Salagubang

Genus Xenocerus of subfamily Anthribidae fascinates me ever since I was able to collect several specimens. Maybe its the different patterns that I have observed in the different but few species that I have that is the source of this fascination.

Based from the specimens I have, it seems that the patterns for both male and female are just the same. Just like most beetle species, especially those from family Cerambycidae, males have longer antennae than the females. To the untrained eye, one may mistake this for a cerambycid which was the case for me when I first collected a specimen.

To date, I only have around 6 species from this genus with 5 already mounted and included in the gallery. Four were collected in Mindanao while one each was collected in Leyte and Bohol. I’m not really familiar with this genus and don’t have any literature pertaining to the species that can be found in this country.

From an email that I received from Eduard Vives about a year ago, he mentioned that this might be possibly a new species of Epipedocera. If that’s the case, then this will be the third species of the genus to be found in the country.

Collected in Pasil, Ifugao during a trip with Paul Siraudeau, its a bit bigger than the two previous Epipedocera species and darker with no reddish tinge.

Another cerambycid from the genus Epipedocera that can be found in the country is Epipedocera lunata NEWMAN 1842. It occurs together with the species featured in the previous post and what differs this from the latter is the general coloration where the pronotum and upper elytra near the base is reddish in color.

I really don’t have the relevant literature and I can’t say where this species originally was described but this is just a recent record for the Philippines.

As indicated in the previous post, the genus Epipedocera occurrs in the country but is only represented by Epipedocera lunata NEWMAN 1842. In 2004, I was able to send some specimens to Eduard Vives for identification and study and fortunately, its a new species and he described it in his paper published in 2005. That is 163 years since Newman described E. lunata that a second Epipedocera species was found to occur in the country!

Epipedocera cabigasiana VIVES 2005 is another small species, about 6mm in length. Collected in Bukidnon, it coexists with E. lunata and Centrotoclytus helleri SCHWARZER 1926, another species with almost similar markings.

The genus Epipedocera CHEVROLAT 1863 has been represented in the Philippines with the lone species E. lunata NEWMAN which was first described in 1842. In 2005, Eduard Vives described the second Philippine species in his paper published in France. Last year, I got an email from him saying that the rightmost species, above,, is a new species of Epipedocera.

If only collecting is extensive enough, I’m sure that there will still be additional species of this genus. The following posts will feature these beetles.