Acta Soc. Zool. Bohem. 84: 51–65, 2020 ISSN 1211-376X Taxonomic notes on the genus Cyphochilus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Melolonthinae) (part 3) with description of three new species from Indochina Guido Sabatinelli Muséum d’histoire naturelle, Case Postale 6434, CH–1211 Genève 6, Switzerland; e-mail:
[email protected] Received 11 November 2020; accepted 30 October 2020 Published 28 December 2020 Abstract. Cyphochilus backy sp. nov., C. dongkinh sp. nov., and C. genevievae sp. nov. are described after the study of 795 specimens from Indochina. These species are largely distributed in Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, marginally in southern China and Myanmar. They were confused until today with C. tonkinensis Brenske, 1903 for which the lectotype is designated. The parameres and distribution of the four species treated are illustrated. The use of Cyphochilus dongkinh sp. nov. as human food is documented in northern Laos. Key words. Systematics, taxonomy, lectotype designation, geographic distribution, China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Arthropoda, Scarabaeidae, edible insects. INTRODUCTION The members of the genus Cyphochilus Waterhouse, 1867 are quite exceptional among Melo- lonthinae having relatively uniform external morphology in contrast with a much diversified morphology of paramera. This offers an extraordinary reading lens to easily identify of species and formulate hypothesis on interspecific relationships based on morphological affinities. The first use of paramera for the identification of a species was by Frey (1971) followed by Nomura (1977). Since 2000, I started gathering specimens of the genus Cyphochilus, documenting the types of all species described. Thus, 19 new species were described and the paramera of their sibling species illustrated (Sabatinelli 2020a, b).