Deltochilum icaroides (Balthasar, 1939)

Rosa, Cecilia Lozano De La, Cupello, Mario & Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Z., 2024, The dung beetles of Venezuela (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): catalogue and updated distribution, European Journal of Taxonomy 959 (1), pp. 1-272 : 225

Deltochilum icaroides (Balthasar, 1939)

Erroneous literature records for Venezuela

Balthasar 1939b: 10 (doubtfully cited for Venezuela). — Blackwelder 1944: 23 ( Venezuela). — Roze 1955: 43 (cited for Venezuela). — Martínez 1959: 54 (doubtfully cited for Venezuela). — Vulcano & Pereira 1964: 655 ( Venezuela); 1967: 557 (doubtfully cited for Venezuela). — Krajcik 2012: 88 (cited for Venezuela).

Actual distribution

Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina( Silva et al. 2015) .

Remarks

In the original description, Balthasar (1939b) suggested that the “San Bernardino” locality stated on the holotype’s label, his single known specimen, was possibly in Venezuela. He seems to have considered that it might refer to Hacienda San Bernardino, a ranch then existing near Caracas ( Paynter 1982). All the other Venezuelan records existing in the literature are direct repetitions of Balthasar’s. Génier (2001), drawing from a comparison with a Paraguayan specimen said to be “identical” to the holotype, was the first to suggest that this “San Bernardino” is most likely instead the town of this name in the Paraguayan department of Cordillera, near the capital Asunción. This was eventually confirmed by Silva et al. (2015), who showed that Deltochilum icaroides is restricted to the open environments of central Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina. The presence in Venezuela is, thus, discarded.