Taxonomic revision of the Deltohyboma Lane, 1946 gilli species group (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Deltochilum)

Abstract

The dung beetles belonging to the genus Deltochilum Eschscholtz, 1822 are widely distributed in the Neotropical region. This genus is divided into eight subgenera, of these, the subgenus Deltohyboma Lane, 1946 is the most diverse, with an estimated 212 species. The most recent revision of Deltohyboma divided the subgenus into 19 species group. Here, taxonomy of the gilli species group is revised. Four new species (D. jocelynae sp. nov., D. nonstriatum sp. nov., D. quasistriatum sp. nov. and D. tenuistriatum sp. nov.) are described, making a total of five species within the species group. Keys for species identification and habitus as well as male genitalia morphology are illustrated.

Dung beetle tribal classification (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): progress, problems, and prospects

“…However, both molecular and morphological systematics analyses have shown it to be highly polyphyletic and composed of numerous lineages (Philips et al 2004b, Monaghan et al 2007, Tarasov and Génier 2015, Tarasov and Dimitrov 2016). Tarasov and Dimitrov (2016) reduced the tribe, Deltochilini, to just 20 genera comprising 457 valid species that are endemic to the Neotropical and Nearctic regions where they are, essentially, sister to other prominent tribes and lineages of these 2 regions (Halffter and Martínez 1977, Vaz-de-Mello et al 2011, González-Alvarado and Vaz-de-Mello 2014, 2021a, 2021b, Valois et al 2015, Cupello and Vaz-de-Mello 2018, Nunes et al 2018, 2020, Vaz-de-Mello and Cupello 2018, González-Alvarado et al 2019, Sawaris et al 2019, Silva and Valois 2019, Edmonds 2022, Halffter et al 2022, Nunes and Vaz-de-Mello 2022, Cupello et al 2023). To maintain monophyly within the Deltochilini this decision leaves many former Afrotropical, Madagascar, Oriental, Australian, and further Neotropical deltochiline genera without a certain tribal placement.…”