Cnemonyx Eichhoff, 1868

Smith, Sarah M. & Cognato, Anthony I., 2013, A New Species of Scolytus Geoffroy, 1762 and Taxonomic Changes Regarding Neotropical Scolytini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), The Coleopterists Bulletin 67 (4), pp. 547-556 : 551

Cnemonyx Eichhoff, 1868

Cnemonyx setulosus ( Eggers, 1929) . New status = Cnemonyx similis ( Eggers, 1929) . New synonymy

Wood (2007) considered C. setulosus and C. similis as synonyms of Cnemonyx panamensis ( Blandford, 1896) . We consider C. setulosus to be a distinct species and C. similis to be its junior synonym. Cnemonyx setulosus and C. panamensis are closely related and superficially resemble each other but are morphologically distinct. In C. setulosus , the male epistoma is weakly excavated and is typically weakly carinate along the basal epistomal margin, and the frons is moderately excavated from the epistoma to the anterodorsal margin of the eyes, almost bordering the ocular margin. In C. panamensis , the epistoma and frons are flattened, and there is a short, median, weakly elevated carina along the basal epistomal margin. In C. setulosus , the dorsal half of the frons is covered by two thick bands of long, yellow setae, those clearly divided between the median line, while in C. panamensis the dorsal half of the frons is covered by long, yellow setae which are contiguous across the median line. In addition, the declivital interstriae of C. setulosus each bear 3–5 rows of pale, yellow setae, while those of C. panamensis only bear 1–3 rows. The pronotum of C. setulosus appears rugose with dense, abundant setae on the anterior half and lateral margins, and that of C. panamensis appears longitudinally strigate with sparse setae on the anterolateral areas.

With the inclusion of C. similis and C. setulosus as synonyms, Wood (2007) created a very broad concept for C. panamensis that included a great amount of morphological variation. The distribution range for his concept of C. panamensis was quite large, spanning Costa Rica to Bolivia. With C. setulosus removed from synonymy, the ranges of these species are more discrete; C. panamensis occurs in Costa Rica and Panama, and C. setulosus occurs in Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela.

Cnemonyx similis is placed in synonymy with C. setulosus because the holotypes of both species are identical except for the development of the carina on the basal margin of the male epistoma. In C. similis , the carina is moderately developed, and in C. setulosus it is weakly developed to absent within a series. Similar variation in the basal epistoma carina was also demonstrated in Camptocerus niger (F., 1801) and its synonym Camptocetus tectus Eggers, 1943 (Smith and Cognato 2010). Cnemonyx similis and C. setulosus were described in the same publication. We have chosen the name C. setulosus because it best describes the species, which is abundantly covered in long, recumbent setae on the pronotum and the elytral interstriae.