Pucaya Ohaus, 1910

Paucar-Cabrera, Aura & Moore, Matthew Robert, 2018, New tribal placement and review of Parapucaya Prell and Pucaya Ohaus (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae), ZooKeys 805, pp. 127-158 : 143

Pucaya Ohaus, 1910 Figs 4, 6, 35-36, 37, 38, 39, 40

Pucaya Ohaus, 1910: 675.

Notes.

The genus Pucaya contains two species, P. castanea Ohaus and P. pulchra Arrow. López-García et al. (2015) compared type specimens and synonymized P. punctata Endrődi with P. pulchra based on similarities in body length, pronotal and elytral punctation, and the fact that the description of P. punctata was based on the color and punctation of a single female in a species where color pattern and punctation are variable.

Pucaya is distinguished from other cyclocephalines by its broadly truncate clypeus that conceals the mandibles; a small horn or tubercle near each eye (horns not as developed in Ecuadorian specimens as in Panamanian specimens); parameres with round, minute spinules (bumps) on the apical half; and a characteristic binodose pronotum.

Specimens can be taken at light traps, and some have been collected with pitfall traps. In Ecuador, species of this genus are widely distributed as follows: Chocó region in the coast; premontane, montane, and cloud forests in the Andean region; and rainforests in the Amazon basin. Life history information is lacking.