Copris tridentatus Solís & Kohlmann, 2003

Solís, Ángel & Kohlmann, Bert, 2003, New species of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) from Costa Rica and Panama, Zootaxa 139, pp. 1-14 : 2

Copris tridentatus Solís & Kohlmann , sp. nov. ( Fig. 1 )

Diagnosis. This species is distinguished from other Copris species by the following combination of characters: head with a tridentate clypeus; head and thorax are unarmed, the head having only a small gibbosity; head and pronotum covered by large, flat and shallow umbilicate punctures.

Description. Holotype. Male: Length 13.2 mm. Humeral width 7.1 mm. Body oblong and convex, completely black.

Head unarmed; clypeus tridentate, teeth not prominent; clypeus with faint simple punctation; genae and base of head with coarse umbilical punctation; frons with a smooth gibbosity; eyes small, maximum ocular width about two thirds of ocular length; genal suture slightly arched; posterior angles of head subquadrate.

Pronotum unarmed; anterior angles acute, the margin behind them sinuate; lateral carina acute; coarse umbilicate punctures all around pronotal margin, and on anterior angles, lateral fossae, median longitudinal sulcus and to both sides of the pronotal disc; median longitudinal sulcus deeply impressed.

Elytra with eighth and tenth striae complete, ninth stria arising at about one third of elytron; striae crenate­punctate, separated by 1­ 2 x their widths on disc; intervals convex, sparsely minutely punctate.

Pygidium coarsely and uniformly punctate, margin complete.

Protibial spurs curved slightly inward and tapering to an acute point, pro­ meso­ and metafemora covered ventrally with coarse umbilicate punctures, as well as a great part of the lower surfaces with the exception of the disc of the metasternum

Female. ­ Unknown.

Variation. Length 12.5­13.2 mm. Humeral width 6.5­7.1 mm. Frons gibbosity can also be umbilico­punctate.

Examined material (2 specimens). Holotype, male: COSTA RICA. San José: Ciudad Colón, El Rodeo, 1000 m, 17 Oct 1988, Col.: A. Solís. Paratype. ibid., 1 specimen.

Habitat. The specimens were collected using traps baited with human excrement inside a tropical seasonal dry forest.

Geographical distribution. This species is only known so far from the “El Rodeo” Forest Reseve, near San José, at the base of the Escazú heights.

Chorological affinities. The distribution of this new species is embedded within the distribution of its closest relative, C. costaricensis Gahan , found from Chiapas to Panama.

Taxonomic relationships. Copris tridentatus is in the remotus complex as defined by Matthews (1961), and is keyed there to Copris costaricencis . It is easily separated from this species by the presence of a tridentate clypeus, anterior pronotal margin without a central tooth, a complete pygidial margin and the lack of a male horn. In general the species has characters intermediate between C. costaricensis and C. sallei , although the pronotal punctation has basically the same pattern as in C. costaricensis .

Etymology. The name refers to the clypeus having three teeth.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Dorsal habitus of Copris tridentatus Solís & Kohlmann, sp. nov. (holotype).