New dung beetle genus and species from a cave in the Espinhaço mountain range, Brazil (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae)

ABSTRACT

Based on a single specimen collected in a cave in the municipality of Diamantina, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, we describe Isacanthon mariaelinae Pacheco and Vaz-de-Mello, a new genus and species of dung beetles. The new genus is closely related to Paracanthon, Paracryptocanthon, Cryptocanthon and Tesserodoniella, but it can be distinguished by clypeus with two teeth, which appear to originate beneath clypeal margin, and metatibiae with one distinct tooth at basal two-fifth.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D810C791-D5CD-43BF-9277-BE90E66BFE15

KEYWORDS:

• Scarab
• cavern
• taxonomy
• description
• Isacanthon
• Paracanthon

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Rafael V. Nunes, Mario Cupello and anonymous referees for editing an earlier version of this manuscript. We are also thankful to Maria Elina Bichuette and Rafael F. Ferreira (Laboratório de Estudos Subterrâneos da Universidade Federal de São Carlos - UFSCar) for collecting and donating the specimen of I. mariaelinae here studied.

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 (CNPq) under grants 302997/2013-0, 484035/2013-4, 405697/2013-9, 568005/2014, 440604/2015-0, 306745/2016-0, 142383/2017-1, and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Mato Grosso (FAPEMAT) under grants 568005/2014, 146138/2015.