Lebia (Odontopeza), Felix, 2014

Felix, Ron F. F. L., 2014, A new subgenus and species of Lebia, with additional records of Carabidae (Coleoptera) from Socotra Island, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54, pp. 101-114 : 104-108

Odontopeza subgen. nov.

Type species. Lebia socotrana sp. nov., here designated.

Description. General habitus ( Fig. 1 ): medium sized, almost uniformly brown, stout Lebia , resembling members of subgenus Rhytidopeza . Head and pronotum brownish red, head somewhat darker. Elytra dull brown. Tibiae and femora yellow, tarsi yellowish brown.

Head coarsely punctured, punctures confluent into wrinkles near eyes. Surface with isodiametric microsculpture. Eyes very large and protruding, temples perpendicular and very short. Antennae reaching just beyond end of scutellar stria, pubescent from last two thirds of antennomere IV onwards. Clypeus with two setae. Labium divided into mentum and submentum by suture. Mentum with epilobes and stout triangular middle tooth ( Fig. 3 ). Basal labial palpomeres with one seta, hardly recognizable. Ultimate maxillary and labial palpomeres fusiform. Ventral side of head without suborbital setae.

Pronotum transverse, anterior margin straight, anterior angles broadly rounded, not protruding. Disc coarsely wrinkled, with isodiametric microsculpture. Basal lobes slightly protruding, basal border smoothly rounded ( Fig. 4 ).

Elytra wide, widest in about two thirds of length. Lateral margin broadly rounded at humeri, continuing into basal margin and finally into scutellar stria, which lies in first interval. Scutellar pores at base of first stria. Epipleura smooth with some deep irregular grooves ( Fig. 2 ).

Legs. Tarsi glabrous on upper side; rather narrow and long (metatarsomere I as long as II+III combined). Protarsomere IV incised for two thirds, mesotarsomere IV for half of tarsomere, metatarsomere IV incised for two fifths (as in Fig. 5 and Table 1). Male mesotibia with three blunt teeth ( Fig. 6G ).

Female genitalia. Stylomere 1 without lateral apophysis alongside stylomere 2. Stylomere 1 short, large, rounded at apex with hardly discernible (at 100×) tiny pubescence, without spines. Differential diagnosis. Odontopeza subgen. nov. has a clearly visible suture between the lateral lobes of the labium and the epilobes ( Fig. 3 ), like Paulianolebia , Pachylebiodes , Nematopeza and Rhytidopeza . As in these taxa, Odontopeza subgen. nov. also has a hardly visible seta bearing puncture on its basal labial palpomeres ( Fig. 3 ). The subgenera Poecilothais , Lebia s. str. and Metalebia lack these characteristics.

Odontopeza subgen. nov. has a complete basal margin of the elytra like in Nematopeza , Rhytidopeza , Megalebia and Poecilothais , in contrast to Lebia s. str., Metalebia , Paulianolebia , Pseudopachylebia , Pachylebiodes and Pachylebia .

The anterior angles of the pronotum are completely rounded in Odontopeza subgen. nov., Nematopeza , Rhytidopeza and Pachylebia . They are clearly marked in Poecilothais , Lebia s. str. and Metalebia .

In Rhytidopeza and the genera described by MATEU (1971) tarsomeres are rather stout, less stout in Nematopeza and Odontopeza subgen. nov., while in Poecilothais , Lebia s.str. and Metalebia these tarsomeres are much more slender.

The punctation of elytral intervals is also a characteristic for these (sub)genera. Odontopeza subgen. nov. and Pachylebia have mixed finer and coarser punctures, while Rhytidopeza has many rather coarse punctures. In Nematopeza and Megalebia the punctures are fine and shallow; in Lebia s. str. and Poecilothais even more vague, mainly because of the rugosity of the intervals; Paulianolebia and Pachylebiodes have very fine punctures and Pseudopachylebia has even finer and fewer punctures.

Odontopeza subgen. nov. has no incision on the male tibia but there are three blunt ‘teeth’ on the inner side of the middle tibia, and the inner end of tibial apex is strongly protruding outwards ( Fig. 6G ). Pachylebia is the only genus in which males have no specific markings on the inner side of the tibiae ( Fig. 6H ). Pseudopachylebia has no incisions on male tibiae, but the inner side is crenulated ( Fig. 6F ). According to JEANNEL (1949), Nematopeza differs from Lebia in the absence of a deep incision on the inner apical part of the male mesotibia. However, the type species of Nematopeza , N. erythrodera Chaudoir, 1871 (junior synonym of N. immaculata Boheman 1848 ), has an incision on the tibia in males; after examination of several other Nematopeza species , it is evident that males in Nematopeza do have an incision on the inner end of the mesotibia ( Fig. 6A ), similar to members of Lebia s. str., Lamprias Bonelli 1810 , Poecilothais and Metalebia . Furthermore, JEANNEL (1949) described Rhytidopeza as a new subgenus of Nematopeza , with two species based on supposedly female specimens. However, the type specimens of Rhytidopeza puncticollis Jeannel, 1949 and R. catalai Jeannel, 1949 are not females but definitely males with two incisions on the mesotibiae ( Fig. 6B ) similar to those of Paulianolebia , Megalebia and Pachylebiodes ( Figs 6B–E ).

In general appearance Odontopeza subgen. nov. seems to be most similar to Nematopeza and Rhytidopeza from which it differs mainly in the absence of incisions on the inner side of the mesotibia of males. It also differs from Rhytidopeza in having no incision on the male apical abdominal segment. Furthermore it closely resembles all the brown members of the lebiine genera, exclusively known from Madagascar and described by MATEU (1971). The differences between Odontopeza subgen. nov. and selected (sub)genera of ‘ Lebia ’ are summarised in Table 2. It is beyond the scope of this article to make decisions about the taxonomic status of Nematopeza , Rhytidopeza and Odontopeza subgen. nov. described as subgenera in one respect and the genera of MATEU (1971) described from Madagascar in the other.

Etymology. The new subgenus is named after the dentate legs of the males: in Greek ‘peza’ means ‘legs’ or ‘feet’, ‘odonto’ means dentate; gender feminine.

Figures

Figs 1–5. Lebia (Odontopeza) socotrana sp. nov. 1 – dorsal habitus; 2 – epipleura; 3 – mentum; 4 – pronotum; 5 – tarsi. Not in scale.

Fig. 6 Male mesotibiae in selected (sub)genera, showing the different types. A – Nematopeza, B – Rhytidopeza, C – Paulianolebia, D – Pachylebiodes, E – Megalebia, F – Pseudopachylebia, G – Odontopeza subgen. nov., H – Pachylebia.