A new species and significant range extension for the genus Fractipes Bechynĕ (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Eumolpinae: Eumolpini)

Authors

Wills Flowers, Florida A&M UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

10-22-2021

Citation

Flowers RW. 2021. A new species and significant range extension for the genus Fractipes Bechynĕ (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Eumolpinae: Eumolpini). Insecta Mundi 0890: 1–6.

Comments

Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License,

Published on October 22, 2021 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P.O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/

Abstract

Fractipes tayrona new species (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Eumolpinae: Eumolpini) is described from a dry forest on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. This locality is very distant from the localities in southeast Brazil, where the other two known species of Fractipes Bechynĕ were described. Male and female genitalia are described for the first time in this genus, and F. tayrona is compared with holotype photographs of F. rhabdopteroides Bechynĕ and F. secundus Bechynĕ and Springlová de Bechynĕ.

Resumen. Se describe Fractipes tayrona especie nueva (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Eumolpinae: Eumol­pini) de la costa Caribe de Colombia. La especie fue recolectada en un bosque seco, en un lugar muy lejos del hábitat de los otros dos especies conocidas de Fractipes Bechynĕ, los cuales están conocidas del sureste de Brasil. Se describe los genitales de los machos y hembras por la primera vez en este género, y se compara F. tayrona a las fotos de los holotipos de F. rhabdopteroides Bechynĕ and F. secundus Bechynĕ and Springlová de Bechynĕ.

Bechynĕ (1950) described Fractipes rhabdopteroides as a new genus and species of eumolpine (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Eumolpinae: Eumolpini) leaf beetle from southeastern Brazil. He described the species as resembling the genus Rhabdopterus Lefèvre, except for a very large ventral lobe on the hind femur of the male. Later, Bechynĕ and Springlová de Bechynĕ (1961) described a second species, Fractipes secundus Bechynĕ and Bechynĕ, also from southeastern Brazil, which is distinguished by a very large ventral tooth on the male metafemur. Inspection of a collection of Eumolpinae from a protected area on the Caribbean coast in Colombia has revealed a third spe­cies with a very large armament on the male metafemur. This paper describes Fractipes tayrona new species, and compares it with photos of holotypes of the other two known species. The locality of the new species represents a range extension for the genus of approximately 5,100 km; about as far from the other two species as is possible to get and still be on continental South America.