Phanaeus porioni Arnaud, 2001

Moctezuma, Victor & Halffter, Gonzalo, 2021, Taxonomic revision of the Phanaeus endymion species group (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), with the descriptions of five new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 747, pp. 1-71 : 39-40

Phanaeus porioni Arnaud, 2001 stat. rev.

Figs 1M, 2I, 11, 15, 18N, 19N

Phanaeus (Notiophanaeus) endymion porioni Arnaud, 2001: 4 .

Phanaeus (Notiophanaeus) endymion porioni – Arnaud 2002b: 94 (as subspecies of P. endymion ). Phanaeus endymion porioni – Arnaud 2002b: 95 (as subspecies of P. endymion ). — Krajcik 2006: 150

(as subspecies of P. endymion ). — Edmonds & Zídek 2012: 1, 8, 13 (as synonym of P. endymion ).

Non Phanaeus (Notiophanaeus) endymion (error) – Edmonds 1994: 2, 8–9, 12, 19, 36, 39, 41–46, 54, 74, 101, figs 17, 209, 215–216, 221 (in part). — Edmonds & Zídek 2012: 3, 13, figs 132–133, 136, 140, 143, 152–155 (in part). Phanaeus porioni – Edmonds & Zídek 2012: 3, 6 (as synonym of P. endymion ).

Non Phanaeus endymion (error) – Creedy & Mann 2011: 34, 51. — Edmonds & Zídek 2012: 1, 5–6 (in part).

Diagnosis

Phanaeus porioni and P. endymion are closely related, but the former is easily separated by the major female with the pronotal process weakly or not concave posteriorly and pronotal tubercles nearly aligned ( Fig. 11B), while the males are distinguished by the endophallite copulatrix ( Fig. 1). Additionally, P. porioni is recognized by the elytral striae always distinctly punctate ( Fig. 11), but the strial surface never roughened as in P. pacificus sp. nov. ( Fig. 9) and P. jackenioi sp. nov. ( Fig. 6).

Type material

Holotype (studied from photographs, 1 ♂)

HONDURAS • ♂, Arnaud 2001: 4 ( Fig. 11C); Atlántida, Rco Bonito ; “ Phanaeus endym . porioni P.ARNAUD DET 2001 HOLOTYPE ♂ / HONDURAS - ATLANTIDA, Rco Bonito (250 m), juilliet-1995, Thierry PORION Leg”; CPFA .

Paratypes revised (1 ♂, 1 ♀)

HONDURAS – Atlántida • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “Rco Bonito (250 m), juilliet-1995, Thierry Porion Leg”; VMC .

Non-type material revised (14 ♂♂, 9 ♀♀)

HONDURAS – Atlántida • 3 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀; “ 13 km. W La Ceiba. VII- 1996, 150 m. Coll. R Lehmann. Flight intercept trap in cocoa plantation”; TAMU • 1 ♀; same collection data as for preceding; UVGC • 1 ♂; same collection data as for preceding; VMC • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; “ 15 km. W La Ceiba. VI15-19- 1996, 175 m. Coll. R. Lehmann. Flight intercept trap, tropical rainforest”; IEXA • 7 ♂♂, 3 ♀♀; same collection data as for preceding; TAMU • 1 ♂ same collection data as for preceding; UVGC • 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀; same collection data as for preceding; VMC .

Type locality

Honduras, Atlántida, Rco Bonito.

Redescription

Major male

HEAD. Clypeus bidentate, black anteriorly, dark metallic blue, green or blue-green posteriorly; roughened sculpture. Genae dark metallic blue, green or blue-green, with roughened sculpture. Front black. Cephalic horn black, curved posteriorly over pronotum ( Figs 2I, 11A).

PRONOTUM. Keel absent in the middle of anterior pronotal margin. Disc triangular, flat, with two distinctly developed tubercles on anterior portion. Triangle uniformly dark metallic blue, green, or bluegreen; becoming black on posterior margin and beneath the posterolateral angles, lightly granulate, scabriculous, impunctate. Sides dark metallic blue, green, or blue-green; smooth sculpture, scabriculous, with superficially impressed punctures. Lateral lines of pronotal triangle straight. Posterolateral angles widened or acute, projected posteriorly. Lateral fossae distinctly impressed. Basal fossae obtusely oval, distinctly impressed. Posterior margin with superficially impressed punctures ( Figs 2I, 11A).

ELYTRA. Striae fine, smooth, scabriculous, impressed basally as distinct fossae; dark blue, green, or bluegreen; always with distinctly impressed punctation. Interstriae black, smooth, scabriculous, with almost effaced punctures. Sutural margin without apical tooth ( Fig. 11A).

PROTIBIAE. Quadridentate with apical spine.

TERGITE VIII. Dark metallic blue, green, or blue-green; scabriculous; with rough, superficially impressed punctures. Basal margin with setae variable in size.

GENITALIA. Right and left lobes of endophallite copulatrix similar in size. Right lobe obtusely triangular in shape, weakly developed superiorly. Left lobe obtusely lobed, strongly developed. Central ridge less developed than central column ( Fig. 1M).

Minor male

Like the major male, except for the reduction of the secondary sexual characters (i.e., cephalic horn, pronotal triangle and tubercles, and pronotal posterolateral angles).

Female

Similar to the male, except for the head showing a cephalic trituberculate carina; with weakly developed, nearly aligned tubercles; carinate middle tubercle slightly more developed than lateral tubercles; frons with distinctly impressed punctures; pronotal sculpture smooth, with almost completely effaced punctures; pronotum almost completely black, becoming dark metallic blue, green, or blue-green posteriorly and laterally; pronotal process trituberculate, weakly concave posteriorly; pronotal tubercles nearly aligned; with rounded to dentiform middle tubercle, more developed than lateral tubercles; lateral tubercles rounded; posterior pronotal midline almost completely effaced ( Fig. 11B).

Variation

Mean length 17 mm (13.1–20.1 mm). Colour variants were not found.

Distribution

Caribbean Honduras, Belize, and probably north-Caribbean Guatemala ( Fig. 15).

Remarks

Phanaeus porioni was considered as a synonym of P. endymion by Edmonds & Zídek (2012). Nevertheless, differences in external and genital morphology were found by us. As a consequence, P. porioni is resurrected from previous synonymy and full species status is given to it. Apparently, a significant area of sympatry is found between P. endymion and P. porioni . The males of both species are strongly mimetic, but females are easily diagnosed by external morphology. The endophallite copulatrix will help to confidently separate males of both species ( Fig. 1). We were not able to study any specimens of P. porioni from Belize.