Hyperaspis Chevrolat, 1837

Poorani, J., 2022, A review of the tribe Hyperaspidini (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) from the Indian region, Zootaxa 5120 (2), pp. 198-212 : 199

Genus Hyperaspis Chevrolat

Hyperaspis Chevrolat in Dejean, 1837. Type species: Coccinella reppensis Herbst, 1783: 48 , designated by Thomson 1859:

161.

Hyperaspis Redtenbacher, 1843: 8 .– Canepari 1990: 38.

Oxynychus LeConte, 1850: 238 .– Korschefsky 1931: 200. Type species: Oxynychus moerens LeConte, 1850: 238 , by monotypy.

Hyperaspis (Oxynychus) : Mulsant 1850: 694.

Diagnosis. Form elongate oval to broad oval, dorsum weakly to strongly convex and glabrous, elytral apices broadly rounded or subtruncate. Antennae with 10–11 antennomeres, antennal club elongate fusiform, apical antennomere small, often telescoped into penultimate one. Eyes prominent, finely faceted, entire and glabrous, often metallic green in live specimens. Terminal maxillary palpomere wider than long, weakly broadening towards apex and truncate. Mentum heart shaped. Scutellar shield broad, triangular, wider than long. Prosternal carinae anteriorly convergent, with a short stem that is sometimes obsolete or absent. Abdomen with six visible ventrites; abdominal postcoxal line apically incomplete; posterior margin of ventrite 6 medially emarginate in male, rounded in female. Elytral epipleurae distinctly foveolate to receive tips of meso- and metafemora. Tarsal formula 4-4-4; tarsal claw with a basal tooth. Male genitalia with penis guide of tegmen asymmetrical. Female genitalia with coxites transverse, spermathecal capsule compound with a characteristic basal appendix having a distal bulbous projection.

Notes. Redtenbacher (1843) is cited as the author of the name Hyperaspis in several publications (e.g., Gordon 1985). Belicek (1976) attributed it to Dejean 1837 and Canepari et al. (1985) mentioned Chevrolat as the author of Hyperaspis . Canepari (1990) clarified Chevrolat was the correct author of Hyperaspis as he used this name first though Redtenbacher (1843) was the first to give a description of the genus. The name is correctly attributed to Chevrolat in recent publications [see Biranvand et al. (2017) and Iqbal et al. (2019)]. Similarly, Crotch (1874) has been cited as the author who designated the type species of Hyperaspis ; however, Thomson (1859) was the first to designate ‘ Coccinella reppensis ’ as the type species of Hyperaspis in his synopsis of Scandinavian Coleoptera (p. 161).

Hosts. Adults and larvae of Hyperaspis are predators of scale insects and mealybugs ( Hemiptera : Coccoidea) ( Gordon 1985; Booth et al. 1995; Vandenberg 2002). Rafi et al. (2005) and Gordon & Canepari (2008) listed aphids also as prey of Hyperaspis spp. Some larvae burrow into the egg sacs of female scales and approach a parasitic mode of existence ( Vandenberg 2002).