''Mecynorhina ugandensis'' is a beetle from the subfamily

Cetoniinae Flower chafers are a group of scarab beetles, comprising the subfamily Cetoniinae. Many species are diurnal and visit flowers for pollen and nectar, or to browse on the petals. Some species also feed on fruit. The group is also called fruit an ...

, tribe Goliathini, it was described by

Julius Moser Julius Moser (8 November 1863 – 4 July 1929) was a German entomologist who specialised in Coleoptera, beetles. He worked on world fauna maintaining a very large personal collection much of which was purchased from insect dealers. Moser who live ...

in 1907.Moser (J.), 1907. Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Cetoniden (3), Annales de la Société entomologique de Belgique, 51, p. 313 As suggested by its name, it is found in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

, but it is also present in adjacent parts of

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Description

left, Male of M. ugandensis It is a large

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

, with males reaching 85 mm and females 60 mm in length.

Classification

According to the last work of De Palma & Frantz, this species is included in the subgenus ''Mecynorrhinella'' Marais and Holm, 1992, and is a subspecies of ''

Mecynorhina torquata ''Mecynorhina torquata'' is a beetle from the subfamily Cetoniinae, tribe Goliathini. Description ''Mecynorhina torquata'' is among the largest flower beetles in the world, only surpassed by the goliath beetles. It reaches about of length in ...

''. For a simplification, we will follow Allard considering ''ugandensis'' as a good species.

Synonym

Zdenĕk Tesař described in 1935 the ''Mecynorhina machulkai'' which is compared to ''Mecynorhina torquata'', he seems not to know the species described by Moser.

Variations

All the specimens of this species are rarely the same. Moser described it with red elytra ("elytris rubis"). In his paper, Tesař describes also several forms and illustrates many of them. Many varieties have been illustrated in ''

The Beetles of the World ''The Beetles of the World'' is a series of books devoted to Coleopterology. Sciences Nat published the 24 first volumes; the following volumes and the supplements were published by Hillside Books, Canterbury. The first book authored by Jacques Ri ...

'', volume 7, plates 3–6. Here are other photos of the variations of the species, all the specimens are from Dr. Allard's collection.

References

External links

Photos of ''Mecynorhina ugandensis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2777366 Cetoniinae Beetles described in 1907