Onthophagus dama

Sathiandran, Nithya & Sabu, Thomas K., 2012, New species, new synonym, and redescription of Onthophagus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) from the Western Ghats, India, Zootaxa 3526, pp. 53-58 : 56

Onthophagus dama species group (as defined by Arrow 1931)

Examination of O. sahai in the recent collections from the South Western Ghats montane rain forest ecoregion revealed that Biswas and Chaterjee (1986) erroneously placed O. sahai in the Onthophagus gemma species group following the species key in Arrow (1931). This discrepancy occurred because they considered the 7th elytral stria to be straight and parallel with the 6th stria, and concluded that it has strong similarities to O. lapillus Arrow. However , our examination revealed that 7th elytral stria is strongly curved and not parallel with the 6th stria, and it is more similar to O.refulgens Arrow , thereby falling within the O. dama species group (as defined by Arrow 1931). The O. dama species group is distinguished from other Onthophagus species groups by the smooth dorsal surface without setae, or when present with minute and inconspicuous setae, and by the pronotum not shiny, with sides opaque ( Arrow 1931). Since the description of O. sahai was inadequate, as it did not include all the necessary characters, a redescription is provided below.