A new genus and species of the termitophilous Neotropical Hybosorinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Hybosoridae) associated with Cornitermes (Isoptera: Termitidae) in the Cerrado ecoregion in Brazil

ABSTRACT

The new hybosorine genus Taisia Frolov, Ocampo, Akhmetova et Vaz-de-Mello, gen. nov. is described from T. cornitermitis Frolov, Ocampo, Akhmetova et Vaz-de-Mello, sp. nov. from Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Taisia gen. nov. can be easily distinguished from the rest of the Neotropical Hybosorinae genera by the following characters: mandibular teeth long and robust; pronotum with serrate lateral margins; scutellum with two deep rectangular fossae basally; and metatibial apex protruding. Males of T. cornitermitis sp. nov. differ in having feather-like setae on the three basal tarsomeres of meso- and protarsi. The new taxon is associated with termites Cornitermes cf. bequaerti Emerson, 1952.

www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:439DDABB-EBC2-4870-AA05-76ADC3BDB7D9

KEYWORDS:

• Hybosoridae
• termitophily
• termitophilous beetles
• Cornitermes
• Cerrado

Acknowledgements

We thank Alberto Ballerio (Brescia, Italy) for comments that improved an early version of this work, Mario Cupello (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) for his help collecting specimens in Fazenda Aguas Quentes, and Reginaldo Constantino (University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil) for confirmation of the identification of termites.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [304925/2010-1, 302997/2013-0, 405697/2013-9, 48403, 306745/2016-0, 010551/2015-8, 400681/2014-5]; Mato Grosso State Research Funding Agency [FAPEMAT – PRONEM2014]; Russian State Research Project [AAAA-A17-117030310210-3]; and Russian Foundation for Basic Research [16-04-00412 A]. FZVM is a CNPq 1B fellow.