Psectrascelis ammophila Larrea-Meza & Zúñiga-Reinoso, 2020

Larrea-Meza, Sebastián, Pinto, Pablo, Collado, Gonzalo A. & So, Álvaro Zúñiga-Reino-, 2020, A new species of Psectrascelis (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Pimeliinae) from the coastal dunes of the Atacama Desert, Chile, Zootaxa 4845 (1), pp. 109-118 : 111-115

Psectrascelis ammophila Larrea-Meza & Zúñiga-Reinoso , sp. nov.

( Fig. 1 , 2 , 3, 4)

Type locality. Chile, Atacama Region, Huasco Province, Aguada de Tongoy (- 28.57 S, - 71.29 W) .

Type material. Holotype. Chile, Atacama Region, Huasco Province, Aguada de Tongoy (- 28.57 S, - 71.29 W). 16-X-2017. Leg. S. Larrea ( MNNC) . Paratypes: All paratypes with the same locality as the holotype . 17 ♀♀ / 9 ♂♂. Leg. S. Larrea. (10♀♀ / 5♂♂ [ SLPC], 3♀♀ / 2♂♂ [ MNNC], 2♀♀ / 1♂ [ IADIZA], 2♀♀ / 1♂ [ MZUC]) . 5♀♀ / 1♂. Leg. P. Pinto (1♂ / 1♀ [ PPPC], 3♀♀ [ MNNC], 1♀ [ MZUC]) . 8♀♀ / 2♂♂. Leg. A. Ramírez (2♂♂ / 2♀♀ [ ARPC], 2♀♀ [ MNNC], 2♀♀ [ MZUC], 2♀♀ [ SLPC]) . 20-IX-2016. 3 ♂ ♂. Leg. M. Guerrero (2 ♂ ♂ [ MGGC], 1 ♂ [ PVGH]) . 6 ♂ ♂ / 4 ♀ ♀. Leg. S. Roitman (2 ♂ ♂ y 2 ♀ ♀ [ SRRC], 1 ♂ y 1 ♀ [ MNNC], 1 ♂ / 1 ♀ [ IEUMCE], 1 ♂ [ MEUC], 1 ♂ [ VMDC]). 20-IX.2017 . 3 ♂ ♂ / 4 ♀ ♀. Leg. M. Guerrero (1 ♂ / 1♀ [ MGGC], 1 ♂ / 1♀ [ PVGH], 1 ♂ / 1 ♀ [ MNNC], 1 ♀ [ MEUC]. 16.X.2017. 1♂ / 1 ♀. Leg. M. Guerrero. (1 ♀ [ MGGC]), 1 ♂ [ MNNC]) .

Other material examined: Data exact as labelled. 1♀ Peñablanca, S. Huasco, Atacama, 9-Julio-58, Coll: L. E. Peña. [ PVGH]. 1 ♂. Q. Tongoy, Freirina (S), Atacama, 17 Oct- 90, Coll: L.E. Peña. [ PVGH] .

Description. Body length 17.5 mm, width 9.4 mm. Body dark brown, convex and cover by grey large pilosity, dense and decumbent (Fig. 3A). Labrum emarginate and lateral margins curved; with shallowed punctures and scattered, short pilosity and sparse in the central portion being larger and dense in the lateral margin. Ventral view with abundant setae. Clypeus anteriorly sinuated, with thick punctures and scattered. Short pilosity, dense and erected covering the lateral margin, forming a tuft of hairs directed forward. Clypeal disc with scattered punctures and short and sparse pilosity. Clypeal suture not visible. Front convex and punctured. Mentum convex with the anterior margin notched, punctured and erected pilosity. Gena slightly wrinkle, with abundant pilosity mainly under the eyes. Antennae brownish, surpassing the pronotum margin by the last three segments. Segment I and II covered by erected and thick setae. From segment III to XI cover mainly by abundant, thin and curved setae, but some thick and large setae are scattered. Segment I rounded, segment II smaller than I, segment III larger than I and II together. Last segment lenticular with apex sharped. Pronotum trapezoid and convex, 1,68x wider than longer: widest in the base (5.9 mm) and anteriorly narrowest (4.0 mm). Anterior margin conspicuous, angulated, and emarginate with short and abundant setae directed forward running under and along the margin. Central area of anterior margin broad, narrowing towards sides. Punctures on the surface are less abundant and smaller in the disc and dense and bigger in both anterior and posterior margins. Pilosity concentrated in the lateral margins. Pronotum surface with longitudinal slight wrinkles. Pronotal disc raised with a notorious longitudinal cleft along the midline (Fig. 3A). Posterior margin bisinuated with short setae under margin running along the margin, shortening to almost disappear in the middle zone. Proepisternum wrinkled and punctured with dense pilosity and anterior margin raised. Place close to the posterior margin and coxa, strongly globose, glabrous and slightly grooved. Prosternum convex, wrinkled, punctured, and hairy, with anterior margin raised. Prosternal apophysis oval, hairy and thick punctures declining towards the apex (Fig. 3B). Mesosternum convex, strongly wrinkled, and punctured. Abundant pilosity, but close to the prosternal apophysis smooth and glabrous. Metasternum slightly convex with anterior margin strongly wrinkled. Central portion slightly grooved and posterior margin with pilosity (Fig. 3B). Elytra globose and rounded, laterally very curved. Brownish with abundant pilosity concentrated in the lateral margin (Fig. 3A). Thick and fine punctuation and two pairs of carinas slightly raised (Fig. 3A). Zone between carinas subconcave with dense punctures and dense pilosity. Elytral suture slightly raised (Fig. 3A), with fine punctures and glabrous. Wider in the central portion. Pseudopleurum punctured and dense pilosity. Epipleuron with sparse punctures and pilosity. Abdomen shiny black, convex, with thick and fine shallowed punctures (Fig. 3B). Ventrite I wrinkled and sparse decumbent pilosity. Ventrite II with weak longitudinal wrinkles, with few hairs barely notorious. Ventrite III and IV with scarce hair in the posterior margin and some setae barely notoriuos. Ventrite V hairy, densely punctured and with abundant erected setae. Legs black or brown with tibiae and tarsi brownish. Coxae strongly punctured, hairy and with thin setae. Trochanter hairy, with thin setae. Femora hairy except by the ventral face, where the pilosity is less dense. Tibiae with a line of spine along the structure. Protibiae dorsally glabrous and strongly punctured. All tibiae with two terminal longer spines. Metatibiae wider in the posterior third arched, the ventral face a small velvety patch (Fig. 3C). Tarsi with abundant setae. Pro and mesotarsi with five segments. Metatarsi with 4 segments. Male genitalia ( Fig. 4A ), lateral styles of tegmen curved, narrowed towards apex. Apex with abundant long setae without tufts. Basal margin triangular. Basal lamina of tegmen shorter than ls, sub-straight with last third narrowing to the base, basal margin straight.

Female. The females are in general externally quite similar to the males, but 1.12x larger, elytra more raised and wider than the males (Fig 3D and E). Antennae in female exceed the pronotum by a single segment. Tibiae straight without the velvety patch (Fig. 3F). Females have a brownish central protuberance in the abdominal sternites II, III, and IV. Genitalia in ventral view ( Fig. 4B ), lobes of coxite 2 and 3 with sinuated and subparallel edges. Second lobes of coxite + valvifer (v+cl 2) are longer than wide, rough anterior margin and long sparse hairs. Third lobes of coxite (cl 3), wider in the base, completely wrinkled and abundant and disorderly long setae. A tuft of long hair (sensory setae: ss) in apical position close to the base of the fourth lobes of coxite (cl 4). Strongly sclerotized cl 4, short with a shallow indentation.

Diagnosis. The diagnostic traits of P. ammophila sp. nov. will be diagnosed in comparison with P. pilosa because they are morphologically very similar, although the conducted phylogenetic analysis did not render them as sister species ( Fig. 4 ). For this, the traits of P. pilosa will be given in parentheses when correspond. In P. ammophila sp. nov. the pronotum (length: 3.8 mm; wide: 5.4 mm) is 1.08x larger and 1.1x narrower than P. pilosa (length: 3.5 mm, wide: 6 mm). Wider in a base (wider in the middle). Pronotum trapezoid (subrectangular). Elytra globose and rounded (longer and elliptical). Body colour brown to dark brown (dark grey-black). Apex of the lateral styles without tufts (with tufts of long setae, Fig 4C ). Lobes of coxite with sinuated and subparallel edges (straight and narrowed towards apex, Fig 4D ). Third lobes of coxite with disorderly long setae (orderly long setae, Fig 4D ). Short cl 4 with a shallow indentation (longer and smooth cl 4, Fig, 4D).

Intraspecific variation. Prosternal apophysis with different designs and mesoventrite convex or concave. Subparallel slight wrinkles on the pronotum can be notorious, weak or even absent. Average body length of male is 17.1 mm (n= 13, sd ±0.7) with a range between 15.6 and 17.9 mm. The average body length of the female is 19.3 mm (n=29, sd ±0.8) with a range between 18 and 21.1 mm.

Sexual dimorphism. Females 1.12x larger than the males (Fig. 3). Antennae in female exceed the pronotum by a single segment while the antennae in males are wider and exceed the pronotum by three segments. Male tibiae arched and with a velvety patch (Fig. 3C). Females have a brownish central protuberance in the abdominal sternites II, III, and IV.

Distribution and habitat. Chile, Atacama Region, Huasco Province. The area is located in the Coquimbean Province of the Central Chile sub-region (Morrone 2015), district of Intermediate Desert (sensu Peña 1966). In its currently known and very small range, P. ammophila sp. nov. inhabits the coastal terraces on the southern side of Huasco river, with bushes and borrowed in clear sand dunes at an altitude of about 100 m ( Fig. 1 ).

Etymology. The specific name is from the ancient Greek which means sand lover (Ammos (ἄμμος), mean “sand”, and phila (ϕιλος), mean “love”) because the specimens during the day are buried under the sand of the dunes where they inhabit.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Overview of the distribution of Psectrascelis species included in this study. Rhombs with a black circle are the species sampled and analysed in this study. The yellow areas are the dunes zones in the study area. Most important branches of the Huasco and Copiapó basin are marked with light blue lines. Coastal habitat and a Psectrascelis ammophila sp. nov. specimen in situ in Aguada de Tongoy are shown.

FIGURE 2. Bayesian phylogenetic tree based on COI gene. Numbers on the nodes correspond to the posterior probabilities. Front the tree are dorsal photos of species included in this study (ingroup).

FIGURE 4. Ventral view comparison of aedeagus and ovipositor of Psectrascelis ammophila sp. nov. (A, B) with Psectrascelis pilosa (C, D). ls, lateral style; b, basal lamina; pb, paraproct baculi; cl2–cl4, coxite plates 2–4; p, paraproct; ss, sensory setae; v, valvifer. Scale bar: 1 mm.