Hamonthophagus acutus
Creators: name: Roggero, Angela
name: Dierkens, Michael
name: Barbero, Enrico
name: Palestrini, Claudia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Hamonthophagus
Hamonthophagus acutus

description: HAMONTHOPHAGUS ACUTUS (D’ ORBIGNY, 1908: 171)
(FIGS 2, 7, 8, 10)
Type material: NAMIBIA [Sud-Ouest africain allemand]: Okahandja [MNHN]. Paralectotypes: BOTSWANA: lake Ngami [MNHN]. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: [Tanganyika,] region de Mpala [MNHN]. MALAWI: Malawi Lake [= Nyassa] [not located]. NAMIBIA: Salem [not located]. SOUTH AFRICA: Eastern Cape province [= Cafrerie] [MNHN]. For the morphological account, please refer to the original description.
Geographical distribution (Fig. 14): The species distribution comprises Namibia, south-west Botswana and north-west South Africa (see Appendix 3, Supporting Information for a detailed list of the localities). Besides, in the type series d’Orbigny (1908) also included material from the Tanganika area (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Nyassa (i.e. Malawi). The former specimen was reported in the Collection Oberthur, MNHN, and the latter was reported in ‘coll. du British Museum’ (now BMNH) where, however, it has not been traced (M. Barclay, pers. comm.). Neither specimen could be examined by us. As no other collection data from these areas were found within the studied material, these records were here regarded as uncertain until further confirmation. Also, a specimen from the MNHN labelled as ‘ Senegal provenance tres douteuse’ was not included in the present analysis.
HAMONTHOPHAGUS BITUBERCULATUS (OLIVIER, 1789: 131)
(FIGS 2, 7, 8, 10)
Synonymy: Onthophagus discoideus (Olivier, 1789:171) teste Harold 1880.
Type material: At present, the typical material of H. bituberculatus could not be found. Although various materials of the Olivier collection were traced in several museum collections over the years (Bragg, 1996; Staines & Whittington, 2003; G ultekin € & Korotyaev, 2011), most specimens are still missing. The type material of this species was collected from ‘Senegal’ by Geoffroy de Villeneuve, as well as its synonym O. discoideus (which was recorded also from Goree Island). As the type material of this species could not be located at present, no lectotype could be designed here. For the morphological account, please refer to the original description.
Geographical distribution (Fig. 14): The species is widely distributed in the whole sub-Saharan area [Benin, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal (the type locality), Sudan and Togo], and in Central and Eastern Africa (Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Republic of Congo and Uganda], extending eastwards and southwards toward Tanzania and Malawi (see Appendix 3, Supporting Information for more details). The species is also recorded from Cairo (Egypt, Schatzmayr, 1946; Baraud, 1985) and Arabia (Paulian, 1980), but these data need to be confirmed. Accidental introduction is reported in Antilles (Martinique), where an anthropogenic cause was hypothesized to explain these findings (Matthews, 1966; Chalumeau, 1983).
description: Published as part of Roggero, Angela, Dierkens, Michael, Barbero, Enrico & Palestrini, Claudia, 2017, Combined phylogenetic analysis of two new Afrotropical genera of Onthophagini (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae), pp. 298-320 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 180 on page 313