Salagubang

The Tribe Pachyrrhynchini is one of the spectacular curculionid beetles found in the Philippines where almost all known species are known to occur. With several genera under it, the flightless species members have very hard, solid bodies and probably a deterrent for predators. It might be this characteristic that some species from other families mimic the species of this group for protection.

Pachyrrhynchus speciosus WATERHOUSE 1841 - the model

Doliops multifasciata SCHULTZE 1922 - the mimic

The genus Pachyrrhynchus GERMAR is the most beautiful of the group with its bright colors and amazing patterns and inhabit the mountainous portions of the different island of the country. It is also the model for a group of very rare lamiine longhorn beetles from a whole lot different family, Cerambycidae, under the genus Doliops. Soft bodied and nonpoisonous, it choses to live close to its model as well as evolved to have elytral markings, size and form almost similar to its model species.

The first time I caught one, I was fooled! I never thought that it was not a Pachyrrhynchus beetle. It was only after a few months that upon close inspection, I realized that it was a Doliops speces. Over time, I learned to discern the differences:

• unfused elytra
• longer antenna
• a more quadrate elytra, and
• form of the head

In this post, I’m showing the model Pachyrrhynchus speciosus WATERHOUSE 1841 and its mimic, Doliops multifasciata SCHULTZE 1922. These two inhabits the higher elevations of Bukidnon in Mindanao island.

More species to be featured in upcoming posts.

The tribe Pachyrrhynchini, especially the Metapocyrtus complex as well as genus Pachyrrhynchus GERMAR 1824 always fascinate me. In fact, I really would like to study this group and, perhaps, write papers/descriptions in the future. My main problem though is that I don’t have access to the type specimens which are mostly in Europe. I’m not really sure how to go about this one but for the past week, I kept myself busy updating this site. I’ve been going through Yap & Gapud’s (2007), Yap’s (2008) papers on the Metapocyrtus as well as the Coleopterorum Catalogus of Dalla Torre and van Emden (1931) and, really, I just feel that this group needed to be updated. Looking at my collection, there are still lots of species that need to be described. For the meantime, I already included the checklist of the Metapocyrtus complex, based on the Yap paper; and the genus Pachyrrhynchus based on the Coleopterorum Catalogus, Schultze’s and Heller’s 1934 papers and input from Paul Siraudeau a few years ago regarding Voss’s paper. New identified pachyrrhynchine beetles are also included: Metapocyrtus (Sclerocyrtus) celestinoi SCHULTZE 1925, Pachyrrhynchus congestus PASCOE 1871 and Pachyrrhynchus inclytus var. modestior BEHRENS 1887.

Actual Epipedocera lunata NEWMAN 1842 from Luzon.

A new Epipedocera species collected in Mindanao

I received an email from Eduard Vives that the supposed upcoming new species Epipedocera kalingana, collected in Kalinga province in Luzon, is actually E. lunata NEWMAN 1842. This after he verified the actual type specimen as well as the original description. The species has not been indicated as occuring in the Philippines in previous publications and thus is a new range for the species.

The previously labelled E. lunata is a new species which will be described soon in an upcoming paper. These male and female were collected in Mindanao.

Paratype of Filipinmulciber breuningi VIVES 2009

In Eduard Vives’ paper, Cerambicidos nuevos o interesantes de Filipinas (Part II) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) he described a new genus, Filipinmulciber with F. breuningi as the type species. I first collected this longhorn beetle in 2005 up in Ifugao during a climb. At first, since I was not so much familiar with the characteristics of Homoenini especially the form of the lateral pronotum, I thought that this was a form related to Doliops. Not until Eduard published the said paper that I realized this is not related to the latter genus.

Eduard first collected his specimen, which became the type, last 2008 during our collecting trip in Banaue. According to his description of the new genus, Filipinmulciber belongs to the Bumetopides LACORDAIRE group because of the morphology of the mesosternum. The form of the pronotum and the head is akin to Metamulciber BREUNING and Mulciber PASCOE but its morphology separates it from the two genera.

The type species, F. breuningi VIVES 2009 was dedicated by the author to his mentor, Dr. Stephan von Breuning (1894-1983).

Sheryl Yap’s paper, Checklist of the Metapocyrtus Complex (Curculionidae: Entiminae: Pachyrrhynchini) of the Philippines, published in Asia Life Sciences [17(2):240-260, 2008], surveys the existing species of the genus culled from literature and is an important step in the study of this long understudied genus. The checklist includes 214 species of the genus Metapocyrtus as well as 6 and 2 species of the associated genera, Homalocyrtus and Proapocyrtus. The last two were raised to genus status in Yap & Gapud, 2007.

When broken down:

• Genus Metapocyrtus (214 species, 12 subspecies, 18varieties)
  • Subgenus Artapocyrtus (17 species)
  • Subgenus Dolichocephalocyrtus (21 species)
  • Subgenus Metapocyrtus (85 species)
  • Subgenus Orthocyrtus (31 species)
  • Subgenus Sclerocyrtus (4 species)
  • Subgenus Sphenomorphoidea (10 species)
  • Subgenus Trachycyrtus (46 species)
• Genus Homalocyrtus (6 species)
• Genus Proapocyrtus (2 species)

Looking over the checklist, I noticed that new species were last described by Schultze and Heller in 1934 and no other additional descriptions were made. This just shows that there is really a need to study this interesting group of the Pachyrrhynchini considering that there are still lots of undescribed species out there.

Note: Sheryl Yap is a University Extension Specialist of the Museum of Natural History at the University of the Philippines Los Baños College.