Tomarus maimon Erichson, 1847

López-García, Margarita M. & Deloya, Cuauhtémoc, 2018, Description of the Female of Tomarus rostratus Dupuis and New Synonyms and Records for the Genus Tomarus Erichson (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae), The Coleopterists Bulletin 72 (2), pp. 331-338 : 335

Tomarus maimon Erichson, 1847

Heteronychus fossator Burmeister 1847: 101 (designated as a subspecies by Dupuis 2016: 31). NEW SYNONYMY.

Distribution. Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Brazil, and Guyana ( Endrödi 1969; Ratcliffe and Dechambre 1983; Dupuis 2016).

Specimens Examined. Type material: Lectotype deposited in MNHUB (16): “Peru, v. Tschidi // Syntypus, Tomarus maimon Erichson, 1847 , labeled by MNHUB, 2013// Tomarus maimon Erichson , lectotype, B. C. Ratcliffe ”. Lectoallotype deposited in MNHUB (1♀): “Peru, v. Tschidi // Syntypus, Tomarus maimon Erichson, 1847 , labeled by MNHUB, 2013 // Tomarus maimon Erichson,Lectoallotype,B.C.Ratcliffe ” . Paralectotypes deposited in MNHUB (26): “Peru, v. Tschidi // Syntypus, Tomarus maimon Erichson, 1847 , labeled by MNHUB, 2013 // Tomarus maimon Erichson , Paralectotype,B. C. Ratcliffe 2014 ” . Additional material: PERU: Tacna, xi.1983 [1♀, FSCA] . BRAZIL: Pará, Utinga, 20.xi.1919, D. Mendes [16 MN/ UFRJ]. Pará , Canindé , Rio Gurupi , 27.ii.1966, Col. Malkin [1♀, MZUSP]. Rio Jan , Col. P. Santo [1♀, MZUSP] . CHILE: Arica , 5.xii.1967, Col. J. Neuhausen [16, 1♀ MN/ UFRJ] .

Comments. Tomarus maimon was described from Peru and additional records from Ecuador, Brazil ( Endrödi 1969), and Chile (Ratcliffe and Dechambre 1983) were subsequently published. Its junior synonym, Heteronychus fossator known from Guyana and French Guiana, was proposed as a subspecies by Dupuis (2016). He considered a disjunct distribution between T. maimon maimon and its subspecies, the first from the Andes ( Ecuador, Peru, and Chile), and the subspecies from the Guyanese shield. However, there is an omission of the records by Endrödi (1969) from Mato Grosso and Pará ( Brazil). Here, additional records from Pará were found in Brazilian collections. The male from Pará has no evident lateral teeth in the parameres, which coincides with T. maimon fossator ( Burmeister, 1847) and differs from the specimens from Peru and Chile. However, that difference could be the result of the geographical distance as only specimens from the extremes of the distribution of the species have been recently examined. In any case, a unique character should not differentiate subspecies in the genus, as a character can vary between populations and even more when they are in allopatry.In conclusion, the subspecies T. maimon fossator is here placed into synonymy with T. maimon as there is no clear disruption in the distribution of the taxa, which is likely an artefact of lack of sampling. The records from Peru, Ecuador, and Chile are mainly from arid and coastal areas and some from tropical forest, so the Amazonian forest should not be a strong geographic barrier for the species.