Macrodontia

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Coleopterida
Ordo: Coleoptera
Subordo: Polyphaga
Infraordo: Cucujiformia
Cladus: Phytophaga
Superfamilia: Chrysomeloidea

Familia: Cerambycidae
Subfamilia: Prioninae
Tribus: Macrodontiini
Genus: Macrodontia

Species: M. antonkozlovi – M. batesi – M. castroi – M. cervicornis – M. crenata – M. dejeanii – M. flavipennis – M. itayensis – M. jolyi – M. marechali – M. mathani – M. zischkai
Name

Macrodontia Lacordaire, 1830: 171

Type species: Cerambyx cervicornis Linné, 1758
References
Primary references

Lacordaire, J.T. 1830. Mémoire sur les habitudes des insectes coléoptères de l’Amérique méridionale (Suite et fin). Annales des Sciences Naturelles 21: 149–194. BHL Reference page.

Links

Macrodontia – Taxon details on Biological Library (BioLib).
Tavakilian, G. & Chevillotte, H.: TITAN: Cerambycidae database, accessed 2021-08-10.

Macrodontia is an American genus of long-horned beetles remarkable for their large size and for the large mandibles of the males in particular.

Taxonomy

The genus Macrodontia Lepeletier, Audinet-Serville & Lacordaire, 1830 is in some documents credited to Latreille as the authority,[1] but this appears to be an error, possibly due to confusion arising from Latreille having been the authority for the subfamily Prioninae and the family Cerambycidae. It is a genus within the family Cerambycidae, subfamily Prioninae, tribe Macrodontiini.

The following species are recognised in the genus Macrodontia:

Macrodontia antonkozlovi Santos-Silva, 2016
Macrodontia batesi Lameere, 1912
Macrodontia castroi Marazzi, Pavesi & Marazzi, 2008
Macrodontia cervicornis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Macrodontia crenata (Olivier, 1795)
Macrodontia dejeanii Gory, 1839
Macrodontia flavipennis Chevrolat, 1833
Macrodontia itayensis Simoëns, 2006
Macrodontia jolyi Bleuzen, 1994
Macrodontia marechali Bleuzen, 1990
Macrodontia mathani Pouillaude, 1915
Macrodontia zischkai Tippmann, 1960

Description

The species are large. Some are giants among insects, with occasional specimens more than 17 cm long. The habitus is fairly typical of the Cerambycidae, except for the enormous jaws of the males: elongated, more or less parallel-sided beetles with dorsiventrally flattened bodies, generally all brown or orange with longitudinal dark striping. The males are larger than the females and generally have enormous jaws, from which the generic name derives: Macrodontia is from the Greek μάκρος (makros) meaning "long or large" and ὀδόντος, (odontos) meaning "of a tooth".

In contrast, in proportion to the beetles' size, the antennae are shorter than those of typical Cerambycidae.
Distribution

The genus was originally described from South America, but the 11 currently recognised species variously range from regions between Guatemala at the north of Central America, or even Southern Mexico, to Argentina in South America.
References

Barsevskis A. et al (eds), Cerambycidae of the World, 2016

Bleuzen (P.), 1994 - The Beetles of the World, volume 21. Prioninae 1: Macrodontini (Cerambycidae). Sciences Nat, Venette [1]
Marazzi & Pavesi, 2008 - Genus Macrodontia (Cerambycidae), Natura Ed.
Simoëns (H), 2006 - Un nouveau Macrodontia originaire du Pérou (Cerambycidae), Cahiers Magellanes, 62