Pucaya castanea Ohaus, 1910

Paucar-Cabrera, Aura & Moore, Matthew Robert, 2018, New tribal placement and review of Parapucaya Prell and Pucaya Ohaus (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae), ZooKeys 805, pp. 127-158 : 143-145

Pucaya castanea Ohaus, 1910 Figs 36, 37, 38

Pucaya castanea Ohaus, 1910: 676 (original combination).

Pucaya columbiana Beck, 1942: 47 (synonym).

Redescription.

Length 24.0-30.1 mm; width 11.0-14.2 mm. Color light to dark reddish brown; head, tibiae, and tarsi often black. Head: Frons and clypeus completely rugulose in males, partially rugulose to nearly smooth in females. Base of clypeus at sides (and just in front of eye) with short, vertically upright horn in males or a large tubercle in females. Clypeus with apex very broadly truncate, shallowly emarginate, broadly reflexed in males, narrowly reflexed in females. Interocular width equals 5.0 transverse eye diameters. Antenna with 10 antennomeres, club subequal to antennomeres 2-7. Mandibles small, narrow, not visible in dorsal view. Pronotum: Surface with sparse, minute punctures. A tumescent boss present either side of broadly depressed midline. Narrow marginal bead present on base. Elytra: Surface also with sparse, minute punctures; punctures becoming denser along lateral margins. Striae totally lacking. Pygidium: Surface with sparse, minute punctures. In lateral view, regularly convex in males, nearly flat in females. Legs: Protibia tridentate, basal tooth slightly removed from others. Males with claw of anterior tarsus enlarged, apex split. Apex of posterior tibia arcuate and with 9 short, stout spinules. Apex of first tarsomere of posterior tarsus triangularly elongated. Venter: Prosternal process short; apex transversely oval, anterior 1/2-2/3 convex, posterior 1/2-1/3 flat, a transverse sulcus often separating anterior and posterior parts. Parameres: Fig. 38.

Distribution.

Pucaya castanea occurs in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador ( Beck 1942 b; Endrődi 1969, 1985; Ratcliffe 2003; López-García et al. 2015). In Ecuador, it is widely distributed in thirteen provinces: Azuay, Cañar, Carchi, Cotopaxi, Esmeraldas, Imbabura, Loja, Morona Santiago, Napo, Orellana, Pichincha, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, and Zamora Chinchipe.

Diagnosis.

Pucaya castanea can be distinguished from P. pulchra by its elytral punctation. In P. castanea , the entire elytral surface has sparse, minute punctures, while in P. pulchra the elytral surface is striate-punctate from the base to 2/3 the length of the elytra. The punctures are dense, moderate in size, and ocellate, but on the apical third of the elytra the punctures are sparse and minute. The form of the parameres (Fig. 38) also separates both species.

Natural history.

In Ecuador, P. castanea occurs at elevations ranging from sea level to 2,550 m in the coastal, Andean, and Amazon regions. Based on label data, adults can be collected throughout the year but in higher numbers from February to May and from November to December. Nothing is known of the immature stages of this species.