Taxonomic and faunistic study of four almost unknown Brazilian Meloidae (Coleoptera)

ABSTRACT

The Brazilian fauna of Meloidae is poorly studied, even though it includes more than 160 species. In this paper, we aimed at widening the knowledge on four species of blister beetles from this country. Specifically, we defined the uncertain range of Tetraonyx angulicollis, as extended in south-eastern Brazil rather than in Mexico, and implemented the description of the species with figures. We studied the taxonomy and distribution of three almost unknown species of Nemognatha from Brazil, São Paulo State, providing descriptions and figures of sexual characters and colour variability of N. beauregardi, to which is probably referable as a junior synonym of N. plaumanni, of N. rufoscutellaris and of N. cfr. gounellei. Moreover, we assigned these three species to the subgenus Pauronemognatha, recently recorded from South America.

Keywords:
Blister beetles; Neotropical fauna; São Paulo state; Morphological variation; Subgenus placement; Range definition