Welcome to "Hornless Rhinoceros Beetles"

Dynastinae is a subfamily of scarab beetles known as Rhinoceros beetles. The Dynastine beetles within the tribe Cyclocephalini ("round-head"), however, are characterized by a lack of horns. Thus the origin for the title of this blog. Welcome to the world of taxonomy!

My thesis research project's goals are to sort out the phylogeny (create a family tree) of the tribe Cyclocephalini. This tribe includes 15 genera and a little over 500 species, although new species are being described all the time. All but two of the genera are found in the New World, primarily in the tropics. The two exceptions are Ruteloryctes Arrow, found in Western Africa, and Peltonotus Burmeister, found in Southeastern Asia. The largest genus is Cyclocephala Latreille with about 350 species.