Texas Beetle Information

Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn

South Texas Coastal Cotinis

Cotinis boylei Goodrich 1966

Family Scarabaeidae, Subfamily Cetoniinae, Tribe Cetoniini

Kenedy County, Texas
January 01, 2006 (Brush Freeman)

Found this one about 3 feet from a huge pile of Nilgai scat. Watched as two coupled up.
Had ~8-9 over the course of the day. Next day was cooler and I saw none.

Texas County Records for Cotinis boylei

South Texas Coastal Cotinis - Cotinis boylei Goodrich 1966

County Record Source: TIARA Biodiversity Project

Range: Bastrop and Bexar Counties south to Brooks and Kenedy Counties, south Texas

Flight Period: January, April, July, October per specimens in the TAMUIC

Collecting Methods: Unlike the common Cotinis spp., C. boylei won't come to sugarbait.

Similar species:

There are 22 species of Cotinis, all restricted to the New World. Eight species of Cotinis occur in the southern half of the United States and northern Mexico, three of which occur in Texas:

Texas Taxa:

Cotinis boylei Goodrich - (restricted to the south Texas coastal plains)
Cotinis mutabilis (Gory & Percheron)
Cotinis nitida (Linnaeus)

TAMU Insect Collection holds:

169 specimens of Cotinis nitida from Wisconsin to New York south to Georgia west to Texas.
297 specimens of Cotinis mutabilis from California to Texas, south to Honduras.
Specimens of Cotinis boylei are restricted to the south Texas coastal plains north to Bexar and Bastrop Counties.

Cotinis subviolacea (Gory & Percheron, 1833) - Recorded from southern Tamaulipas.

Taxonomy: Genus is frequently spelled Cotinus but that's the genus for smoketrees...

References:

Arnett, R.H., Jr., M.C. Thomas, P.E. Skelley & J.H. Frank. (editors). 2002. American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea. CRC Press. 861 pp.

Deloya, A.C. & B.C. Ratcliffe. 1988. A synopsis of the genus Cotinis in Mexico with description of three new species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae). Acta Zoologica Mexicana No. 28: 1-52.

Goodrich, M.A. 1966. A revision of the genus Cotinis Burmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 59(3):550-568.

Riley, E.G. & C.S. Wolfe. 2003. An annotated checklist of the Scarabaeoidea of Texas. Southwestern Entomologist, Supplement, no. 26. 37 pp.