Cremastocheilus chapini

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Cremastocheilus chapini
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Scarabaeidae
Subfamily: Cetoniinae
Tribe: Cremastocheilini
Genus: Cremastocheilus
Subgenus: Cremastocheilus
Species: C. chapini
Binomial name
Cremastocheilus chapini
Cazier, 1940

One of about thirty-five species of myrmecophilous Cremastocheilus. The host ant is unknown.

Identification

This species appears to be most closely associated with C. nitens LeConte but differs from that species by having the anterior angles of the pronotum much less constricted, the side margins more obtusely bent, the front angles not pointed, and the anterior sinuses deeper and quadrate. C. chapini has the posterior margin of the mentum evenly rounded, whereas, in nitens it is distinctly produced and pointed. The elytral punctures in chapini are larger and more closely placed than in nitens.

Distribution

Arizona (Yuma Co., Dome, 14 March 1924, J. Maria), New Mexico (Bernacillo Co., Alberquerque, no date, AMNH).

Habitat

Common host is unknown.

Biology

C. chapini has been collected near river habitats in Arizona (W. Warner, pers. comm.).

Nomenclature

Holotype female in the collection of the United States National Museum, collected at Yuma, Arizona, August 1902 by H.H. Brown and loaned to Cazier for study by Dr. E.A. Chapin after whom the species is gratefully named.


Description

Body piceous; eye canthus with few short hairs; mentum cup-shaped, posterior margin evenly rounded; pronotum widest near middle, anterior angles blunt and with rather deep quadrate sinuses inside, shallowly auriculate; posterior angles deeply impressed, noduliform; eyltral disc with large shallow, setigerous punctures separated by their own widths.

References

  • Alpert, Gary D. 1994. A Comparative Study of the Symbiotic Relationship Between Beetles of the Genus Cremastocheilus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) and their Host Ants (Hymenoptera:Formicidae). Sociobiology 25(1).