Balleriolus , a new termitophilous genus of Ceratocanthinae (Coleoptera: Hybosoridae) from South America and notes on termitophily in the tribe Scarabatermitini

Abstract

ABSTRACTBalleriolus, a new genus of Ceratocanthinae similar to Ivieolus Howden and Gill, 1998, is described and illustrated to include Balleriolus howdeni sp. n. from central Brazil and Balleriolus alleni sp. n. from Ucayali, Peru. It is proposed here that the tribe Ivieolini Howden and Gill, 2000 is a junior synonym of Scarabatermitini Nikolajev, 1999. Additionally, we define the Ivieolus genus group to include Balleriolus gen. n. and Ivieolus. A key to species of the group and a distribution map also are provided.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8E242F36-9620-4F3A-9B15-858C8A7B0B6FKEYWORDS: NeotropicalphysogastryScarabaeoideasymphilic inquilinesstenogastry AcknowledgementsRS thanks Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for financial support, and Dr Sônia Casari (MZSP) for helping with the illustrations. We thank Maurício Rocha (MZSP) who generously provided us the determination of the termites. Special thanks to Vinícius S. Ferreira (Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Mike Ivie (Montana State University, USA) for granting us the photographs of the paratype of Ivieolus pseudoscutellatus, Robson de Almeida Zampaulo for taking and donating the photographs of a live specimen of Balleriolus howdeni, and Vinicius Costa-Silva (CEMT) for taking the photographs of the other paratypes and the termite species. We also thank Charles Martins Oliveira for donating the two specimens of B. howdeni from Distrito Federal, and Juares Fuhrmann (MZSP) for suggestions.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the CAPES under [grant number 88887.639839/2021-00]; Subprojeto EECBio UFMT/Finep no. [01.12.0359.00]; CNPq universal no. 431760/2018-7 + produtividade no. [306746/2016-0] + FAPEMAT/pronem no. [568005/2014].