Abstract
A review of the subgenera of the South American genus Praocis Eschscholtz (Pimeliinae: Praociini) is presented. Praocis comprises 77 species and 8 subspecies arranged in nine subgenera distributed in arid lands from Central Peru and Bolivia to the Southern part of Patagonia in Chile and Argentina. For each subgenus of Praocis: Praocis Eschscholtz, Mesopraocis Flores & Pizarro-Araya, subgen. n., Anthrasomus Guérin-Méneville, Filotarsus Gay & Solier, Postpraocis Flores & Pizarro-Araya, subgen. n., Hemipraocis Flores & Pizarro-Araya, subgen. n., Orthogonoderes Gay & Solier, Praonoda Flores & Pizarro-Araya, subgen. n., and Praocida Flores & Pizarro-Araya, subgen. n., we present a diagnosis using new and constant characters of adult morphology such as clypeal configuration, length and proportion of antennomeres 9, 10 and 11, arrangement of apical tomentose sensory patches on antennomeres 10 and 11, anterior margin of prosternum, lateral margin of elytron, ventral surface of profemora, and shape of protibiae. An identification key for the nine subgenera of Praocis is presented. Type species are designated for the five new subgenera; for Mesopraocis: Praocis calderana Kulzer, for Postpraocis: Praocis pentachorda Burmeister, for Hemipraocis: Praocis sellata Berg, for Praonoda: Praocis bicarinata Burmeister, for Praocida: Praocis zischkai Kulzer, and for the previously described subgenus Orthogonoderes: Praocis subreticulata Gay & Solier. The current number of species and the estimated number of species to be described are presented. The distribution ranges of the subgenera, including new records from collections and recent expeditions, are given. Habitat preferences and a discussion of the biogeography of the genus are also presented.
Highlights
The genus Praocis Eschscholtz belongs to the Praociini, an endemic Neotropical tribe of Pimeliinae with 151 species arranged in 15 genera (Flores and Pizarro-Araya 2012)
The objectives of this study are to present elements for a revision of the genus Praocis by incorporating new constant characters from external morphology to define each subgenus, to designate type species for some subgenera that remain unavailable, to estimate the diversity of each subgenus, to detail the geographic distribution and habitat of each subgenus and to report new distributional records for some subgenera
The species of Praocis can be recognized by having maxillary palps with last segment axe-shaped, antennomere 3 shorter than 4 + 5 combined, pronotum with anterior margin concave, width of posterior margin exceeding width of anterior margin, single lateral margin slender, expanded, remote from disc, and anterior angles rounded; mesosternum inclined forward, separated from prosternum; elytron with punctuate surface; apterous
Summary
The genus Praocis Eschscholtz belongs to the Praociini, an endemic Neotropical tribe of Pimeliinae with 151 species arranged in 15 genera (Flores and Pizarro-Araya 2012). Praocis is the most specious genus of the tribe (52% of the species) It comprises 77 species and 8 subspecies, arranged in nine subgenera (Flores and Pizarro-Araya 2012), distributed from central Peru to the southern part of Patagonia in Argentina and Chile. Kulzer (1958) did not characterize his new subgenera nor designate type species, but in his key he mentioned character states for identifying some of them except between Anthrasomus and Filotarsus, and between Orthogonoderes and Praocida, which can be keyed only by body size. The last revision of Praocis was made by Kulzer (1958) in the context of a tribal review. Kulzer (1958) classified the species of Praocis into 10 subgenera, six of which were new: Mesopraocis, Postpraocis, Parapraocis, Hemipraocis, Praonoda, and Praocida, plus the four previously recognized as valid by Solier (1840): Praocis s. str., Anthrasomus Guérin-Méneville 1834, Orthogonoderes Gay & Solier, 1840, and Filotarsus Gay & Solier, 1840. Kulzer (1958) did not characterize his new subgenera nor designate type species, but in his key he mentioned character states for identifying some of them except between Anthrasomus and Filotarsus, and between Orthogonoderes and Praocida, which can be keyed only by body size. Kulzer (1958) failed to assess the geographic distribution of the subgenera, reporting only isolated localities of the species
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