Episcaphula Crotch

Skelley, Paul E., Leschen, Richard A. B. & Liu, Zhenhua, 2021, New Australian Erotylinae with notes on Dacnini (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea Erotylidae), Zootaxa 4948 (3), pp. 363-380 : 375

Episcaphula Crotch

Episcaphula Crotch, 1876: 409 .

Type species: Episcaphula amboinensis Crotch, 1876: 409 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Episcaphula is a member of the Megalodacnini with the following characters: pronotum lacking posterior marginal bead; pronotum with anterior margin not projecting, not surpassing anterior angles, evenly concave; mentum broadly transverse to rectangularly pentagonal; and tarsi with distinct tarsomere 4. Episcaphula is distinguished from other genera by their smaller size (in general), antennomere 3 only about 1.5× as long as antennomere 2, and tarsomeres 2–3 are little dilated ventrally, tarsomere 3 is not broadly lobed.

Remarks. With the raising of the subgenus Orytelus Heller, 1920, to generic status by Chûjô (1968), Episcaphula is left with five subgenera comprised of approximately 95 species in Asia ( Chûjô & Chûjô 1988b), 39 species in African tropics ( Delkeskamp 1981), but no members in the New World. Species of Episcaphula from Indonesia were reviewed by Heller (1920). Chûjô & Chûjô (1988a) had begun revisionary work on the New Guinea fauna, described additional species and stated there are many more undescribed species. Unfortunately, no more current work has been published on the group.

Even with five subgenera, the remaining species of Episcaphula (Episcaphula) show a large amount of diversity in body size, color patterns, surface structure (setose vs. glabrous), antennal characters, pronotal puncture patterns, etc., indicating it remains a large conglomerate of taxa needing further study at a generic level. Until more studies and additional analyses are made, we prefer to retain the current subgenera of Episcaphula .