Neolycus Bourgeois, 1883: 61

Kusy, Dominik, Motyka, Michal, Fusek, Lukas, Li, Yun, Bocek, Matej, Bilkova, Renata, Ruskova, Michaela & Bocak, Ladislav, 2021, Sexually dimorphic characters and shared aposematic patterns mislead the morphology-based classification of the Lycini (Coleoptera: Lycidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 191 (3), pp. 902-902 : 902-

Neolycus Bourgeois, 1883: 61 .

Type species: Lycus schoenherri Chevrolat, 1834 .

Diagnosis

Neolycus is the only New World genus with two thorns in the middle part of the phallus (Fig. AB –AD). Additionally, it differs from Rhyncheros in having wide male elytra ( Fig. 6S, T ). There is no character available to distinguish Neolycus and Celiasis , and the latter might be congeneric with Neolycus .

Redescription

Adults: Body slender. Head mostly concealed by pronotum, with long, slender rostrum ( Fig. 6Z ); pronotum widest at base, with projected posterior angles ( Fig. 6Y ). Sexually dimorphic; male with considerably dilated and convex elytra, female with moderately dilated elytra; both sexes with four indistinct costae in each elytron ( Fig. 6S, T ); male genitalia with a pair of ventral thorns around their mid-length ( Fig. 6 AB –AD).

Distribution

USA (south and southwest), Mexico and Peru ( Fig. 5A ; Kleine, 1933; Bocakova et al., 2015).

Remarks

Since its proposal, Neolycus has been cited only in the catalogues of North American and Mexican netwinged beetles and usually placed as a subgenus of Lycus ( Kleine, 1933; Green, 1949; Zaragoza- Caballero, 1996; Pérez-Hernández et al., 2019). As Neolycus was recovered in a distant position from Lycus , it has to obtain the genus rank, and no Lycus occurs in the Nearctic and Neotropical regions after the proposed changes in the Lycini classification ( Fig. 5A ).

Figures

Figure 5. A, the revised distribution of genera and their alpha diversity. B, the putative dispersal routes recovered by the analysis of the pruned dataset. The grey lines designate dispersal barriers that were never crossed by the Lycini.

Figure 6. Lycus pallidus (F.), male unless stated otherwise. A, general appearance, ventral view. B, apical part of the rostrum, ventral view. C, antenna. D, head, dorsal view. E, prothorax and head, ventral view. F, pronotum, dorsal view. G, meso- and metasternum, ventral view; mesosternum. H, ventral view. I, mesothoracic spiracle with attached trachea. J, abdomen. K, abdomen of Neolycus fernandezi (Dugès), male. L, female terminal ventrite. M, female terminal tergite. N, terminal abdominal segments. O, male genitalia. P, ovipositor. Q, female internal genital duct. R, metatarsus. S, N.