Myoplatypus Wood, 1993: 274

Kirkendall, Lawrence R. & Atkinson, Thomas H., 2023, The rare genus Myoplatypus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Platypodinae): three new species, new reports, and first records for South America, Zootaxa 5351 (3), pp. 301-321 : 303

Genus Myoplatypus Wood, 1993: 274 .

Type species: Bostrichus flavicornis Fabricius. Original designation.

Diagnosis. This genus belongs in the tribe Platypodini ( Wood 1993;Alonzo-Zarazaga & Lyal 2009).It is distinguished from all other American genera by the presence in males of a transverse pair of prominent spines on ventrite 3. It is also distinguished from most species in other Platypodini genera by its slender body shape, where both sexes are more than 3 × as long as wide (four species are> 4 × as long as wide). The genera most similar in size and general appearance to Myoplatypus are Epiplatypus Wood , Teloplatypus Wood. and Costaroplatus Wood. These three genera do not have greatly produced ventrolateral projections from the corners of the declivity as do many species in other Neotropical genera, and their males have a very short, vertical declivity that, too, is rarely seen in species of other genera. Males of Epiplatypus , Teloplatypus and Costaroplatus do not have spines on ventrite 3, and males of the latter two are not as elongate (are <3 × as long as wide). Females of Epiplatypus (and males of some species) have a pair of mycangial pores on the pronotum, a feature that has only been found so far in one Myoplatypus , M. sicarius (tranferred to Myoplatypus in this paper). Teloplatypus females are <3 × as long as wide. Costaroplatus females have the lower frons impressed (flat in Myoplatypus ) and have a distinctively triangular scape that is about as wide as long (the scape in Myoplatypus females being longer than wide).

In creating this genus, Wood combined the five Neotropical Platypus species in Schedl’s “Sektion Platypi bilobati ” ( Schedl 1972) with the Nearctic species Platypus flavicornis (F.), apparently based on the ventrite 3 character and some superficial resemblances between P. flavicornis and the bilobati species. We are not sure that the ventral spines in M. flavicornis (the type species of the genus) are homologous with those of the other Myoplatypus species, and we have found other differences as well that put this relationship in doubt. Until a more detailed analysis can be carried out, we prefer to continue using Wood’s genus composition.