Dinonigidius bartolozzii Paulsen, 2016

Paulsen, M. J., 2016, A new species of Dinonigidius de Lisle from Sri Lanka (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), Insecta Mundi 2016 (484), pp. 1-4 : 2-3

Dinonigidius bartolozzii Paulsen , new species

Materials Examined. Holotype male, deposited at MZUF, labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / Kandy , 1.I.1990 / Rautenstrauch leg.”; b) on red paper, “ Dinonigidius / bartolozzii / [male symbol] Paulsen / HOLOTYPE ” . Paratypes (3 male, 1 female; LBC) labeled: a) as holotype . Paratypes (5 male, 3 female; NHM, LBC, PGC, GBC) labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / Kandy / 1.I.1990 leg. / Rautenstrauch ” ; NHM specimens with additional handwritten labels “12954-a”, “12954-b”, “17540a”, and “17540b”. Paratype female ( PGC) labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / Kandy / 1.I.1990 ”. Paratype male ( MJPC) labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / Kandy / 12.I.2001 ”. Paratype female ( MJPC) labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / Kandy / 12.I.2001 ” ; b) on orange paper “DNA VOUCHER / P466 2014 / MJ Paulsen – UNSM ”. Paratypes (1 male, 1 female; MJPC) labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / II.1995 ” . Paratypes (3 male, 2 female; NHM, MJPC) labeled: a) Sri Lanka / Kandy / 5.1994 / leg. A. Maier ”; NHM specimens with additional handwritten labels “18129-a”, “18129-b”, and “18129-c”. Paratype male ( FSCA) labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / Kandy / January 1999 ”. Paratype male ( MJPC) labeled: a) “ SRI LANKA / Central Province / Kandy District / February 1995 ”. Paratype male ( TFC) with handwritten label: a) “Kandy / Sri Lanka / 14.05.94”. All paratypes with paratype label, on yellow paper: “ Dinonigidius / bartolozzii / [male or female symbol] Paulsen / PARATYPE.

Description, holotype ( Fig. 1 ). Coleoptera : Scarabaeoidea: Lucanidae . Length: 19.0 mm. Width: 7.0 mm (elytra). Color: Piceous, with clypeus, mandibles, legs, and venter lighter red. Head: Surface shiny, punctate, punctures with short setae; punctures coarse and dense (distance between punctures about 1 diameter) on frons, fine and sparse (punctures separated by distinctly more than 1 diameter) on clypeus. Clypeus declivous, narrowing between mandibles to subtruncate apex; apex subdentate medially. Eyes completely divided by ocular canthus; canthus rounded, narrow and uniform in width, reaching temporal process at distinct suture. Temporal process large, projecting posteriorly as a triangular lobe; lobe divided into anterolateral and posterior faces by an impunctate ridge; both faces coarsely, contiguously punctate. Antennal club small, short (shorter than scape), antennomeres 8–10 (club) entirely tomentose. Mandibles (to true apex) shorter than head, apex acute, internally tridentate (right) or quadridentate (left), teeth abraded; dorsal surface produced into long, vertical curved ramus (false apex); ramus with apex obtuse. Mentum broad, three times wider than long, bilobed, surface coarsely but irregularly densely punctate. Pronotum: Form short, as wide as elytra, with anterior tumosity but lacking anteriorly bifurcate projection. Anterior angles emarginate. Surface variable, disc sparsely punctate, area laterad of disc with areas of coarse, dense to contiguous punctures. Elytra: Form parallelsided. Surface striate; striae impressed with coarse, oval, almost contiguous punctures; striae distinct on disc, becoming obsolete laterally; interstriae 1–3 with fine (smaller than strial punctures) punctures in 2–3 irregular rows; interstriae 4 and greater with punctures subequal in size to strial punctures, obscuring striae. Legs: Protibia with acute apex and with 5 acute teeth decreasing in size proximally. Mesotibiae with 1 large external tooth below middle with 1–2 smaller accessory teeth proximally. Metatibiae with 1 small tooth medially. Thorax: Prosternal process behind procoxae strongly pointed. Metasternum entirely punctate, lacking glabrous area anteriorly just behind metacoxae. Abdomen: Male genitalia as in ( Fig. 2 ), flagellum asymmetrical and curved at apex, shorter than basal piece and parameres combined; median lobe narrow.

Paratype variation, males. Length: 15.5–21.4 mm. Width: 6.0– 7.2 mm. Males with color varying from red (teneral) to almost black.

Paratype variation, females. Length: 14.7–18.6 mm. Width: 5.9–7.2 mm. Females with simple mandibles lacking vertical ramus of male or any vertical development (small dorsal projection at base present in D. ahenobarbus ); apex acute, internally with 1–2 teeth. Females with anterior pronotal tumosity weakly indicated, lateral contiguously punctate areas subfoveate. Females with temporal process not strongly produced posteriorly, instead narrow, rounded and similar in shape to the canthus.

Etymology. The species is named in honor of my friend and colleague Luca Bartolozzi, Natural History Museum “La Specola”, University of Florence, Italy, who provided an excellent treatment of the Sri Lankan stag beetle fauna with H. E. Bomans just before specimens of this species began to be discovered. His knowledge, insights, and generous loans of material have contributed greatly to my research on Lucanidae .

Distribution. Almost all specimens known are from Kandy, Sri Lanka. A photograph of one specimen from Elpitiya in southern Sri Lanka is considered to be referable to D. bartolozzii , but the specimen was not physically examined and because it is from a locality distinct from the remainder of the type series it was not included as a paratype.

Remarks. The new species differs from D. ahenobarbus ( Fig. 3 ) in the following ways: anterior pronotal process lacking in males; male genitalia with a shorter, asymmetrical flagellum and much narrower median lobe (flagellum longer than parameres + basal piece, median lobe broad in D. ahenobarbus ( Fig. 4 )); prosternal process acute in both sexes, not bluntly rounded; metasternum lacking anterior glabrous area in both sexes; temporal process in males with posterior face distinctly punctate, not glabrous.

Figures

Figures 1–4. Dorsal habitus and male genitalia of Dinonigidius species, ventral view. Arrows indicate median lobe. 1, 3) D. bartolozzii Paulsen, n.sp. 2, 4) D. ahenobarbus de Lisle.