Pronunciation
koe-TIE-nus, (IPA: koʊˈtaɪnəs, based on Wikipedia--
Smoke Tree)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Cotinis Burmeister, 1842.
The genus is *frequently* misspelled
Cotinus but this is the genus of the
smoketree.
Explanation of Names
From Greek
cotin, meaning wild olive or
oleaster (
Elaeagnus). The usual suffix is
us, thus
cotinus (1). This is also the origin given by Blatchley
(2).
Numbers
Five species of Cotinis are known from the United States.
Woodruff (2008) lists 27 species total from the
Nearctic and
Neotropical regions.
North American species:
Cotinis aliena Woodruff -- FL keys
Cotinis mutabilis (Gory and Percheron)
Partial (?) list of Mexican species:
Cotinis antonii Duges
Cotinis beraudi Delgado
Cotinis fuscopicea Goodrich
Cotinis laticornis Bates
Cotinis orientalis Deloya & Ratcliffe
Cotinis pauperula Burmeister
Cotinis pokornyi Deloya
Cotinis producta Bates
Cotinis pueblensis Bates
Cotinis punctatostriata Bates
Cotinis rufipennis Bates
Cotinis sinitoc Deloya, Ibafiez-Bernal & Nogueira
Cotinis sphyracera Deloya & Ratcliffe
Cotinis subviolacea (Gory and Percheron)
Cotinis viridicyanea (Perbosc)
Identification
Large, oval, somewhat depressed beetles. Usually velvety green with brownish highlights and some areas of metallic green, sometimes jet black. Clypeus (upper mouthpart) has a variable horn-like process at apical margin.
Scutellum covered by
pronotal process
(4).
Range
C. nitida is widespread in eastern North America.
C. mutabilis is known from California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, south to northern South America.
C. boylei is apparently endemic to Texas.
C. impia is known from Arizona and New Mexico.
Cotinis aliena is known very locally from the Florida Keys, and may be an introduction.
Mexico seems to have the highest diversity of Cotinis.
See Also
Euphoria--note how the
scutellum is covered by a
pronotal projection in
Cotinis (left), but is uncovered in
Euphoria (right):
Print References
Borror, entry for
cotin, =us (1)
Blatchley, description of genus
Cotinis (2)
Arnett et al.,
American Beetles, volume II
(5)
Dillon and Dillon, p. 551, fig. 424--shows pronotal process
(4)
description of
Cotinis aliena and checklist of the genus
(6)
