Cyclocephala monzoni Ratcliffe and Cave

Ratcliffe, Brett C. & Cave, Ronald D., 2009, New Species of CyclocephalaDejean, 1821 from Guatemala (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini), The Coleopterists Bulletin 63 (3), pp. 325-332 : 328-331

Cyclocephala monzoni Ratcliffe and Cave , new species

( Figs. 2, 5–6, 9)

Type Material. Holotype male, labeled ‘‘ GUATEMALA: San Marcos above La Fraternidad ,, 1,950 m, IV-1997, cloud forest, col. J. Monzon’ ’ and with our red holotype label . Allotype female with same data and our red allotype label.

Fifty males and 22 females with same data and our yellow paratype label. Eighty-three males and 187 females with same data except date of X-1996 and our yellow paratype label. Fifty male and 35 female paratypes labeled ‘‘ GUATE- MALA: San Marcos above La Fraternidad ,, 2,000 m, VI-5-1997, cloud forest, col. J. Monzon & E. Giesbert’ ’ and with our yellow paratype label. Ten males and six females labeled ‘‘ GUATEMALA: San Marcos, La Fraternidad , 1,900 m, X-1996, J. Monzon’ ’ and with our yellow paratype label. Three males and five females labeled ‘‘ GUATEMALA: San Marcos, rd to Bojanal (sic), mv + bl, 23 Oct. 2006, R. Turnbow’ ’ and with our yellow paratype label. Seven males and 22 females labeled ‘‘ GUATEMALA: San Marcos, Bojonal , 1,605 m, N14 ° 56 9 40 0 W91 ° 52 9 48 0, 13 July 2001, RD Cave’ ’ and with our yellow paratype label. Two males and five females labeled: ‘‘ GUATEMALA: Dept. San Marcos, 2 km en vereda a Bojonal , 25 rd. km. SW San Marcos, 1,700 M el., 24-25-V-03, cloud for., R. E. Woodruff / J. Monzon’ ’ and with our yellow paratype label. One female labeled ‘‘ GUATEMALA: Baja Verapaz, 1 km E Purulha, 1,590 m, N15 ° 34 9 42 0 W90 ° 12 9 56 0, 16 July 2001, RD Cave’ ’ and with our yellow paratype label .

Holotype, allotype, and 25 paratypes deposited at the Universidad del Valle (Guatemala City, Guatemala). Additional paratypes deposited in the collections of the University of Nebraska State Museum (Lincoln, NE), U. S. National Collection ( Smithsonian Institution , currently at the University of Nebraska ), Escuela Agrícola Panamericana ( Zamorano , Honduras), Field Museum of Natural History ( Chicago , IL), American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY), Florida State Collection of Arthropods ( Gainesville , FL), California Academy of Sciences ( San Francisco , CA), Canadian Museum of Nature ( Ottawa , Canada), The Natural History Museum ( London , England), Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle ( Paris , France), Museum für Naturkunde (Berlin, Germany), Roger-Paul Dechambre ( Paris , France), Fabien Dupuis (Saint- Chamond , France), Jhon Neita (Bogotá, Colombia), Leonardo Delgado and Miguel Morón (both Xalapa , México), William Warner (Chandler, AZ), Paul Lago (University, MS), R. H. Turnbow (Enterprise, AL), Mary Liz Jameson ( Wichita , KS), M. J. Paulsen (Lincoln, NE), José Monzón (Guatemala City, Guatemala), Everardo Grossi (Nova Friburgo, Brazil), Ronald D. Cave (Port St. Lucie, FL), and Brett C. Ratcliffe (Lincoln, NE) .

Holotype. Male. Length 13.8 mm; width across humeri 7.5 mm. Color testaceous except for reddish brown clypeus, thoracic and abdominal sternites, and tarsomeres and black on frons, occiput, apices of femora, base of elytra just either side of scutellum, and elytra with narrow sutural line. Head: Surface glabrous. Frons densely punctate, punctures moderate in size. Clypeus with surface entirely, finely, densely rugulopunctate; shape parabolic, apex vaguely subtruncate, reflexed, margin beaded. Interocular width equals 4.0 transverse eye diameters. Antenna with 10 antennomeres, club with 3 antennomeres, subequal in length to antennomeres 2–7. Pronotum: Surface glabrous, finely shagreened, sparsely punctate in central third, punctures becoming denser on sides; punctures moderately large in size. Base with complete marginal bead. Posterior angles broadly rounded. Elytra: Surface glabrous, finely shagreened, median fourth confusedly punctate and weakly wrinkled; punctures moderate to large, shallow, some in rows on lateral part of disc. Pygidium: Surface opaque, coarsely shagreened, setigerous; setae moderate in density, long, testaceous. In lateral view, surface regularly convex. Legs: Protibia tridentate, basal tooth small and slightly removed from others. Protarsus enlarged, tarsomeres 2–4 each slightly larger than preceding; 5 th large, weakly curved, carinulate on each medioventral edge, venter concave. Median claw enlarged, strongly curved, with rounded process at base, apex narrowly cleft. Metatarsus slightly longer than metafemur. Meso- and metatarsal claws long, slender, more than half length of tarsomere 5. Venter: Prosternal process long, columnar, setose, apex obliquely flattened into suboval disc with anterior half elevated into raised ‘‘button.’’ Parameres: Figures 5–6.

Allotype. Female. Length 13.7 mm; width across humeri 7.5 mm. As holotype except in the following respects: Base of elytra lacking narrow area of black on either side of scutellum. Head: Clypeus with apex more evenly rounded. Interocular width equals 3.5 transverse eye diameters. Elytra: Epipleuron (ventral view) only feebly expanded and abruptly terminating in a tooth at level of sternite 2. In dorsal view, lateral margin imperceptibly explanate from about middle to level of apical umbone. Pygidium: Surface densely, finely rugulopunctate, glabrous. In lateral view, surface nearly flat. Legs: Protarsus normal, not enlarged. Metatarsus slightly longer than metatibia.

Variation. Males (205 paratypes). Length 11.5–13.8 mm; width across humeri 5.9–7.6 mm. The paratypes do not differ significantly from the holotype. Some have reduced black coloring on the frons, base of elytra either side of scutellum, and thoracic sternites (leaving only abdominal sternites reddish brown to black). A few have black tarsomeres.

Females (281 paratypes). Length 11.3–14.5 mm; width across humeri 6.2– 8.0 mm. The paratypes do not differ significantly from the allotype. Some have reduced black markings on the frons and thoracic sternites (leaving only abdominal sternites reddish brown or black), and others with black coloring present at the base of elytra either side of scutellum. Elytra: Epipleuron (ventral view) varies with an angulate tooth at the level of sternite 2 to juncture of sternites 2–3.

Etymology. This species is named for José Monzón in recognition of his extensive efforts to discover the diversity of Guatemalan scarabs, and because he was the first to collect many specimens in the type series.

Distribution. Cyclocephala monzoni is known almost exclusively from the cloud forests near Volcán Tajumulco (San Marcos Department) in western Guatemala. One additional specimen was collected in the remnant cloud forest at Purulhá in the Department of Baja Verapaz northeast of Guatemala City.

Temporal Distribution. April (74), May (5), June (85), July (30), October (294).

Diagnosis. Cyclocephala monzoni will key only to couplet 149 in the male Cyclocephala key in Endrödi (1985), where the key choices no longer fit any of the characters. The choices immediately after this go to C. larssoni Endrödi and C. sororia Bates , both known from Mexico and probably Guatemala, but C. monzoni is different from either of these. Cyclocephala larssoni has totally different parameres, and males of C. sororia , with vaguely similar parameres, have a glabrous pygidium (setose in C. monzoni ) and a genitalic basal piece nearly three times as long as the parameres (twice as long in C. monzoni ). Females of C. sororia lack an expanded epipleuron, whereas the epipleuron is expanded into a tooth in C. monzoni . Cyclocephala monzoni closely resembles C. alexi Ratcliffe and Delgado , which was described from southern Mexico. However, C. alexi is generally larger, has distinct setae on the frons and clypeus in both sexes (glabrous in C. monzoni ), setae on the anterior angles of the pronotum and on the apical third of the elytra in the males (glabrous in C. monzoni ), setae on the pygidium in the females (glabrous in C. monzoni ), a slightly more elongate clypeus (nearly semicircular in C. monzoni ; Figs. 9–10), and a slightly longer metatarsus relative to the metatibia (30% in C. alexi , 20% in C. monzoni ). Both C. monzoni and C. alexi have noticeably ‘‘roughened’’ elytra due to dense, large punctures, and both have similar parameres ( Figs. 5–8).