New species of darkling beetles from Central America with systematic notes (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

A collection of Coleoptera Tenebrionidae from Central America has been studied and new species described and figured. The interest of this material principally consist in the method of sampling in the canopy and in the fact that for the first time the plant in which each specimen has been found was noted. Some systematic changes in the current classification of some genera, after Doyen and Tschinkel (1982) and Doyen et al. (1989) are introduced as results of morphological comparative study. Rhypasma Pascoe, 1871 is transferred to the tribe Stenosini from the Belopini. A total of 16 new species and one new genus from Panama are described and figured. Phymatestes agnei sp. nov., Rhypasma livae sp. nov., Lenkous ibisca sp. nov., Iccius monoceros sp. nov., Othryoneus triplehorni sp. nov., Paniasis kulzeri sp. nov., Gonospa similis sp. nov., Apsida simulatrix sp. nov., Brosimapsida gonospoides gen. and sp. nov., Epicalla elongata sp. nov., E. pygmaea sp. nov., E. aeneipes sp. nov., Strongylium vikenae sp. nov., Otocerus delicatus sp. nov. and O. angelicae sp. nov. The genus Paniasis Champion, 1886 is found to be identical to Pseudapsida Kulzer, 1961, created by monotypy for a species from Brazil: Paniasis brasiliensis (Kulzer, 1961) comb. nov. The systematic position of the genera Paratenetus Spinola, 1844, Rhypasma Pascoe, 1871, Calydonella Doyen, 1995, Othryoneus Champion, 1886, and Otocerus Malklin, 1884 is commented.