lunes, 24 de abril de 2023

Unknown population of genus Moncheca?

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For long, one key feature to distinguish two very similar and overlap distributing Moncheca species M. elegans and M. pretiosa are the difference of light color stripe on the pronotum. M. elegans has one while M. pretiosa has two light color stripes.
Typical M. elegans observed by jaspersail

Typical M. pretiosa observed by pavelkirillov

But there are a special phenotype of Moncheca, which does not have obvious light color stripes on pronotum as normal M.elegans and M. pretiosa , and replace by dark color. Some of the individuals are IDed as M. pretiosa because the similarity and more obvious color stripes but most of them remain genus because this characteristic are unrecognizable or even absent.
Untypical Moncheca IDed as M. pretiosa, observed by birdernaturalist

Another untypical Moncheca observed by rbeunen

Coincidentally I found that all those individuals distribute in an area including middle and southern Peru and nothern Bolivia along Andes, and have geographical isolation with ordinary M. pretiosa. This could indicate that those individuals possibly represent a regional population. But what taxon could it be? A regional phenotype of M. pretiosa? A subspecies? Or even new species? Moncheca from that area need further research.
Thanks to all observers and your nice photos!
@jaspersail @pavelkirillov @birdernaturalist @rbeunen
Someone who may interested in this journal
@typophyllum @joshbern @lrubio7 @jimmylegs @cabrerai @zelun0903 @graytreefrog Please tag more people if you think they are interested or can help with it!

Publicado el lunes, 24 de abril de 2023 a las 12:59 PM por manassas manassas | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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