Cerabilia Laport de Castelnau, 1867:116

Will, Kipling W., 2011, Taxonomic review of the Pterostichini and Loxandrini fauna of New Caledonia (Coleoptera, Carabidae), ZooKeys 147, pp. 337-397 : 350

Genus Cerabilia Laport de Castelnau, 1867:116 Figs 2426

Type species.

Cerabilia maori Laport de Castelnau 1867, by monotypy.

Description.

Head. Clypeo-ocular sulci absent; mentum moderately emarginate, sides divergent, paramedial pits range from small and shallow to very large and deeply impressed; median tooth simple, triangular or blunt; paraglossae moderate length or short, without elongate setae at apex; ligular sclerite with two subapical setae; maxillary palpifer with one basal seta; antennae filiform, with first two segments always glabrous, pubescence starting in apical half of third segment to middle of fourth segment.

Thorax. Pronotum transverse, one marginal setae near middle or with two marginal setae (two in Australian and some New Zealand species); pro-, meso- and metasterna glabrous; proepisternum smooth or deeply, longitudinally strigous; elytra fused, border at base, nine fully impressed striae, short tenth stria at level of plica in some species (some Australian species striae not impressed throughout or not impressed in basal fifth), apicolateral plica absent, parascutellar stria continuous with stria 1, angular base of stria 1 absent, parascutellar punctures present at base of stria 2, interval 3 with zero to five punctures (no discal punctures in most New Zealand and all Australian species), intervals flat or slightly convex; hind wing reduced; anterior tarsi of male with three basal segments, very slightly, somewhat or notably asymmetrically expanded, ventrally squamous, tarsi dorsally glabrous or with fine scattered setae. Abdomen. Ventrites 3-6 without transvers sulci; aedeagus (fig. 25) ostium dorsal, oriented left side or right side up in repose; right paramere small, bluntly rounded, left conchoid, paramere form reversed in species with adeagus right side up in repose; female reproductive tract (fig. 26) without dorsolateral bursal lobe, bursa with large dorsal sac present or absent, spermatheca small, sessile, broadly attached at base of common oviduct, spermatheca with appended gland, without spermatheca duct digital diverticulum, without elongate spermathecal gland duct diverticulum.

New Caledonian species.

Cerabilia includes approximately 24 undescribed species in New Caledonia. These will be described elsewhere.

Exemplars of species examined.

All New Caledonian species, all Australian species (three described in Feronista and 23 undescribed) and all New Zealand species (five described and 10 undescribed).

Generic distribution.

If considered congeneric with Feronista (see notes below), range is Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand.

Notes.

Cerabilia has been treated as an endemic genus from New Zealand and has typically been classified in Platynini ( Lorenz 2005a, b, Larochelle and Larivière 2007). Analysis of a combination of morphological characters and DNA data place Cerabilia in Loxandrini as sister to, or within a clade of Australian Feronista (Will unpubl.). Although like platynines Cerabilia species lack the lateroapical elytral plica, which is present in most loxandrines, they lack the dorsal lobe of the pygidial gland reservoir (present in species of Platynini ), lack the angular base of stria 1 (usually present in species of Platynini ) and males in Cerabilia have the three basal protarsomeres slightly, to very notably asymmetrically expanded, a characteristic of nearly all loxandrines. Tentatively, I consider species in New Caledonia to be included in Cerabilia . A full analysis of all Australian, New Zealand and New Caledonian species and presumed outgroups is to be published elsewhere establishing the evidentiary basis for a generic classification of Loxandrini .