Guatemalica Neervoort van de Poll, 1886

Ratcliffe, Brett C., 2014, A Review Of The Neotropical Genera Badelina Thomson, 1880, Balsameda Thomson, 1880, Guatemalica Neervoort Van De Poll, 1886, And Heterocotinis Martínez, 1948 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae: Gymnetini), The Coleopterists Bulletin 68 (2), pp. 241-262 : 253-255

Guatemalica Neervoort van de Poll, 1886

Guatemalica Neervoort van de Poll 1886: 138 . Type species: Allorrhina hueti Chevrolat 1870: 6 , by monotypy.

Neervoort van de Poll (1886) established Guatemalica in a single page paper describing the genus and assigning to it Allorrhina hueti Chevrolat, 1870 . Subsequent to that, Gymnetis fuliginosa Nonfried, 1894 and Gymnetis luctuosa Bourgoin, 1916 were transferred to Guatemalica by Schenkling (1921). Gymnetis marginicollis Burmeister, 1842 was moved to Guatemalica by Bates (1889), and Ratcliffe (2013) transferred it and its attendant synonym, Clinteria undulata Schoch, 1895 , to Amithao .

Guatemalica has never been comprehensively reviewed, and keys to identify the species do not exist. Bates (1889), Morón et al. (1997), and Solís (2004) provided overviews of the Guatemalica species known to them.

Description. Scarabaeidae , Cetoniinae , Gymnetini . Form: Elongate, rhomboidal, sides slightly tapering from humeri towards apex of elytra, dorsum nearly flat. Length 14– 21 mm. Color black or dark reddish brown, velutinous dorsally, shiny ventrally, with yellow or ochre cretaceous spots or bands on, variably, head, pronotum, elytra, pygidium, mesepimera, metepisterna, and abdominal ventrites. Head: Subrectangular, longer than wide. Clypeal apex strongly emarginate, slightly reflexed. Frons and at least base of clypeus weakly, longitudinally tumid at middle and depressed either side of median tumesence. Antenna with 10 antennomeres, club slightly longer than antennomeres 2– 7. Pronotum: Subtrapezoidal, widest near base, gradually convergent to anterior angles, basomedian lobe strongly produced posteriorly, lobe covering all but tip of scutellum. Sides with strong bead, anterior and basal margins lacking bead. Elytra: Widest at base, posthumeral emargination distinct. Bead present on lateral margins. Pygidium: Surface concentrically strigose on non-velutinous areas, nearly flat to convex in lateral view. Venter: Mesometasternal process bluntly rounded, protruding slightly downwards and then recurving forwards in lateral view ( Fig. 26 ). Males with abdomen slightly concave in lateral view ( Fig. 26 ). Females with abdomen flat to slightly tumescent. Legs: Protibia usually slender, weakly tridentate in males, broader and distinctly tridentate in females. Metatibia at apex with 2 long, slender spurs. Parameres: In caudal view, form subrectangular, apices broadly rounded, with minute tooth apicolaterally (e.g., Figs. 31–32 ).

Diagnosis. Species of Guatemalica are distinguished from other genera of New World Gymnetini by a distinctly bilobed and emarginate clypeal apex, frons weakly and longitudinally tumid at middle (lacking armature that is present in most species of Cotinis and males of Allorrhina ), and, in lateral view, a mesometasternal process that is short, attenuate, and curving downwards and then recurving upwards at the apex ( Fig. 26 ).

Only three other New World gymnetine genera possess a distinctly emarginate, or bilobed, clypeal apex: Amithao , Desicasta , and Hadrosticta . Species in these genera have a mesometasternal process that is, in lateral view, either short, dorsoventrally flattened, attenuate, and subparallel to the ventral axis of the body ( Amithao , Fig. 27 ) or enlarged, subrectangular, with a bulbous apex, and deflected obliquely downwards ( Desicasta , Fig. 28 ) or curving downwards and then recurving upwards at the apex ( Guatemalica and Hadrosticta , Fig. 26 ). Hadrosticta is unique because of its metallic green coloration both dorsally and ventrally and the slender form of the parameres. Some species of Hologymnetis Martínez (all species are velutinous) have an emarginate clypeal apex (not bilobed), but they all lack a prosternal “throat spur,” a dis- tinguishing character for the genus since all other New World gymnetines possess this character.

The sex of Guatemalica specimens can usually be determined using external characters. The protibia in males is relatively slender and weakly tridentate, whereas in females the protibia is broader and distinctly tridentate. In lateral view, males have an abdomen slightly to distinctly concave, whereas in females the abdomen is flat to slightly convex.

Distribution. The two species of Guatemalica are known from Mexico to Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Natural History. All species of Guatemalica are diurnal. The adults are found from near sea level to 800 m elevation and are usually attracted to ripe fruits placed in traps. Nothing else is known of their life history. The larval stages remain undescribed.

Nomenclature. G y m n e t i s m a rg i n i c o l l i s Burmeister was transferred to Guatemalica by Bates (1889) in the Biologia Centrali-Americana based upon his examination of only a couple of specimens then known to him. Unlike the other Guatemalica species , the mesometasternal process is not recurved downwards and then upwards but is, instead, nearly identical with the form seen in Amithao species. That, and the bilobed clypeus, make it congeneric with Amithao . Accordingly, it and its attendant junior synonym, Clinteria undulata Schoch, 1895 , were transferred to Amithao by Ratcliffe (2013). Arrow (1925) examined the type of C. undulata at ETHC and determined it was G. marginicollis from the New World and not the East Indies as supposed by Schoch (1895).

After examining the female holotype of Gymnetis luctuosa Bourgoin at the BMNH, I have determined that it is, indeed, a species of as-yet-to-be determined Gymnetis and not G uatemalica as indicated by Schenkling (1921) and Blackwelder (1944).

Figures

Figs. 26–28. 26) Guatemalica hueti showing recurved mesometasternal process; 27) Amithao haematopus (Schaum) showing slender, subparallel mesometasternal process; 28) Desicasta reichei Thomson showing large, oblique mesometasternal process (image courtesy of the Natural History Museum, London, UK).

Figs. 29–32. Guatemalica fuliginosa. 29) Habitus; 30) Mesometasternal process, lateral view; 31–32) Parameres.