Drypta Latreille, 1796

Sciaky, Riccardo & Anichtchenko, Alexander, 2020, Taxonomic notes on the tribe Dryptini Bonelli, 1810 with description of a new genus and species from China (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Dryptini), Zootaxa 4731 (4), pp. 522-530 : 523

Drypta Latreille, 1796

Type species: Carabus emarginatus Gmelin, 1790 (= Carabus dentatus P. Rossi, 1790 )

= Desera Dejean, 1825 (nec Hope, 1831) Type species: Drypta longicollis MacLeay, 1835

= Deserida Basilewsky, 1960 Type species: Carabus distinctus P. Rossi, 1792

= Dryptella Jeannel, 1949 Type species: Drypta cyanella Chaudoir, 1843

This is the nominotypical genus of the tribe; it contains around 47 species diffused in Africa, Asia, Australia and, very marginally, in Europe.

Liang et al. (2004) have correctly pointed out the reasons for which Desera must be regarded as a synonym of Drypta and its long-lasting confusion with Dendrocellus , due to the misinterpretation of Drypta longicollis MacLeay.

Deserida was erected by Basilewsky (1960) as a substitution name for the species near D. distincta , since this author regarded Desera as the valid name for the genus presently called Dendrocellus . This generic (or subgeneric) epithet has been frequently used for the pale species of Drypta , in which the elytra instead of being metallic are yellowish with darker margins or completely brown. This taxon has already been considered as a synonym of Drypta by Habu (1967) and we completely agree with this point of view. In our opinion the characters that should allow separation of this taxon from Drypta are inconsistent: the apical margin of elytra obliquely truncate instead of perpendicular to the suture is a character at the same time very variable and difficult to appreciate. Beyond that, we could not find any other reliable differentiating character. Even the shape of the body, shorter and stouter according to Jeannel (1949), is almost identical for example in the type species of Drypta ( D. dentata ) and of Deserida ( D. distincta ), while other species belonging to both groups are much more slender and elongate.

Dryptella is a subgenus described by Jeannel (1949) for the majority of the African species of Drypta , but also in this case the characters pointed out (shape more slender and elongate, occurrence of a carina on interval 9) are very doubtful and difficult to observe, sometimes almost illusionary, at least in our opinion widely insufficient for a subgeneric distinction. Dryptella has already been regarded as synonym of Drypta by Habu (1967) and we agree with this position.

The unique combination of characters distinguishing Drypta from the other genera of the tribe is: pronotal bead absent or rudimental (fig. 9); punctuation on head and pronotum dense, more or less regular, the punctures usually distinct from each other, not confluent; pronotum very feebly constricted towards base; elytral microsculpture well developed; elytral pubescence dense, usually arranged in two-three more or less regular rows; number of scutellar pores varied from 1 to 4, but most frequently 1; intervals flat or slightly convex; tarsal claws thick, strongly curved, and smooth on inner side; two or three evident setae on outer side of stylomere ( fig. 7 ).

Figures

FIGS. 4–8. Stylomere structure of: 4—Megadrypta mirabilis gen. n. sp. n.; 5—Nesiodrypta waterhousei (Oberthür, 1881); 6—Prionodrypta lugens (Schmidt-Goebel, 1846); 7—Drypta lineola W. S. MacLeay, 1825; 8—Dendrocellus australis (Peringuey, 1896).