Mycotretus pecari Lacordaire 1842
Creators: name: Pecci-Maddalena, Italo Salvatore de Castro
name: Lopes-Andrade, Cristiano
name: Skelley, Paul
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Erotylidae
Mycotretus
Mycotretus pecari

description: 191. Mycotretus pecari Lacordaire, 1842
Mycotretus pecari Lacordaire, 1842: 167. Type locality: Colombia.
Mycotretus quattuordecimguttatus conjunctus Crotch, 1876: 440 [as a variety]. Type locality: unknown syn. nov. (Fig. 10A).
Mycotretus pecari – Crotch 1876: 440. — Gemminger & Harold 1876: 3694. — Gorham 1888: 55. — Kuhnt 1909: 71; 1911: 52. — Deelder 1942: 89. — Blackwelder 1945: 467. — Guérin 1948: 20. — Alvarenga 1994: 32. — Skelley 1998b: 15. — Pecci-Maddalena et al 2021a: 969.
Mycotretus quattuordecimguttatus conjunctus – Gemminger & Harold 1876: 3694. — Kuhnt 1909: 71; 1911: 53. — Blackwelder 1945: 467. — Alvarenga 1994: 34. — Skelley 1998b: 15.
Primary type
Lectotype, here designated (Fig. 34C).
VENEZUELA • “maracay. [handwritten]”; MRSN.
Other specimens examined
Paralectotype
COLOMBIA • 1 spec.; “TYPE. [printed, crossed out] pecari Co Reiche [handwritten] \ Valencia [handwritten] \ Colombia [handwritten] \ Paratype Mycotretus pecari Lacordaire, 1842 [yellow label, handwritten]”; UMCZ.
Distribution
Colombia (apud Alvarenga 1994), Venezuela.
Remarks
1) Although no specimen of M. quattuordecimguttatus conjunctus was dissected, we observed that its colour pattern and body shape (Fig. 10A) are very similar to those of M. pecari. Based on the examination of the paralectotype from “Valencia” (UMCZ), we noted a tendency of the first elytral band to fuse with the second band. Once this fusion has occurred, the resulting pattern is that observed in M. quattuordecimguttatus conjunctus. Therefore, here we synonymize M. quattuordecimguttatus conjunctus under M. pecari. 2) A few examined specimens from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in South Brazil, have the colour pattern strongly similar to that of M. pecari. However, such specimens have the contour of the elytral bands smooth, rather than serrate as in the typical M. pecari and their localities are very far from those where M. pecari occurs (with no intermediate geographical records). Therefore, they were not considered conspecific here. 3) Crotch (1876) did not mention the type locality of M. quattuordecimguttatus conjunctus and there is no locality information on the type labels. This species and M. guatemalae were collected by the same person, “Sheppard”, a contemporary of Crotch (Skelley 1998b), so there is a chance these species were collected at the same locality in Guatemala. 4) The two localities mentioned by Lacordaire (1842), “Valencia” and “Maracaybo” (= Maracaibo), as being from Colombia, currently pertain to Venezuela. 5) Lacordaire (1842: 168) pointed out three specimens examined by him, two from Valencia and one from Maraibo. According to him, there were the varieties “A” and “B”; variety “A” was not found by us and variety “B” was described by Lacordaire as follows: “La variété B est conforme au type quant à la forme des trois premières bandes, mais la tache oblongue de l’extrémité a complètement disparu”. The specimen from Valencia is currently kept in UMCZ and fits well the description of “variety B”; it has a label with the word “type” crossed out, suggesting that it is not a primary type. On the other hand, the specimen from Maracaibo is kept in MRSN and fits the main description of M. pecari provided by Lacordaire. Lacordaire mentioned a “type”, and the specimen from Maraibo (MRSN) is here considered the “ holotype ” and, consequently, the specimen from Valencia (UMCZ) is considered a paratype.
description: Published as part of Pecci-Maddalena, Italo Salvatore de Castro, Lopes-Andrade, Cristiano & Skelley, Paul, 2023, Catalogue of Mycotretus Lacordaire, 1842 (Coleoptera: Erotylidae: Tritomini): an annotated, illustrated and historical approach, pp. 1-182 in European Journal of Taxonomy 876 (1) on page 147, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2023.876.2149, http://zenodo.org/record/8095647