Odontocheila gilli Johnson, 2000

Moravec, Jiří & Duran, Daniel P., 2013, Taxonomic and nomenclatorial revision within the Neotropical genera of the subtribe Odontochilina. 6. Odontocheila fraternum sp. nov., a new species sister to O. gilli (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 53 (2), pp. 585-599 : 587-594

Odontocheila gilli Johnson, 2000

( Figs 1–2 , 7–21 )

Odontocheila gilli Johnson, 2000: 14 , 15–17, Figs 1–2 .

Type locality. Panama, San Blas province, Chepo-Carti Road, 400 m a.s.l., El Llano-Carti area, San Blas Foothills. Type material. HOLOTYPE: J, “ Panama: Panama / Chepo-Carti Rd. / 6.VI. 1982 / B. Gill 400 m ” [printed, date partly handwritten] // “ Odontocheila II / or III cf mexicana / cf quadrina” [handwritten] // “ HOLOTYPE ” [red with doubled black frame, printed] // “ HOLOTYPE / Odontocheila gilli / W. Johnson” [yellow-green, printed] // “CANADIAN / MUSEUM / OF NATURE / LP2012-0171” [printed, with coloured circular logo] // “Canadian Museum of / Musée canadien de la / NATURE / CMNEN 00011499” [printed and with QR code] ( CMNC). ALLOTYPE: ♀ with same locality label and: “ ALLOTYPE / Odontocheila gilli / W. Johnson” [yellow, printed] ( WJCM). Both type specimens are pined, the allotype is of a rather bad shape.

Other specimens examined. 1 J, “ Panama – San Blas / Nusagandi Reserve 350m / D. Brzoska, 17-V-1999 ” // “ Odontocheila gilli / det. D. Brzoska 2001” ( DBCN).

Description. Body ( Figs 1–2 ) small, length 8.10–8.60 (holotype 8.20, allotype 8.60) mm, width 2.40–2.80 (holotype 2.40, allotype 2.80) mm, median area of pronotum and elytra shiny metallic yellow-green with bronze-cupreous lustre or golden-cupreous, sublateral areas bright green to green-blue, and lateral areas purple-violaceous.

Head ( Fig. 7 ) notably large with pronounced eyes, as wide as the body, 2.45–2.80 mm wide, all head portions glabrous.

Frons rather steeply sloped towards clypeus, with convex median area, clearly delimited from clypeus and separated from vertex by distinct, transverse, rather sharp edge; frons surface dark copper on lateral areas which are almost smooth or only indistinctly finely longitudinally wrinkled, median area ornamented by short, irregularly transverse to arcuate-arranged wavy rugae; supraantennal plates smooth, metallic green-blue with cupreous lustre.

Vertex with usual juxtaorbital sensory seta (on each side), almost flat, reddish cupreous in middle with well delimited bright greenish-blue sublateral areas and green-blue to violaceous postero-lateral areas passing onto temples; anteromedian area with irregularly transverse-wavy and arcuate rugae passing from frons and forming a rather distinct ornament, large juxtaorbital areas cupreous, distinctly longitudinally parallel-striate, striae on sublateral areas more irregular and wavy, divergent posteriad passing onto temples and postgenae; occipital area very finely irregularly vermicular-rugulose.

Clypeus iridescent green with bluish lateral areas, irregularly wrinkled.

Genae metallic green-blue, almost smooth with barely recognizable, shallow, parallel striae.

Labrum 4-setose, male labrum ( Figs 8–9 ) rather long, length 0.65–0.70 mm, width 1.05–1.10 mm, ochre-testaceous, with brown to black-brown darkened basal and sublateral areas (more obvious so in holotype), labral shape remarkable within the genus, possessing rounded lateral teeth, larger right-angled or rounded anterolateral teeth and prominent, acute anterior teeth of a horn-like shape; anterior margin between these teeth shallowly emarginate; female labrum ( Fig. 10 ) much longer, length 1.10 mm, width 1.15 mm, much darker, reddish brown with larger black basal and anterior marginal areas, with rounded lateral and anterolateral teeth and prominent, acutely tridentate median lobe with wider and more protruding median tooth.

Mandibles ( Fig. 7 ) normally shaped with arcuate lateral margins, ochre to brownish-testaceous in male, dark brownish in female, subsymmetrical, each mandible with four teeth (and basal molar), left mandible with second and third tooth of approximately same size, fourth tooth smaller; right mandible with third tooth somewhat smaller than the second, fourth tooth markedly smaller.

Palpi ( Fig. 7 ). Both maxillary and labial palpi with normal (elongate) shape of terminal palpomeres, in male yellow-ochre with gradually brownish-testaceous darkened terminal palpomeres, in female much darker and with apices of palpomeres blackish darkened, in female also whole labial palpi blackish darkened ventrally; penultimate (longest) palpomere of labial palpi rather narrow and elongate with only slightly and gradually dilated lateral margins towards apex (width 0.15–0.16 mm).

Antennae very long, in male reaching elytral anteapical angle (the holotype missing last three antennomeres), in female somewhat shorter (incomplete in the allotype); scape with only subapical seta, in male ochre-testaceous to brownish-testaceous with faint mahogany lustre, in female almost black with feeble metallic-green lustre; antennomeres 2–4 in male brownish-testaceous with mahogany lustre, in female much darker with almost black pedicel; antennomeres 5–11 dark brownish, gradually smoky-black darkened with normal micropubescence; all antennomeres with indistinct short apical setae.

Thorax. Pronotum ( Figs 11–13 ) as long as wide, length and width 1.60–1.70 mm, both anterior and posterior sulci well pronounced; anterior lobe metallic-green with violaceous lateral areas, wider than the posterior, irregularly wavy-rugulose with a transversely vermicular rugulose ornament in middle; disc with lateral margins (including those of dorsally visible proepisterna) moderately convex and subparallel in middle (including inconspicuous but well obvious notopleural sutures); discal surface on median area bright bronze-cupreous with rather distinct transverse rugae, while iridescent blue-green sublateral areas are covered with much shallower rugae which become effaced towards smooth, shiny, purple-violaceous lateral areas; posterior lobe with rather distinct dorsolateral bulges and double-sutured posterior rim, iridescent green-blue with violaceous lustre, irregularly rugulose; all thoracic sterna glabrous; prosternum, mesosternum and metasternum smooth, metallic black-blue with green, bronze, cupreous and violaceous lustre; proepisterna smooth, shiny metallic-black with strong, cupreous lustre; mesepisterna and metepisterna metallic black-green, metepisterna indistinctly coriaceous-wrinkled; female mesepisternal coupling sulci unrecognizable, in form of longitudinal sulcus only somewhat deeper than in male.

Elytra ( Figs 14–19 ) elongate, length 4.80–5.20 mm, with rounded to subquadrate humeri, lateral margins subparallel, anteapical angles arcuate, then obliquely running towards apices which are in male subacute (only shortly rounded towards sutural spine) in female almost rounded; sutural spine short but distinct; microserrulation indistinct and very irregular; elytral dorsal surface regularly convex on posterior half of elytral disc, humeral impression moderate, discal impression rather distinct, clearly delimiting moderate basodiscal convexity; apical impression distinct; elytral surface punctate, punctures mostly isolated and notably larger within humeral impressions and on basodiscal convexity, indistinctly anastomosing into chains within the discal impression, becoming much smaller, isolated and sparser posteriad and very shallow on posterior declivity towards apices, nearly effaced on anteapical angles; appearance of the punctation varies depending on angle of illumination: the isolated punctures on apical elytral third are much more obvious in back illumination ( Figs 18–19 ); elytral surface glabrous except for a few usual hairlike sensory setae indistinctly scattered mostly on basal area, and a few others adjacent to epipleura; elytral coloration on elytral disc shiny metallic yellow-green with bronze-cupreous lustre, sublateral areas bright green to green-blue, and lateral areas purple-violaceous (coloration varies depending on angle of illumination), white elytral maculation in male consisting of only sublateral-median macula and anteapical-apical lunule which in female appears as only anteapical macula because its lunule-like prolongation along the apical margin is in female barely recognizable; humeral macula is absent in both sexes.

Abdomen. Ventrites metallic-black with greenish, blue and violaceous lustre, in male with indistinctly testaceous areas on last three ventrites and apical pleurite, surface of the ventrites glabrous (except for usual, sparse and easily abraded hairlike sensory setae at their posterior margins).

Legs. Coxae in male with pro- and mesocoxae yellow to testaceous, in female dark testaceous, with only a few setae, metacoxae black with metallic-blue lustre and testaceous apices with only one central seta (lateral setae entirely absent); trochanters yellow-testaceous in male, dark testaceous in female, glabrous (except for usual easily abraded apical seta); femora in male yellow to testaceous, dorsally with feeble mahogany lustre, in female much darker, brownish-testaceous; femoral surface with only very sparse, short and indistinct, white to brownish semierect setae; tibiae concolorous with femora and with similar sparse setae and dense pad of greyish setae on basal third to half of pro- and mesotibiae; metatibiae with only sparse, semierect, short and stiffer setae; tarsi concolorous with tibiae except for darkened apices, first three tarsomeres in male with moderate dilatation and usual pad of dense, white setae.

Aedeagus ( Figs 20–21 ) moderately voluminous in middle, 2.80 mm long, 0.65–0.70 mm wide, apical portion with almost straight ventral margin, gradually attenuated towards conspicuously shaped apex which is rounded, dorsally obliquely sloped and sharpened due to small but deep dorsal excision forming small, crochet hook-like shape. Internal sac not examined from cleared aedeagus, but when the aedeagus was observed re-hydrated by water, it showed usual sclerites and long convoluted flagellum characteristic of the genus.

Differential diagnosis. Immediately recognizable from externally similar Odontocheila mexicana Laporte de Castelnau, 1834 by the unusual shape of the male labrum and aedeagus, and absence of humeral lunule in both sexes. These characters and also its elytral sculpture differentiate O. gilli from the other similarly coloured Central American species O. iodopleura Bates, 1872 .

Odontocheila gilli shares the characteristic shape of the labrum and aedeagus with O. fraternum sp. nov. described here, but immediately differs from the new species in having elytral punctures mostly isolated, sparser and smaller towards elytral apices, and by the absence of humeral macula in both sexes. In addition, the labrum and palpi of the female allotype of O. gilli are much darker with blackish areas.

Distribution and habitat. Odontocheila gilli is a very rare species. Apart from two type specimens, only one other male was caught by David D. Brzoska (Naples, Florida) within the Nusagandi Indian Reserve, San Blas (Kuna Yala) region, situated near the type locality.

The habitat and collecting circumstances were mentioned by JOHNSON (2000) according to information given by the collector Bruce Gill (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) that the two type specimens were taken in a “flight intercept trap” placed along trails within tropical rain forest of the El Llano-Carti site.

Figures

Figs 1–6. Habitus of two species of Odontocheila Laporte de Castelnau, 1834. 1–2 – O. gilli Johnson, 2000:1 – male, 8 mm, Chepo-Carti Road, HT (CMNC); 2 – male, 8.1 mm, Nusagandi (DBCN).3–6 – O. fraternum sp. nov.: 3 – male, 8.9 mm, Darien, HT (USNM); 4 – male, 8.6 mm, Altos de Campana, PT (CCJM); 5 – female, 9.1 mm, Darien, AT (DBCN); 6 – female, 10 mm, Altos de Campana (CCJM).

Figs 7–21. Odontocheila gilli Johnson, 2000. 7 – head, male, Nusagandi (DBCN); 8–10 – labrum: 8 – male, Chepo- Carti Road, HT (CMNC); 9 – male, Nusagandi; 10 – female, Chepo-Carti Road, AT (WJCM). 11–13 – pronotum: 11 – male, HT; 12 – male, Nusagandi; 13 – female, AT. 14–16 – elytron: 14 – male, HT; 15 – male, Nusagandi; 16 – female, AT. 17 – elytral apex, male, HT; 18–19 – elytral apex, back illumination: 18 – male, Nusagandi; 19 – female, AT. 20–21 – aedeagus: 20 – HT; 21 – Nusagandi. Scale bars = 1 mm.