Stenocrates serendipitus Ratcliffe, 2015

Ratcliffe, Brett C., 2015, A Revised Catalog of the Species ofStenocratesBurmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini), with Descriptions of Three New Species from Peru and Brazil andStenocrates inpaiRatcliffe, 1978 Placed in Junior Synonymy withStenocrates popeiEndrödi, 1971, The Coleopterists Bulletin 69 (4), pp. 773-779 : 774

Stenocrates serendipitus Ratcliffe , new species ( Figs. 1–2 )

Type Material. Holotype labeled “ PERU: Dpto. Loreto / Quebrada Orán ca 5 km /N Rio Amazonas , 85 km /NE Iquitos, el. 110 m / VI-1984 L.J. Barkley // LSAM/0056622 ” and with my red holotype label . Holotype deposited at the University of Nebraska State Museum (Lincoln, NE, USA) courtesy of V. Bayless and the Louisiana State University Arthropod Museum (Baton Rouge, LA, USA) .

Description of Holotype. Male. Length 18.7 mm; width 8.8 mm. Color black. Head: Frons on posterior half shiny, with sparse, shallow micropunctures, anterior half coarsely rugopunctate. Frontoclypeal suture impressed, ridge in front of suture distinctly carinulate either side of middle, ridge obsolete at middle. Clypeus coarsely, transversely rugopunctate; apex weakly emarginate, narrowly reflexed, anterior face thickened. Interocular width equals 3.0 transverse eye diameters. Antenna with 10 antennomeres, club subequal in length to antennomeres 2–7. Pronotum: Surface shiny, nearly smooth, with sparse micropunctures on disc and a small field of large, dense punctures in posterior angles only. Lateral margins with thick marginal bead, base without marginal bead. Elytra: Surface shiny, with punctate sutural stria and 2 pairs of distinct discal striae and 1 pair of striae behind humerus; each stria comprised of large, deep, closely adjacent punctures. First broad interval with single, irregular row of similar punctures, second broad interval with punctures only on apical fourth. Pygidium: Surface shiny, completely and densely punctate, punctures moderately large, glabrous. In lateral view, surface regularly convex. Legs: Protibia tridentate, teeth subequally spaced. Metatarsus shorter than metatibia. Venter: Prosternal process long, thick; in lateral view, columnar, apex broadly rounded; in ventral view, apex suboval. Parameres: Form widest at about middle, apices elongate, slender, curving away from one another ( Figs. 1–2 ).

Etymology. The specific epithet means a “fortunate happenstance” or “pleasant surprise,” and it is used here in reference to the unexpected discovery of this new species while performing routine identifications of museum specimens. The word serendipity was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 in a letter he wrote to a friend. Walpole referenced a Persian fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendip” [the ancient name for Sri Lanka], where the princes were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of ” (Anonymous 2014).

Distribution. Stenocrates serendipitus is known only from Amazonian Peru.

Locality Record. PERU (1): LORETO (1): Quebrada Orán ca 5 km /N Río Amazonas.

Temporal Distribution. June (1).

Diagnosis. The form of the parameres is essential for distinguishing species of Stenocrates because their external body morphology is, with few exceptions, so similar. The overall form of the parameres of S. serendipitus resemble somewhat those of Stenocrates howdeni Dechambre and Hardy ( Fig. 3 ) and Stenocrates laborator (Fabricius) ( Fig. 4 ) in that all are widest at about the middle and with slender apices that diverge from one another. However, S. howdeni ( Uruguay) does not have the field of large, dense punctures in the pronotal posterior angles (present in S. serendipitus ), and the parameres are narrower, more elongate overall, and the apices are not as long (compare Figs. 1 and 3 ). Stenocrates laborator ( Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia) has a distinct dilation just before the acute apices, while S. serendipitus has neither the dilation or acute apices (compare Figs. 1 and 4 ).

Figures

Figs. 1–2. Stenocrates serendipitus, parameres.

Figs.3–6. Stenocrates species, parameres. 3) S. howdeni; 4) S. laborator; 5–6) S. hastatus. Illustrations in Figs. 3–4 from Dechambre and Hardy (2004).