Scatimus strandi Balthasar, 1939

Martínez-Revelo, Diego Esteban, Lopera-Toro, Alejandro & Medina, Claudia A., 2020, Review of Scatimus Erichson (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in Colombia with the description of a new species, Zootaxa 4890 (4), pp. 521-534 : 530-531

Scatimus strandi Balthasar, 1939

( Figs. 1E , 2D , 3A, C , 4C, G, K, O , 5–6 )

Scatimus strandi Balthasar, 1939:87 (original description)

Material examined (5 males, 4 females, 5 sex undetermined). COLOMBIA: Caquetá: San José del Fragua, Vereda La Esmeralda, Alto río Yuruyaco , 1°20’N 76°06’W, 1000 m, human dung trap, 3–5.ix.2000, E. González (1 male IAvH-E-72021, 1 sex undetermined UPTC COL:1296); San Vicente del Caguán , Parque Natural Nacional Los Picachos, Inspección de Policía Guayabal , Alto del Río Pato , Finca Andalucia, 2°47’51’’N 74°51’18’’W, 1250 m, human dung trap, xi–xii.1997, F. Escobar (4 males, IAvH-E-17308, IAvH-E-17309, IAvH-E-17312, IAvH-E-17315; 2 females IAvH-E-17310, IAvH-E-17316; 1 sex undetermined, UPTC COL:1295) . Nariño: Ipiales, Territorio Kofán Cuenca alta de los Ríos Rumiyaco-Ranchería , 0°30’N 77°13’W, 1250 m, human dung trap, x.1998, F. Escobar (2 females IAvH-E-17318, IAvH-E-218072; 3 sex undetermined, UPTC COL:1292, COL:1294, COL:1296) .

Geographical distribution. The distribution of the genus in Colombia covers an elevational range between 40–1500 m in the Amazonia, Orinoquia, and Andes regions. No species from the Pacific region or insular areas are yet known. Two distribution patterns associated with the Andes Cordillera were identified: the first pattern corresponds to elevations below 1000 m for the S. ovatus clade and above 1000 m for the S. strandi clade ( Table 1 ). Another pattern is the Cisandean distribution of S. fernandezi and S. strandi , and the Transandean of S. ovatus and S. strenua ( Fig. 3 ).

The S. ovatus clade shows a wide distribution and the capacity to occupy humid, dry, and perturbed environments. According to the biogeographical regionalization of the Neotropics ( Morrone 2014), S. ovatus inhabits the Chocó-Darién, Magdalena, and Guajira provinces, occupying both inner and edge habitats of moist forests and dry forests in the Guajira-Barranquilla xeric scrub ecoregion. Scatimus fernandezi is present in the Sabana and Napo provinces, frequent in habitats of gallery forest, rainforest, and occasionally in pastures of the Apure-Villavicencio dry forest ecoregion.

The S. strandi clade shows a more restricted distribution to well-preserved environments. Scatimus strenua is the only species with known distribution restricted in Colombia and presumably endemic to the Magdalena province. However, its likely to be found in lowlands of the Magdalena river basin, similar to other members of the S. strandi clade such as S. pacificus and S. onorei who are found occasionally on the Pacific Coast in Ecuador and S. erinnyos along the coasts of Costa Rica and Panama. Scatimus strandi distribution extends from Ecuador to the Colombian Amazon and Orinoquia foothills, reaching as far north as Meta ( Fig. 3 ), where it is associated with riparian forest and secondary forest (Cárdenas et al. 2020).

Conservation status of Scatimus . The degree of threat faced by Colombian species is not clear, there are no direct conservation efforts for any species, additionally none has been evaluated against the Red List criteria. However, as a consequence of the habitat requirements of the S. strandi clade (well-preserved montane forests) we expect a higher degree of threat for this group compared to the disturbance-tolerant S. ovatus clade.

The known populations present in protected areas are of S. fernandezi in the Reserva Privada de la Sociedad Civil Palmarito (Casanare) , of S. ovatus in the Reserva El Palomar (Atlántico) , Reserva Miraflores, Santuario de Flora y Fauna Los Colorados (Bolívar) , Reserva Nacional El Paujil (Boyacá) and Parque Natural Nacional Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Magdalena) and of S. strandi in the Parque Natural Nacional Los Picachos (Caquetá).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Species of Scatimus from Colombia.A, Scatimus strenua holotype łmale (Antioquia, 5°52’45.05’’N 75°12’2.33’’W); B, Scatimus strenua, paratype female (Antioquia, 5°53’16.68’’N 75°11’37.11’’W); C, Scatimus fernandezi male (Casanare, 5°16’20.9”N 72°24’2.6”W); D, Scatimus ovatus male (Tolima, 5°8’58.3’’N 74°47’6.1’’W); E, Scatimus strandi male (Nariño, 0°30’N 77°13’W). Scale bars: 2 mm.

FIGURE 2. Scatimus heads in dorsal view. A, Scatimus strenua male (Antioquia, 5°52’45.05’’N 75°12’2.33’’W); B, Scatimus strenua female (Antioquia, 5°53’16.68’’N 75°11’37.11’’W); C, Scatimus erinnyos male (Costa Rica, Parque Nacional Guanacaste); D, Scatimus strandi male (Nariño, 0°30’N 77°13’W); E, Scatimus fernandezi (Casanare, 5°16’20.9”N 72°24’2.6”W); F, Scatimus ovatus (Tolima, 05°08’58.3’’N 74°47’06.1’’W). Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 3. Scatimus pronotum, mesepimeron, metasternum, abdomen, and metafemur. A, Scatimus strandi pronotum (lateral view); B, Scatimus strenua pronotum (lateral view); C, Scatimus strandi mesepimeron (ventral view); D, Scatimus strenua mesepimeron (ventral view); E, Scatimus strenua metasternum (ventral view); F, Scatimus strenua abdomen; G, Scatimus erinnyos metafemur (ventral view); H, Scatimus strenua metafemur (ventral view). Scale bar = 0.5 mm.

FIGURE 4. Male genitalia of Scatimus from Colombia. A, Scatimus fernandezi aedeagus (lateral view, scale bar = 0.5 mm); B, Scatimus ovatus aedeagus (lateral view, scale bar = 0.5 mm); C, Scatimus strandi aedeagus (lateral view, scale bar = 0.5 mm); D, Scatimus strenua aedeagus (lateral view, scale bar = 0.5 mm); E, Scatimus fernandezi parameres (ventral view, scale bar = 0.25 mm); F, Scatimus ovatus parameres (ventral view, scale bar = 0.25 mm); G, Scatimus strandi parameres (ventral view, scale bar = 0.25 mm); H, Scatimus strenua parameres (ventral view, scale bar = 0.25 mm); I, Scatimus fernandezi superior right peripheral sclerite (SRP, scale = 0.25 mm); J, Scatimus ovatus superior right peripheral sclerite (SRP, scale = 0.25 mm); K, Scatimus strandi superior right peripheral sclerite (SRP, scale = 0.25 mm); L, Scatimus strenua superior right peripheral sclerite (SRP, scale = 0.25 mm); M, Scatimus fernandezi additional (AS), subaxial (SA), and axial (A) sclerites superposed, scale bar = 0.25 mm; N, Scatimus ovatus additional (AS), subaxial (SA), and axial (A) sclerites superposed, scale bar = 0.25 mm; O, Scatimus strandi additional (AS), subaxial (SA), and axial (A) sclerites superposed, scale bar = 0.25 mm; P, Scatimus strenua additional (AS), subaxial (SA), and axial (A) sclerites superposed, scale bar = 0.25 mm.

FIGURE 5. Results of the phylogenetic analyses. A, The single most parsimonious tree from TNT, with character evolution of Scatimus; all characters states are treated as unordered and equally weighted. Characters were mapped on branches using unambiguous character changes in Winclada (black circles, non homoplasious changes; white circles, homoplasious changes); numbers above the circles indicate characters, and number below circles indicate their states. B), Strict consensus of the five most parsimonious trees (length = 122 steps; consistency index = 0.680; retention index = 0.811) obtained with heuristic search. Clade support is indicated on branches (Bremer support values/bootstrap proportions).

FIGURE 6. Geographical distribution of the Scatimus species from Colombia and their coincidence with protected areas (Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas).