Macrodontia is an American genus of long-horned beetles remarkable for their large size and for the large mandibles of the males in particular.
Taxonomy The genus Macrodontia Lepeletier, Audinet-Serville & Lacordaire, 1830 is in some documents credited to Latreille as the authority,Barsevskis A. et al (eds), Cerambycidae of the World, 2016 but this appears to be an error, possibly due to confusion arising from Latreille having been the authority for the subfamily Prioninae and the family Cerambycidae. It is a genus within the family Cerambycidae, subfamily Prioninae, tribe Macrodontiini.
The following species are recognised in the genus Macrodontia: Macrodontia antonkozlovi Santos-Silva, 2016 Macrodontia batesi Lameere, 1912 Macrodontia castroi Marazzi, Pavesi & Marazzi, 2008 Macrodontia cervicornis (Linnaeus, 1758) Macrodontia crenata (Olivier, 1795) Macrodontia dejeanii Gory, 1839 Macrodontia flavipennis Chevrolat, 1833 Macrodontia itayensis Simoëns, 2006 Macrodontia jolyi Bleuzen, 1994 Macrodontia marechali Bleuzen, 1990 Macrodontia mathani Pouillaude, 1915 Macrodontia zischkai Tippmann, 1960
Description The species are large. Some are giants among insects, with occasional specimens more than 17 cm long. The habitus is fairly typical of the Cerambycidae, except for the enormous jaws of the males: elongated, more or less parallel-sided beetles with dorsiventrally flattened bodies, generally all brown or orange with longitudinal dark striping. The males are larger than the females and generally have enormous jaws, from which the generic name presumably derives: from the Greek μάκρος (makros) meaning "long or large" and ὀδόντος, (odontos) meaning "of a tooth".
In contrast, in proportion to the beetles' size, the antennae are shorter than those of typical Cerambycidae.
Distribution The genus was originally described from South America, but the 11 currently recognised species variously range from regions between Guatemala at the north of Central America, or even Southern Mexico, to Argentina in South America.
References
Bleuzen (P.), 1994 - The Beetles of the World, volume 21. Prioninae 1: Macrodontini (Cerambycidae). Sciences Nat, Venette Marazzi & Pavesi, 2008 - Genus Macrodontia (Cerambycidae), Natura Ed. Simoëns (H), 2006 - Un nouveau Macrodontia originaire du Pérou (Cerambycidae), Cahiers Magellanes, 62
External links List of Macrodontia species Gallery of Macrodontia-species