Helictopleurus peyrierasi Paulian & Cambefort, 1991 stat. rest.

Rossini, Michele, Montreuil, Olivier, Grebennikov, Vasily & Tarasov, Sergei, 2021, Genome sequencing reveals extraordinary cephalic horns in the Madagascan dung beetle genus Helictopleurus (Coleoptera, Scarabaeinae): insight from a revision of fungicola species group, ZooKeys 1033, pp. 63-79 : 63

Helictopleurus peyrierasi Paulian & Cambefort, 1991 stat. rest. Figure 2F-J, M, N, P

Helictopleurus peyrierasi Paulian & Cambefort 1991: 115; Montreuil 2005a: 133.

Helictopleurus fungicola peyrierasi : Montreuil 2005b: 376; Wirta et al. 2008: 1080, 1081 (phylogeny), 1086 (a ppendix A).

Type material examined.

Holotype, male: "Madagascar Ouest, réserve spéciale du Zombitsy, Est de Sakaraha, matsabory, 640m, 7-10.II.1974, P. Viette et A. Peyrieras / Holotype Helictopleurus peyrierasi n. sp. R. Paulian et Y. Cambefort det. 1991 / HOLOTYPE" (MNHN).

Paratype, female: same data as holotype, except the collection date: “13.II.1974” (MNHN).

Distribution.

This species is known from the central-western coast of Madagascar (Boeny and Menabe regions).

Taxonomic remarks.

Paulian and Cambefort (1991) described H. peyrierasi from Zombitsy, south-western Madagascar. Montreuil (2005b), after having examined specimens collected in nearby Kirindy, and having compared them with the type specimens of Helictopleurus fungicola , treated this taxon as a subspecies of H. fungicola. We compared the type specimens of the nominotypical subspecies with those of H. fungicola peyrierasi and found significant differences, especially in the shape of male genitalia, that support the original treatment of H. peyrierasi stat. rest. as a full species within the genus Helictopleurus .

Figures

Figure 2. Helictopleurus fungicola A, B habitus of male (A) and female (B) C, D lateral and anterior view of the aedeagus; basoventral lobes (BVLb) E endophallus: lamella copulatrix (LC) K, L details of the superior side of the membranous sac of the endophallus; Endophallic spines (EpS) O lateral view of the head: arrows indicating the absence of humps and tubercles. Helictopleurus peyrierasi stat. rest. F, G habitus of male (F) and female (G) H, I lateral and anterior view of the aedeagus J endophallus: superior (SpLC) and inferior (IpLC) part of the lamella copulatrix M, N details of the superior side of the membranous sac of the endophallus P lateral view of the head: arrows indicate the frontoclypeal hump and the postoccipital central tubercle.