Clarifying the species concepts of Cyclocephala mafaffa and C. deceptor (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae): Scarab beetle pollinators of aroids and custard apples

Cyclocephaline scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) are pollinators of early-diverging angiosperm groups in New and Old World tropical forests. Some cyclocephaline species, especially within the large genus Cyclocephala Dejean, exhibit intraspecific variation in coloration and morphology that confounds species identification and obscures host plant association data in literature. Cyclocephala mafaffa Burmeister occurs from Mexico south to northern South America. Cyclocephala mafaffa has been collected from the inflorescences of Philodendron spp. (Araceae), Xanthosoma spp. (Araceae), and Malmea sp. (Annonaceae). Cyclocephala mafaffa and the nearly identical species C. deceptor (Casey) differ only by the presence of a marginal bead at the base of the pronotum, a character that is not typically used for species-level diagnoses within Cyclocephala. Additionally, these species have variable male genital morphology. The current species concepts of C. deceptor and C. mafaffa were tested using 12S and CO1 sequence data, detailed morphological data, and spatial data.