Iphiclus

Subgenus Aegithomorphus

Iphiclus (Aegithomorphus) Lacordaire, 1842. Type species: I.biplagiatus.^[1]

Southeastern Brazil.^[1]

• Iphiclus biplagiatus (Guérin-Méneville, 1841)
• Iphiclus dorsomaculatus (Lacordaire, 1842)

Subgenus Brachymerus

Iphiclus (Brachymerus) Dejean 1836 (= Morphoides Crotch, 1876 (non Hope, 1841: preoccupied), Neomorphoides). Type species: I.tibialis, erroneously re-designated as I.nitidulus (now subgenus Neobarytopus).^[8]

Body oval. Pronotum usually almost square and flat or slightly convex, rarely more strongly convex. Prosternum keeled in some species, but unkeeled in others. Tarsi wide and robust, first segment of hindleg tarsi elongated. Higly variable; presence or lack of prosternal keel distinguishes otherwise similar species.^[9]

Lowlands and foothills from Guatemala to southern Brazil.^[1]

Subgenus Habrodactylus

Iphiclus (Habrodactylus) Lacordaire, 1842. Type species: I.sulphurifer.^[1] Probably a paraphyletic group, with I.conspicillatus basal to the entire assemblage of Iphiclus and related genera, while some other species placed in this subgenus are closer to genus Ellipticus and Erotylina.^[4]

Body oval; rather small (less than 10 mm). Pronotum usually short and wide, more or less tapering to the front. Tarsi usually narrow; on the hindlegs the first tarsal segment is elongated, usually as long as segments 2 and 3 together. Some are patterned with eyespots; others are largely brownish with little black patterning. Larvae feed individually in some species, but as a group in I.conspicillatus.^[4][9]

Lowlands and foothills from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.^[1]

Subgenus Iphiclus

Iphiclus (Iphiclus) Chevrolat, 1837^{[verification needed]}. Type species: I.flavovittatus.^[1] Close to subgenus Saccomorphus and genus Erotylina.^[4]

Body usually elongated-oval. Pronotum wide. First segment of hindleg tarsi usually shorter than segments 2 and 3 together. Elytra often patterned with light spots or eyespots. Larvae feed individually?^[4][9]

Lowlands and foothills from Guatemala to northern Paraguay.^[1]

Subgenus Megaprotus

Iphiclus (Megaprotus) Lacordaire, 1842. Type species: I.signatus.^[1] Close to subgenus Brachymerus and genus Prepopharus.^[4]

Body rounded oval, more or less strongly convex back, fairly small. Pronotum short and wide, strongly tapering to the front and with a deeply concave frontal margin. Tarsi usually narrow. Some are patterned with eyespots. Males of some species have a deep groove in the front of the head, and widened foreleg tarsi. Larvae feed individually?^[4][9]

Lowlands and foothills from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.^[1]

Subgenus Neacronotus

Iphiclus (Neacronotus) Alvarenga, 1965 (= Acronotus Lacordaire, 1842 (non Smith, 1827: preoccupied)). Type species: I.annularis.^[1]

Colombia; doubtful record from Mexico.^[1]

• Iphiclus annularis (Laporte, 1840)
• Iphiclus bimaculicollis (Mader, 1942)
• Iphiclus colombi (Guérin-Méneville, 1844)
• Iphiclus perversus (Gorham, 1889)

Subgenus Neobarytopus

Iphiclus (Neobarytopus) Alvarenga, 1965 (= Barytopus Lacordaire, 1842 (non Chevrolat, 1836: preoccupied)). Type species: I.tricinctus.^[8] Close to subgenus Megaprotus and genus Prepopharus.^[4]

Body oval, sides almost parallel in some species. Pronotum comparatively long, slightly tapering to the front, with a strongly bulging center of rear edge; color usually black, sometimes bicolored or light. Elytra with lengthwise double rows of small punctuations, or smooth; color usually black, as well as yellow, orange or red, in crosswise jagged bands or dots.^[9]

Lowlands and foothills from Guatemala to northern Argentina.^[1] At least in Colombia, seem to prefer lower-lying regions.^[10]

Subgenus Neoogaster

Iphiclus (Neoogaster) Alvarenga, 1965 (= Oogaster Lacordaire, 1842 (non Falderman, 1840^{[verification needed]}: preoccupied)). Type species: I.guadeloupensis.^[6]

Resemble Aegithus in coloration, being black with unpatterned tan elytra, but are overall flatter and narrower in shape; larvae also similar to Aegithus.^[6]

Guadeloupe and Dominica^[11] (Lesser Antilles) and possibly adjacent islands; a record from French Guiana is erroneous.^[6]

• Iphiclus guadeloupensis (Fabricius, 1792) (= I.marginatus)
• Iphiclus suturalis (Lacordaire, 1842)

Subgenus Saccomorphus

Iphiclus (Saccomorphus) Chevrolat , 1837 (= Charidemus, Morphoides Hope, 1841). Type species: I.limbatus.^[1] Close to genus Erotylina.^[4]

Body oval, with more or less parallel sides. Pronotum almost square, flat, often with dimple at base which contains numerous small punctuations. Elytra usually dull, not shiny. At least some apparently eat a wider range of fungi than other species placed in Iphiclus.^[4][9]

Lowlands and foothills from Panama to northern Argentina and Chile.^[1] At least in Colombia, seem to range rather far up in the Andes.^[10]

Subgenus Sternolobus

Iphiclus (Sternolobus) Guérin-Méneville, 1841. Type species: I.bisignatus.^[1]

Body elongated-oval. Prosternum strongly keeled, particularly in the front.^[9]

Eastern Andes foothills from western Venezuela to northern Peru.^[1]

• Iphiclus atricaudatus (Kuhnt, 1910)
• Iphiclus bisignatus (Guérin-Méneville, 1841)
• Iphiclus dispilotus (Lacordaire, 1842)
• Iphiclus ecuadorensis (Crotch, 1876)
• Iphiclus ellipticus (Kuhnt, 1910)
• Iphiclus luscus (Erichson, 1847)
• Iphiclus oblongosignatus (Guérin-Méneville, 1844)

Additional species

Iphiclus virgatus was long placed in genus Mycotretus, but while it does seem to belong into Iphiclus, as of 2023 its precise relationships were still undetermined.^[12]

As can be expected from a widespread and highly diverse Neotropical beetle genus, undescribed species may still exist. A review of the UPN collection found 16 identifiable species represented among the 69 Colombian Iphiclus specimens, with Cundinamarca Department featuring all but 3 of the recognized species. In addition, 12 specimens (about 17%) from southern and central Colombia could be identified as Iphiclus, but not assigned to a species known from the region.^[10]

During an earlier review of the famous George Crotch collection at the UMZC, about 425 confirmed or presumed Iphiclus (in Crotch's time, Brachysphoenus) were counted, with roughly 130 species present; only about 15 of these were represented by more than a handful of specimens, however. Of these, the Iphiclus (Neobarytopus) I.quinquefasciatus, I.nigropictus and I.odyneroides with, respectively, 15, 12 and 11 specimens, as well as the Iphiclus (Iphiclus) I.abdominalis and the Iphiclus (Saccomorphus) I.haematocephalus with 12 specimens each are most abundantly represented. In addition, about 13% of Crotch's "Brachysphoenus" were still unidentified by the end of the 20th century. These consist of two sets of five specimens representing four species altogether – two presumed by Crotch to be Iphiclus (Neobarytopus) close to I.batesi and/or I.geometra, and two putative Iphiclus (Brachymerus) –, 30 specimens (number of species unknown) of possible Iphiclus (Habrodactylus), and 14 specimens which Crotch considered either Iphiclus (Neobarytopus) of unclear affiliations or incertae sedis within the genus when he last sorted them (they were pinned between all other of his "Brachysphoenus" and his "Typocephalus"). Most intriguing is a single suspected Iphiclus (Sternolobus); it has a prepared "TYPE" label which is otherwise blank, and appears to have been one of the beetles Crotch prepared to describe as new species when he died in 1874 only 32 years old.^[13]

A beetle described by Johan Fabricius as "Erotylus unifasciatus" was tentatively placed in "Brachysphoenus" (Morphoides) by Leopold Mader, who considered it undeterminable after consulting Jean Lacordaire's 1842 Erotylidae monograph, commenting^[9] "it would be for the best if such dubious and insufficiently described species could be altogether deleted ftom the catalogues".^[14] However, Mader had overlooked Louis Chevrolat's 1843 study, in which Fabricius' beetle was identified as the Tenebrionidae species now known as Cuphotes cinctus, which is deceptively similar to some Erotylinae.^[15]