Crioprosopus nieti Chevrolat, 1857

Eya, Bryan K., 2015, Revision of the Genus Crioprosopus Audinet-Serville, and description of three new genera of Trachyderini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae), Zootaxa 3914 (4), pp. 351-405 : 388-389

Crioprosopus nieti Chevrolat, 1857

( Figs. 126–129 )

Crioprosopus nieti Chevrolat, 1857:103 , pl. 6, fig. 1 (Type locality: Mexico); Aurivillius, 1912:458 (cat.); Blackwelder, 1946:588 (cat.); Chemsak, Linsley & Noguera, 1992:80 (cat.); Monné, 1994:39 (cat.); Monné & Giesbert, 1993:141 (cat.); Noguera & Chemsak, 1996:402 (dist.); Monné & Hovore, 2006:140 (cat.) Swift et al., 2010:31 (dist.); Monné, 2013:731 (cat.).

Crioprosopus nietoi Gemminger & Harold, 1872:2967 (cat.); Bates, 1880:74 (dist.); 1885:320 (dist.).

Redescription. Male: Length, 40 mm. Form large, broad, slightly tapering posteriorly to parallel sided; integument black, ventral surface of head, clypeus, pronotal disc, anterior half of metasternun and metepisternum, and first abdominal segment with yellowish-orange markings, pronotum with disc spotted with black, and lateral and anterior margins (except for middle) black, elytra orange-yellowish with 3 transverse black bands at base, middle and apices. Head with dorsum glabrate, finely punctate at base; vertex longitudinally bicarinate with median line in middle, protuberant above antennal tubercles between eyes; palpi short, apical segment of labial and maxillary pair subtruncate at apices, impressed dorsally; genae sparsely punctate; antennal tubercles broad, slightly elevated, apices obtusely angulate; antennae exceeding elytral apices by about 3 segments, apex of 4th–9th segments angulate, expanded externally, scape nitid, rugulosely punctate, apical 2/3 of dorsum impressed, segments 2–4, nitid, sparsely punctate, segments 5–11, opaque, densely punctate, clothed with very short, appressed pubescence, dorsal surface of 3rd and 4th segments longitudinally canaliculate from apical ¾ of 3rd to apex of 4th, and at apical 1/ 5 of 5th impressed, 3rd segment longer than 1st, 4th subequal to 1st, 5th subequal to 3rd, 6th longer than 5th, 7th and 8th subequal and longer than 6th, 9th and 10th subequal and longer than 8th, 11th longest, curvate, scarcely appendiculate at apical 2/3. Pronotum broader than long (1.6 x as broad as long), sides with prominent lateral tubercle, base shallowly impressed, surface nitid, sparsely punctate; disc densely, continguosly punctate with a black glabrate macula at middle postmedially and six black, glabrate maculae on each side of the middle macula (i.e, a pair antemedially, and a contiguous pair postmedially), and another pair of macula outside of contiguous pair in a depressed area; prosternum black, densely, contiguously punctate, rather sparsely clothed with short erect hairs, intercoxal process arcuate, abruptly declivous at apex; mesosternum black with intercoxal process tuberculate but not obviously projected below base of coxae, posterior face concave; sides densely clothed with whitish short, depressed pubescence intermixed with longer erect hairs; metasternum shining, densely pubescent with erect, whitish, transparent hair, metepisternum densely pubescent. Scutellum triangular, as long as wide, black, glabrate, pointed apically. Elytra about 2.1 times longer than broad, sides distinctly margined laterally; surface coarsely, confluently punctate in front of basal band, wrinkled near apex of scutellum, densely but slightly less coarsely punctate behind; apices obliquely truncate to suture, sutural angle rounded; Legs with hind femora not attaining elytral apices. Abdomen shining, densely clothed with golden, suberect hairs; 5th sternite obliquely emarginate at apex.

Female: Length, 41 mm. Form large, broad, parallel-sided, integument black as in male, except side of pronotum and prosternum yellowish-orange, additional yellowish marking on forecoxae, mesosternal process, and middle of abdominal segments 2–5. Palpi short, apical segment of maxillary pair rounded, labial pair subtruncate. Antennae reaching to apical 1/3 of elytra, dorsal surface of 3rd and 4th without longitudinal impression as found in male, 3rd segment shorter than 1st, each segment from 4th–7th subequal and shorter than 3rd, segments 8th–10th successively shorter than 7th, 11th longer than 10th and subequal to 4th, scarcely appendiculate. Pronotum with disc less densely but more coarsely punctate than male, surface with a black glabrate macula at middle postmedially and six black, glabrate maculae on each side as in the male, and additional maculae on outside of the contiguous pair with cuticle not depressed as in male; prosternum densely but more coarsely punctate than male. Abdomen more densely clothed with suberect hairs than male, 5th sternite broadly truncate at apex.

Distribution. Mexico (Oaxaca), Costa Rica.

Materials examined. MEXICO: Veracruz: 14–16 km W Sontecomapan, 10–13 April 1993, J.E. Wappes (1 male, ACMT); 3400’ vic. La Perla de San Martin, 10–13 April 1993, E. Giesbert (1 female, ACMT).

Note. Crioprosopus nieti can easily be recognized by the densely punctate prothorax and elytra. The disc of the prothorax is orange-yellow with 5 to 9 black maculae ( Figs. 126–129 ). The elytra are orange-yellowish with 3 transverse black bands at base, middle and apices. There are considerable variations in the extent of the black marking on the thorax, scutellum and elytra. The elytra of materials examined have base, medial and apical black bands that are wider and extending to the suture compared to the holotype female where the black markings are much more reduced. The lateral spines on the pronotum, slightly behind the middle, are robust, and are curved upward, especially in the females. Aside from these more obvious features, the carinae on the vertex of C. nieti are more protuberant rising above the antennal tubercles. The apices of the antennal segments 4 to 9 are more expanded and angulate compared to C. gaumeri Bates and C. wappesi sp. nov. The color and markings on the dorsum of C. nieti is very similar to that of Megapurpuricenus magnificus (LeConte) but the two species can be differentiated by general shape of their prothorax. Also, the vertex of C. nieti is glabrate compared to M. magnificus , which has the vertex coarsely punctate.

According to the description provided by Chevrolat (1857:103), this species is referred to as Crioprosopus nieti ; however, in the description he writes, “ This beautiful species was generously donated by M. Nieto, a very ardent lover of natural science. ” Therefore, it is curious why this beetle was not named nietoi , as referred to by Bates (1880).

Figures

FIGURES 122 – 133. Dorsal and Lateral view of Crioprosopus (cont.). 122, 123: Crioprosopus sp. (male, Mex., Quintana Roo, Nuevo X-can); 124, 125: Crioprosopus hondurensis (male); 126, 127: Crioprosopus nieti (male); 128, 129: Crioprosopus nieti (female); 130, 131: Crioprosopus rimosus (male); 132, 133: Crioprosopus rimosus (female).