Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
10-14-2022
Citation
Edmonds WD. 2022. Taxonomic review of the North American dung beetle genus Boreocanthon Halffter, 1958 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Deltochilini). Insecta Mundi 0952: 1–65.
Abstract
This paper presents a taxonomic review of the genus Boreocanthon Halffter, restored generic status, a group of ball-rolling (telocoprid) dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) endemic to North America. The genus, heretofore treated as a subgenus of Canthon, comprises 13 species, each keyed, diagnosed, illustrated and presented with information on distribution, relationships, and biology (*signifies restored generic combination): *Boreocanthon ateuchiceps (Bates, 1887); B. coahuilensis (Howden, 1966); *B. depressipennis (LeConte, 1859c); *B. ebenus (Say, 1823); *B. forreri (Bates, 1887); *B. integricollis (Schaeffer, 1915); *B. lecontei (Harold, 1868); *B. melanus (Robinson, 1948); *B. praticola (LeConte, 1868); *B. probus (Germar, 1823); *B. puncticollis (LeConte, 1866); *B. simplex (LeConte, 1857); as well as Boreocanthon halffteri Edmonds here described as a new species. Other actions taken are a) Canthon mixtus Robinson declared junior subjective new synonym of Boreocanthon puncticollis; b) Canthon bisignatus Balthasar, 1939, declared junior subjective new synonym of Boreocanthon simplex; c) Boreocanthon coahuilensis (Howden) new generic combination; and d) neotype designated for the type species of the genus Boreocanthon, Ateuchus ebenus Say, 1823, here Boreocanthon ebenus (Say).
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 14, 2022 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P.O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/