Ceresium guttaticolle (Fairmaire, 1850)

Waqa-Sakiti, Hilda, Winder, Linton & Lingafelter, Steven W., 2015, Review of the genus Ceresium Newman, 1842 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) in Fiji, ZooKeys 532, pp. 15-53 : 22-23

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Cerambycidae

Ceresium guttaticolle (Fairmaire, 1850) rev. stat. Fig. 6

Hesperophanes guttaticollis : Fairmaire 1850: 63, Tahiti, holotype (MNHN).

Ceresium guttaticolle yapense: Gressitt 1956: 86, Micronesia: Yap Islands, holotype (USNM).

Description.

Based on the holotype (MNHN), holotype of the subspecies yapense Gressitt (USNM), and four specimens from 1988 and 2008 surveys (FNIC, USP). Size 12.5-15.0 mm long, 3.0-3.5 mm wide at humeri; integument color orangish-brown (occasionally maroon-brown) (Fig. 6a). Head with shallow interantennal tubercle region, tubercles only slightly raised; punctate with very sparse ochraceous pubescence on tubercles and throughout frons; vertex and occiput with sparser ochraceous pubescence. Ochraceous pubescence denser around eye margins. Frons and frontoclypeal margin punctate with sparse, short and long, ochraceous hairs (Fig. 6b). Antennae long, extending beyond elytra by 1 antennomere. Antennae with vestiture of short, dense, ochraceous setae (longer at apices of antennomeres). Antennomeres unspined and not expanded at apices; last antennomere approximately 1.3 times length of penultimate. Antennomere 3 and 4 each shorter than scape; 5 and 6 longest except for 11 and subequal in length. Scape long, clavate, extending to apical fifth of pronotum.

Pronotum broadly arcuate, widest across middle and slightly wider than long; small tubercles at sides located at middle of sides and anterolaterally. Pronotum with two dense yellow patches of pubescence on either side of pronotum almost subequal in size. Pronotum with sparse punctures and sparsely scattered pubescence elsewhere (Fig. 6c). Elytron with sparse and regularly spaced ochraceous pubescence. Punctation dense, shallow and gradually becoming shallower and smaller in size towards apex. Elytral apex rounded to suture. Scutellum narrowly rounded, covered with dense, yellow pubescence. Legs moderate in length, femora distinctly but gradually clavate, hind femora extending to between 4 th– 5th ventrite.

Venter of abdomen and thorax with moderately dense, ochraceous pubescence throughout becoming less abundant towards 5th ventrite. Prosternal process broad, vertical and acutely declivous, approximately 1/5 width of procoxa, weakly notched and not expanded at apex. Procoxal cavities open posteriorly. Mesocoxae closed laterally to mesepimeron (Fig. 6d). Mesosternum rather acutely declivous, with small anterior tubercle, and sulcate anteriorly. Apex of terminal ventrite subtruncate without notch.

Remarks.

Although first described under the name Hesperophanes guttaticollis , the holotype actually has a label indicating “guttatus”. This is one of the easiest species to recognize due to the yellow pubescent maculations on the pronotum. Only one other species, Ceresium nigroapicale Dillon & Dillon has this feature. Ceresium guttaticolle has two patches on either side, subequal in length, while Ceresium nigroapicale has three or four areas of yellowish pubescence on either side, with the apical noticeably larger. This species was originally described from Tahiti and is also known from Viti Levu, Taveuni, and the Lau Islands in Fiji. The subspecies Ceresium guttaticolle yapense Gressitt, 1956 is known from the Yap Islands, Micronesia. Specimens have been collected, mostly at lights, from July through October ( Dillon and Dillon 1952). We remove this from synonymy with Ceresium unicolor (Fabricius, 1787).