Auxicerus multicolor ( Boileau, 1897 )

Perger, Robert, Grossi, Paschoal Coelho & Guerra, Fernando, 2017, Description of a new species of the stag beetle genus Auxicerus Waterhouse, 1883 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Lucanidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 302, pp. 1-10 : 5

Auxicerus multicolor ( Boileau, 1897)

Calodaemon multicolor Boileau, 1897: 248 .

Calodaemon multicolor – Boileau 1898a: 119.

Auxicerus multicolor – Boileau 1898b: 418. — Blackwelder 1944: 195. — Didier & Séguy 1953: 28. — Weinreich 1963: 204. — Benesh 1960: 51. — Maes 1992: 64. — Bomans 1994: 488. — Mizunuma & Nagai 1994: 279.

Material examined

BOLIVIA: Santa Cruz Department: 1 ♂, BL 13.5 mm, Amboro National Park, Los Volcanes, 1000 m a.s.l., 18°06′ S, 63°36′ W, MV light sheet on stream beach, 20 Nov.–12 Dec. 2004, M. V.L. Barclay and H. Mendel leg. (ex coll. BMNH) ( LBC). — La Paz Department: 2 ♂♂, BL 11.2 and 13.1 mm, Nor Yungas, Cotapata Park, near Chairo, 16º12,01′ S, 67º48,31′ W, 1150 m a.s.l., 19 Jan. 2009 ( EPCG); 3 ♂♂, BL 14.0, 14.1 and 15.5 mm, Nor Yungas, road between Coroico and Caranavi, 1000–1800 m a.s.l., Nov. 2009, local collector ( EPCG); 1 ♂, BL 18 mm, Caranavi, 1500 m a.s.l., Nov.–Dec. 1990, local collectors (ex coll. H.E. Bomans) ( LBC).

Remarks

The taxonomy of A. platyceps and A. multicolor , both sympatric in the Yungas forest of the La Paz and Santa Cruz departments, is complicated by their close resemblance and the variability of several characteristics used to separate both species (see Weinreich 1963), such as color and the distribution of scales. Additionally, as in several other species of this family, inter-specific comparison is complicated by the allometry of several structures of the head. Nevertheless, these species can be separated by the following characteristics of the legs and the ventral surface: proximal half of femora and distal half of tibiae brownish in A. platyceps (light red to red in A. multicolor ); head with gena more distinctly and strongly punctate in A. platyceps ; gular suture posteriorly more distinct in A. multicolor , and weakly marked in A. platyceps ; in A. platyceps anterior angles of prementum more prominent and anterior pronotal angles more obtuse than in A. multicolor ; prosternum flattened and with parallel sides in A. platyceps , and convex with rounded sides in A. multicolor ; mesosternum more triangular in A. multicolor ; abdominal sternites more strongly and densely punctate in A. platyceps .

Geographical distribution

Bolivia (La Paz, Santa Cruz).