Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida
Date of this Version
9-11-2013
Citation
Insecta Mundi 0325: 1-25
Abstract
The Neotropical members of the genus Aesalus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Lucanidae: Aesalinae) are transferred to a new genus, Trogellus, due to their morphological dissimilarity and molecular divergence from the Old World species of Aesalus, and the new genus is revised. A neotype is designated for A. trogoides Albers and a lectotype for A. neotropicalis Bates. Aesalus smithi Bates is placed into synonymy with Aesalus trogoides, new synonymy. Two new combinations result from the transfer of species formerly in Aesalus: Trogellus trogoides from Mexico and Trogellus neotropicalis from Guatemala. In addition to the two known species, eight new species are described: T. catrachitus, T. chapinitus, T. hawksi, T. herrmanni, T. maesi, T. narizotus, T. ticiticus, and T. trifinius. This brings the total number of species of Central American aesalines to ten. A phylogeny of Aesalini based on two gene regions of ribosomal DNA is presented. Due to clear morphological differences and large molecular divergence between species groups, two additional new subgenera of Trogellus are proposed: Mayaesalus and Trogoides.
Comments
Published in 2013 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P. O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/
Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License.