Onthophagus cognatus Boucomont, 1921

Tarasov, Sergey I., 2010, Seven new synonyms within the genus Onthophagus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) from the Oriental Region, Zootaxa 2566, pp. 45-48 : 46

Onthophagus cognatus Boucomont, 1921

Onthophagus cognatus Boucomont (in Boucomont & Gillet), 1921: 30 (type locality: Laos, prov. Tran Ninh [ Laos, Xieng Khouang])

Onthophagus jucundus Arrow, 1931: 188 syn.n. (type locality: India Or Manipur)

Onthophagus jucundus Arrow ; Bacchus, 1978: 104 (lectotype designation)

Onthophagus (Serrophorus) chulapornus Masumoto, Ochi & Hanboonong, 2008 syn.n. (type locality: Thailand, Chaiyaphum Prov., Chulaporn Dam)

Type material examined. Two syntypes of O. cognatus ( MNHN), male and female bearing geographical label “ LAOS, prov. Tran Ninh” and indicated by A. Boucomont as “ Onthophagus cognatus n.sp”.

Lectotype of O. jucundus ( BMNH), female bearing following labels:

1. Round label: LECTOTYPE

2. White, printed: Doherty

3. Yellow, handwritten: [first character illegible] 4311

4. White, printed: India Or Manipur

5. White, printed: Fry Coll 1905-100.

6. White, handwritten: Onthophagus jucundus . type arrow

7. White: Onthophagus Ψ jucundus arrow [handwritten], M.E. Bacchus det 1975 [printed] 5 [handwritten]. LECTOTYPE [printed]

8. White: Onthophagus cognatus Bouc. [handwritten] S. Tarasov det. 2009 [printed]

Also, 1Ψ paralectotype of O. jucundus bearing geographical label “Birmah Momeit”.

Remarks. I have examined large material of O. cognatus and similar species from Indochina. Onthophagus cognatus is widespread in Indochina and can be easily separated from similar species by external characters and structure of the aedeagus. Although I have not examined type specimens of O. chulapornus Masumoto, Ochi & Hanboonsong, 2008 , the original description of this species is well illustrated with a photograph of the holotype and illustration of the aedeagus. These illustrations match the character states seen in O. cognatus and lead me to conclude that these names should be synonymized. It seems that O. chulapornus was described as a new species simply because the authors did not know the identity of O. cognatus . Likewise, the lectotype of O. jucundus was examined and matched O. cognatus in diagnostic external and aedeagal character states and these names are here synonymized.