Resumen

GARCIA-PARIS, Mario; RUIZ, José L.; SANCHEZ-VIALAS, Alberto  y  LOPEZ-ESTRADA, E. Karen. A new species of Epicauta from Venezuela with comments on the Epicauta (E.) vittata species group (Coleoptera: Meloidae). Rev. Mex. Biodiv. [online]. 2016, vol.87, n.3, pp.944-955. ISSN 2007-8706.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmb.2016.07.016.

The study of specimens of Epicauta held at the collection of the Museo del Instituto de Zoología Aplicada (MIZA, Venezuela) allowed us to discover specimens with singular morphological traits from the states of Lara and Falcón. The characters shown by these specimens do not permit to assign them to any of the known species of the genus, and thus we consider that they represent a new species: Epicauta falcolarandina sp. nov. The new species is included in the Epicauta vittata species group. E. falcolarandina differs at first glance from all other Venezuelan species of the E. vittata species group (Epicauta aragua and Epicauta apure) because it presents the ventral blade of the tarsal claws curved and of similar width and length than the dorsal one. The characteristic coloration pattern of E. falcolarandina, which vaguely resembles the pattern displayed by Epicauta leopardina, differs from all other species of the E. vittata species group. A particular trait of E. falcolarandina, shared with Epicauta abadona, is that the coloration of the pilosity does not match the color of the tegument. Most of the surface of the elytra of E. falcolarandina, including almost all dark zones, is covered by a whitish-yellow pilosity.

Palabras llave : Coleoptera; Meloidae; Epicauta falcolarandina sp. nov.; Biodiversity; Taxonomy; South America; Falcón; Lara.

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