Colaspoides femoralis Lefèvre, 1885

Romantsov, Pavel V. & Moseyko, Alexey G., 2019, New and little known species of Eumolpinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) from Northern Vietnam, Zootaxa 4609 (2), pp. 321-334 : 324

Colaspoides femoralis Lefèvre, 1885

( Figs 7 , 20, 31–32 )

Colaspoides femoralis Lefèvre, 1885: 158, 1889: 298 ; Chen, 1935: 258; Tan et al., 2005: 279; L. Medvedev, 2004: 287.

This species was described by Lefèvre (1885) from Macao (Southeastern China). It was mentioned in the description that this species has legs with brown femora and black tibiae and tarsi. Later Lefèvre (1889) reported that the new specimens of this species from Tonkin (Northern Vietnam) differ from the originally described type specimen in the entirely brown legs. According to Fauna Sinica ( Tan et al. 2005), males of this species have light brown legs. Medvedev (2004) pointed out that in many cases this species was interpreted not quite correctly. He studied the type specimen and wrote: “The holotype has dark red femora and a longitudinal feeble ridge in the middle of ST-1 (ST-1 = abdominal sternite 1). A specimen from Canton has also dark red femora, but only traces of a ridge on ST-1. A specimen from Kweichow, not fully matured, has fulvous legs with black tarsi and a rather distinct ridge on ST-1. All other specimens from China and Vietnam (more than 400 specimens were studied) have ST-1 not ridged and the legs black or dark piceous”.

Based on the individuals studied, we believe that we are actually dealing with a group of related species which are similar to C. femoralis and differ in coloration of the legs, shape of the aedeagus, and body size. The specimens from East China, studied by us (labelled: “ China, Canton” and “ China, Kiautschou”) have characters most close to those of the holotype, which was also collected in Eastern China: piceous legs with dark red femora. The fingershaped apex of the aedeagus of these specimens agrees with the aedeagus figure of C. femoralis given by Medvedev. Specimens with completely yellow legs and triangular apex of the aedeagus from Northern Vietnam (and probably from neighbouring regions of China) belong to a new species, described below.

It is most likely that this group includes at least one more undescribed species. For example, we have a specimen from China (Eastern Guizhou) with completely yellow legs and with the aedeagus similar neither to C. femoralis nor to the new species described here. However, we do not consider it as available for description, because only one male is known so far, and more material is needed to settle the matter.

Figures

FIGURES 7–12. Colaspoides spp. and Iphimoides spp., dorsal view. 7, Colaspoides femoralis (male); 8, C. pseudofemoralis sp. nov. (holotype, male); 9, 10, C. pseudofemoralis sp. nov. (paratypes, females); 11, 12, Iphimoides suturalis (males from PR and IOZ).

FIGURES 19–34. Colaspoides spp. and Demotina spp., abdomen (19, 20), aedeagus dorsal (21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33) and lateral (22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34) views. 19, C. pseudofemoralis sp. nov. (holotype, male); 20, C. femoralis (male); 21, 22, D. rufonotata (syntype); 23, 24, Demotina sapensis sp. nov. (holotype); 25, 26, D. medvedeviana (paratype); 27, 28, D. vietnamica (paratype); 29, 30, D. weisei (paratype); 31, 32, Colaspoides femoralis; 33, 34, C. pseudofemoralis sp. nov. (holotype).