A synopsis of the Meloidae (Coleoptera) from Chiapas (México) and taxonomic comments on the genus Denierota Kaszab, 1959

Abstract

The revision of the specimens of the family Meloidae (Coleoptera) from the small Entomological Collection of ECOSUR at San Cristóbal de las Casas (Chiapas, Mexico), together with the revision of the material of Chiapas from the National Insect Collection (CNIN-IBUNAM, Instituto de Biología, UNAM, México) of the genus Epicauta, Hungarian Museum of Natural History (HMNH, Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum, Budapest) and Marco A. Bologna’ collection (MAB, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy), allow us to report the presence of Epicauta diana Pinto, 1991, Epicauta rufipennis (Chevrolat, 1834), Epicauta forticornis (Haag-Rutenberg, 1880), Epicauta distorta (Champion, 1892), Meloe tropicus Motschulsky, 1856, Denierota kraatzi (Haag-Rutenberg, 1880), Pyrota decorata (Haag-Rutenberg, 1880), Cissites auriculata (Champion, 1892) and Tetraonyx frontalis Chevrolat, 1833 for the first time in the State of Chiapas (México). Amongst these records, those of M. tropicus confirm the presence of the species in Mexico. The specimen of D. kraatzi represents the first precise record for the genus Denierota in México. The study of the material used by Z. Kaszab to describe the genus Denierota (HNHM), together with the specimens from M. Bologna’s Collection and the study of photographs of the type specimens of Lytta sanguineoguttata Haag-Rutenberg, 1880 and Lytta kraatzi Haag-Rutenberg, 1880, the two taxa previously included in Denierota, from the Zoologische Staatssammlung of Münich (Germany), allow us to conclude that the genus includes only one described species, and to formalize the synonymy of L. sanguineoguttata with L. kraatzi, solving both the long standing problem of the identity of L. kraatzi and the secondary problem caused by the lack of type locality (“patria ignota”) for the species.