Taxonomic revision of the Afrotropical scarab beetle genus Cerhomalus Quedenfeldt, 1884 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Orphninae)

Andrey V Frolov,Lilia A Akhmetova

doi:10.5852/ejt.2021.739.1265

Abstract

The Afrotropical scarab beetle genus Cerhomalus Quedenfeldt, 1884 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is revised. Two new species are described: C. quedenfeldti sp. nov. and C. petrovitzi sp. nov. A new combination, Cerhomalus absconditus (Petrovitz, 1971) comb. nov., is established. The genus occurs in Central and West Africa with the majority of records from the Congo Basin. Keys, descriptions, illustrations of habitus and male genitalia, and distributional record map are given

Highlights

The scarab beetles of the subfamily Orphninae Erichson, 1847, are a predominantly tropical group of insects distributed mostly in the southern continents
The Afrotropical Region is the centre of the diversity of orphnines, with over a hundred species occurring from Sahel in the north to Little Karoo in the south (Paulian 1948; Petrovitz 1971; Frolov 2005, 2013; Frolov & Akhmetova 2016, 2020)
Elytral surface sparsely covered with rounded punctures; punctures arranged in longitudinal striae, which are more distinct on disc

Summary

Introduction

The scarab beetles of the subfamily Orphninae Erichson, 1847, are a predominantly tropical group of insects distributed mostly in the southern continents. The Afrotropical Region is the centre of the diversity of orphnines, with over a hundred species occurring from Sahel in the north to Little Karoo in the south (Paulian 1948; Petrovitz 1971; Frolov 2005, 2013; Frolov & Akhmetova 2016, 2020). Among the Afrotropical orphnines, there is a small group, Cerhomalus Quedenfeldt, 1884, which included two nominal species and was treated by different authors as either a distinct genus or a subgenus of Orphnus Macleay, 1819. Petrovitz’s (1971) work on the genus Orphnus was the only publication that included additional original information about Cerhomalus. He lowered the rank of Cerhomalus to a subgenus of Orphnus and described the second species of the genus, O. He lowered the rank of Cerhomalus to a subgenus of Orphnus and described the second species of the genus, O. (C.) absconditus (Petrovitz 1971)

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