Oncid ID: Tool for Diagnosing Adult Twig Girdlers (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Onciderini)
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Genus: Sternycha

Diagnostic Features
  • Description: Elongate-ovate, small to moderate-sized, ranging from about 9–14 mm in length. Integument generally dark brown or ferrugineous with whitish, ferrugineous, brown, and ochraceous pubescence. Head with frons subquadrate to transverse, about as wide as width of three lower eye lobes. Eyes with lower lobes oblong to distinctly narrow. Genae subquadrate to elongate, about as tall or distinctly shorter than lower eye lobes. Antennal tubercles prominent, widely separated; tubercles not armed at apex or armed with a small projection, or with a short, blunt horn; antennae about as long as overall body length, or as much as 1 1/3 times as long; scape clavate, about as long or shorter than antennomere IV; antennomere III curved or sinuate, longer than scape and antennomere IV. Pronotum transverse, roughly conical, wider at base, without lateral tubercles. Elytra with sides attenuate; elytral apices individually rounded; elytra generally uniform in coloration or speckled; base of elytra without tubercles or with two prominent tubercles at humeri. Basal 1/3 of elytra with moderate to dense punctation, surface finely punctate, coarsely punctate, or granulate-punctate. Procoxae without projection. Mesosternal process with apex subtruncate to feebly emarginate. Metafemora moderate to short in length, about 1/3–1/4 as long as elytra.

  • The combination of the following characters will help to distinguish this genus: distinctly narrow eyes, widely separated; roughly conical pronotum, without lateral tubercles; elytra with sides attenuate.

  • Similar genus/genera: superficially resembles Glypthaga and Proplerodia.
Geographic Distribution
  • Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama)
  • South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana)
Host Plants/Trees
  • Unknown
Girdling Behavior
  • Unknown
Notes

The genus Sternycha currently contains seven species:
  Sternycha approximata Dillon & Dillon, 1945 [holotype specimen, ♀]
  Sternycha clivosa Martins & Galileo, 1990 [holotype specimen, ♂]
  Sternycha diasi Martins & Galileo, 1990 [holotype specimen, ♂]
  Sternycha ecuatoriana Martins & Galileo, 2007
  Sternycha panamensis Martins & Galileo, 1999
  Sternycha paupera (Bates 1885) [♀ specimen]
  Sternycha paupera (Bates 1885) [type specimen]
  Sternycha sternalis Dillon & Dillon, 1945

Generic Synonymies
  • The type species of this genus was originally described in the genus Glypthaga.
Selected References
 

Sternycha paupera
♀ specimen
© E.H. Nearns

 

© 2011-2015 Nearns, E.H., Lord, N.P., and K.B. Miller
The University of New Mexico and Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, USDA, APHIS, PPQ.