an amended key to species, distribution maps, diagnoses and accompanying comparative images, and discuss classification of the genus within the Scarabaeidae.
We clarify the taxonomy and nomenclature of several species-group names and the family-group name for the anticheirine scarabs (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Rutelini), a group that includes nearly 550 species and subspecies in 44 genera and subgenera. These clarifications are necessary due to taxonomic and nomenclatural inaccuracies in recent revisionary works. We provide a list of genera included in the anticheirine scarabs sensu Soula. Numerous nomenclatural changes are necessary due to invalid type designations or misspellings: the valid type species of Aequatoria Arrow is Chlorota associata Waterhouse; the valid type species of Chlorota Burmeister is Rutela terminata Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau and Audinet-Serville; the valid type species of Dorysthetus Blanchard is Macraspis chlorophana Burmeister; the valid type species of Anticheira Eschscholtz is Scarabaeus virens Drury. Changes to the type species of Anticheira result in new combinations: Anticheira virens virens (Drury), new combination, Anticheira virens bleuzeni (Soula), new combination and Anticheira virens jossi (Soula), new combination. Some anticheirine species names were not associated with species descriptions or type designations, making these names nomina nuda and unavailable: “Chlorota smithi”, “Macraspis cincta guatemalensis”, “Parachlorota equatoriana”, “Parachlorota pardoi”, “Pseudothyridium (Megathyridium) bousqueti”, “Theuremaripa rivae brasiliensis” and “Thyridium cupriventre blanchardi”. Dorysthaetus rufipennis Dejean is a nomen nudum and an unavailable name. We correct numerous misspellings from Soula’s five volumes on anticheirine scarabs and provide a list to avoid propagation of these errors by future researchers. Eighteen names are unavailable infrasubspecific names, and thirty-six of Soula’s names were misspelled. These names confuse and obscure ruteline systematics. Lastly, we provide a comprehensive list of infrasubspecific names in the anticheirine scarabs and we establish these as available or unavailable names.