Afromontane Coelocorynus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae): Larval descriptions, biological notes and phylogenetic placement
Abstract
This paper reports the collecting of adult beetles and third-instar larvae of Coelocorynus desfontainei Antoine, 1999 in Cameroon and provides new data on the biology of this high-altitude Afromontane genus. It also presents the first diagnosis of this genus based on larval characters and examination of its systematic position in a phylogenetic context using 78 parsimony informative larval and adult characters.
Based on the results of our analysis we (1) support the hypothesis that the tribe Trichiini is paraphyletic with respect to both Valgini and the rest of the Cetoniinae, and (2) propose that the Trichiini subtribe Cryptodontina, represented by Coelocorynus, is a sister group of the Valgini: Valgina, represented by Valgus. The larvae-only analyses were about twofold better than the adults-only analyses in providing a phylogenetic resolution consistent with the larvae + adults analyses.