Hybosorinae

Basílio, Daniel Silva, Cherman, Mariana Alejandra, Vaz-De-Mello, Fernando Zagury & Almeida, Lúcia Massutti, 2023, Phylogenetic relationships in Hybosoridae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 198, pp. 1156-1170 : 1166

Hybosorinae – Clade 2: Aporolaus + Apalonychus

This is an exclusively Neotropical clade, with two genera: Aporolaus and Apalonychus (including Apalonychus similis ) ( Fig.1). Arrow (1911) synonymized the monospecific genus Aporolaus with Dicraeodon , based on the female morphology. However, its status was revalidated by Ocampo (2010b). The present study supports the genus revalidation, since Aporolaus is the sister-group of Apalonychus , whereas Dicraeodon is the sister-group of Metachaetodus ( Fig. 1).

Apalonychus is recovered as a monophyletic group with the inclusion of Hapalonychoides ( Fig.1). Martinez (1994), in the original description of Hapalonychoides , highlighted the similarity between Apalonychus and Hapalonychoide s, suggesting that Hapalonychoides similis could be a female of Apalonychus pusillus Arrow, 1911 , since the male was not known at that time. This proposal is not supported here because we analysed the males of both species.

According to Martinez (1994), the external body aspects of Hapalonychoides are the same as described for Apalonychus , except for some differences in antennomeres of the antennal club. Nonetheless, the only difference observed in antennal club characters is the presence of setae on the proximal antennomere of the club in Apalonychus similis . Based on the results of our hypotheses and on the lack of strong characters to separate this group into two different genera, we synonymized Hapalonychoide s with Apalonychus .