Chondrorrhina


Chondrorrhina is a genus of fruit and flower chafers belonging to the family Scarabaeidae, subfamily Cetoniinae, found in Africa.

Taxonomy

The genus was originally named Plaesiorrhina by Hermann Burmeister in 1842, but this same name had been published several months earlier by John O. Westwood. As Burmeister's name was a junior homonym, it cannot be used, and the next available name for the same genus, Chondrorrhina, was published by Gustav Kraatz in 1880. As the type species of Chondrorrhina was different from the type species of Burmeister's genus, the latter taxon was reduced to a subgenus after being renamed as Plaesiorrhinella by Jan Krikken in 1984.
In 1994, Holm suggested a different set of relationships, proposing that Burmeister's genus was a synonym of Kraatz' genus Pedinorrhina rather than Chondrorrhina, and then placed Chondrorrhina as a subgenus of Pedinorrhina. Under Holm's very restricted definition of Chondrorrhina, the only included species are abbreviata, distincta, picturata, specularis, and trivittata. Subsequent authors have not adopted this alternative classification, retaining Chondrorrhina as a genus distinct from Pedinorrhina.

Species

Subgenus ''Chondrorrhina''