Prionus (Prionus) howdeni Chemsak, 1979

Santos-Silva, Antonio, Nearns, Eugenio H. & Swift, Ian P., 2016, Revision of the American species of the genus Prionus Geoffroy, 1762 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae, Prionini), Zootaxa 4134 (1), pp. 1-103 : 37

Prionus (Prionus) howdeni Chemsak, 1979

( Figs. 91–93 )

Prionus (Prionus) howdeni Chemsak, 1979: 127 ; McNamara, 1984: 734 (type); Monné & Giesbert, 1994: 15 (checklist); Monné, 1995: 52 (cat.); Monné & Hovore, 2005: 20 (checklist); 2006: 19 (checklist); Bezark & Monné, 2013: 28 (checklist); Monné, 2015: 176 (cat.).

Prionus howdeni ; Chemsak et al., 1992: 21 (checklist); Noguera & Chemsak, 1996: 396 (distr.); Monné, 2002: 24 (host); Özdikmen & Turgut, 2009: 410.

Original description ( Chemsak 1979): “ Male: Form moderate sized; integument piceous, elytra and lateral margins of pronotum orange brown. Head with front very short, deeply impressed; mandibles moderately long, finely punctate; median impression deep, extending onto neck; punctures rather fine, confluent with rounded pits on vertex; eyes separated on vertex by about length of fourth antennal segment; antennae 12-segmented, reaching to a little beyond middle of elytra, segments slightly produced at apices, segments to sixth finely, sparsely punctate, outer segments finely striate. Pronotum narrower than base of elytra; lateral teeth moderate, anterior pair short, median pair larger, basal margin almost right angles; disk very irregularly, densely punctate, punctures consisting of rounded, elevated protuberances of varying sizes; prosternum barely punctate, very sparsely pubescent; mesosternum very finely, shallowly punctate; metasternum finely, densely punctate, densely clothed with long, erect, yellowish hairs. Scutellum glabrous, finely, moderately densely punctate, rounded behind. Elytra less than twice as long as broad; punctures dense, rugose, confluent, becoming finer toward apex; pubescence absent; each elytron bicostate, costae extending from base and uniting at apical one fourth; apices rounded, sutural angles lightly dentate. Legs slender, sparsely punctate; front tibiae excavated and asperate beneath; posterior tarsi slender, segments finely punctate and sparsely pubescent dorsally, third segment with lobes dentate at apices. Abdomen shining, glabrous, finely, rather sparsely punctate; last sternite emarginate at apex. Length, exclusive of mandibles, 31 mm.”

Geographical distribution. Mexico (Durango).

Type, type locality. Holotype male from Mexico (Durango), deposited at CNC.

Remarks. We could not examine specimens of this species, but we examined photographs of the male holotype and a female (this latter figured at Bezark (2016)).

According to Chemsak (1979): “The coloration and sculpturing of the elytra and the unusual protruding punctures of the pronotum make this one of the most distinctive New World species of Prionus .” That statement is certainly correct.

As usual, ventrite I is not totally glabrous, having short, sparse setae laterally. Also ventrites I–IV are coarser and more abundantly punctate laterally than centrally.

Figures

FIGURES 91 – 94. 91 – 93, Prionus (Prionus) howdeni, holotype male: 91, dorsal habitus; 92, lateral habitus; 93, head, frontal view. 94, Prionus (Prionus) evoluticornis, paratype male, dorsal habitus. Photographs 91 – 93 by Serge Laplante; photograph 94 by Ziro Komiya.