Macrodontiini Thomson, 1861

Casari, Sônia A. & Nascimento, Francisco E. De L., 2019, Immature stages of American Prioninae Latreille, 1802: descriptions and phylogenetic considerations in Cerambycidae Latreille, 1802 (Coleoptera), Zootaxa 4568 (1), pp. 113-138 : 120

Tribe Macrodontiini Thomson, 1861

The tribe Macrodontiini is composed of five genera and 18 species ( Tavakilian & Chevillotte 2018). Only immature forms of Macrodontia cervicornis (Linnaeus, 1758) from Brazil have been described. Bondar (1926) briefly described the larva and biology, and Duffy (1960) redescribed the larva in detail and described the pupa.

Bondar (1926) called this species a “king of beetles and forest giant” due to its size. According to him, the mature larvae are blackish-yellow and the younger are white. Based on the literature, the larva of M. cervicornis is characterized by having: integument brown, different from any other timber beetle; thoracic and abdominal segments velvety (micro-tuberculate); epistomal margin projected above clypeal base and additional carina above epistoma; upper boundary produced over lower boundary paramedially into a pair of small rounded lobes, and laterally, into a pair of very much larger acutely pointed lobes; lower boundary produced very feebly only at sides; six pairs of stemmata (three subcontiguous); legs 3-segmented; abdomen with dorsal and ventral ambulatory ampullae on segments I–VII; ampullae glabrous, each with two transverse furrows; anus trilobed.

The pupa presents the cuticle extensively sclerotized; head glabrous, not visible from above; frons with two pairs of tubercles; pronotum with disc strigose; sides with a pair of large stout spine-like tubercles; meso- and metanotum glabrous, transversely striate; abdomen with tergites rugose and each with a few scattered moniliform setose papillae (without spines); gin-traps on segments I–II, II–III, III–IV, IV–V and possibly V–VI; each consisting of two transverse subcarinate, labiate, protuberance; segment IX produced dorsally into a pair of stout urogomphi; spiracles on segments I–VI; VII closed and probably non-functional.