Epidrepanus Roggero, Barbero, & Palestrini, 2015

Palestrini, Claudia, 2017, hips of Epidrepanus within the subtribe Drepanocerina (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Oniticellini), with the description of two new species, Zootaxa 4320 (1), pp. 1-24 : 8

Genus Epidrepanus Roggero, Barbero, & Palestrini, 2015

The genus Epidrepanus includes five species:

Epidrepanus caelatus (Gerstaecker, 1871)

Epidrepanus kenyensis Roggero, Stanbrook, Josso, Barbero , & Palestrini, new species Epidrepanus nyika Roggero, Stanbrook, Josso, Barbero , & Palestrini, new species Epidrepanus pulvinarius (Balthasar, 1963)

Epidrepanus schimperi (Janssens, 1953)

A detailed comparative diagnosis of external and internal morphological traits for Epidrepanus is given in Table 3 (i.e., identification keys of the Epidrepanus species). While some structures (e.g., the carina of the head) can give a rather accurate, although not always conclusive, specific recognition, some others (the epipharynx and hindwing) are extremely well differentiated at the generic level in Drepanocerina, but their morphological variations at a specific level can be better appraised using geometric morphometric methods. Within the Epidrepanus species, the structures can sometimes show variability between the sexes, and must be used with caution in the analyses. For example, although the head carina is a useful character, it is subject to sexual dimorphism in both E. caelatus and E. pulvinarius , but not in E. kenyensis . No information could be gained from E. schimperi and E. nyika , due to each species only being known from one sex (Table 3). The head carina was hence discarded from the present analysis. The genus is characterized by a widespread distribution in the Afrotropical region ( Fig. 25 ), and is typically present in savannah habitat. Epidrepanus nyika inhabits the Nyika Plateau (2100–2600 m), and E. kenyensis was collected from a high-elevation, open-canopy area in the Aberdare Mountains (2000–2500 m).

Figures

FIGURE 25. Map of the distribution of Epidrepanus caelatus (green dots), E. nyika new species (purple rhomb), E. kenyensis new species (blue rhomb), E. pulvinarius (orange triangles) and E. schimperi (red star).