Charadronota Burmeister, 1842

Philips, T. Keith, Mudge, Alan D., Orozco, Jesus, Neidlinger, Robert, Beinhundner, Gerhard & Joly, Claude, 2022, A rich and diverse fauna: an illustrated guide to the cetoniines of Ghana with comparisons to Ivory Coast and Benin (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae), Zootaxa 5150 (2), pp. 151-188 : 177

Charadronota Burmeister, 1842

The genus Charadronota includes six or seven species of medium-sized cetoniines (14–23 mm) widely distributed in tropical Africa ( Schoolmeesters 2021, Beinhundner 2017). Several of these, e.g. C. quadrisignata (Gory & Percheron, 1883) , C. curvata Janson, 1888 and C. soror Kraatz, 1883 are highly variable in color and markings, which has led to a number of forms, varieties, and synonyms being described.

Charadronota quadrisignata has been listed from several countries including Ghana ( Joly 2001, 2018; Mudge et al. 2012); Benin ( Touroult & Le Gall 2001, 2012; Le Gall 2015), Ivory Coast ( Fédière et al. 1989), Cameroon ( Krajčík 1998) and Central African Republic ( Sakai & Nagai 1998). Beinhundner (2017) lists C. quadrisignata from Senegal (the type locality) and Gambia only, and C. curvata as the widespread and highly variable species from Ivory Coast, Niger (type locality Niger District), Ghana, Central African Republic, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. The two species are most reliably separated by differences in the apices of the male parameres. The C. quadrisignata in Mudge et al. 2012 (and likely by other authors as well) may in fact be C. curvata .

Joly (2001, 2018), Sakai & Nagai (1998) and Touroult & Le Gall (2012), list C. leprieuri Burmeister, 1842 from Ghana, Togo, and Benin respectively and we list it again here. Charadronota leprieuri , however, is considered by others to be a synonym of C. quadrisignata ( Schoolmeesters 2021, Krajčík 1998, Beinhundner 2017). Until a generic revision is done, we believe the true number of species of Charadronota and their distribution will remain uncertain. At this moment, we list six species from Ghana, including C. curvata , C. quadrisignata , and C. leprieuri .