Cycadophila (Cycadophila) eurynota Skelley, Xu & Tang

Skelley, Paul, Xu, Guang, Tang, William, Lindström, Anders J., Marler, Thomas, Khuraijam, Jibankumar Singh, Singh, Rita & Rich, Stephen, 2017, Review of Cycadophila Xu, Tang & Skelley (Coleoptera: Erotylidae: Pharaxonothinae) inhabiting Cycas (Cycadaceae) in Asia, with descriptions of a new subgenus and thirteen new species, Zootaxa 4267 (1), pp. 1-63 : 32-33

Cycadophila (Cycadophila) eurynota Skelley, Xu & Tang , new species

Figs. 10 A–E

Adult diagnosis. A member of Cycadophila (Cycadophila) nigra species group as discussed above distinguished by the very narrowed legs, protibia lack of stout setae apically, short supraocular striae, and broad pronotum, width almost 2.0 0 times length.

Adult description. Length 4.57 mm, width 1.76 mm. Body in dorsal view elongate, sides evenly arcuate toward ends, greatest width at middle of elytra; in lateral view convex dorsally. General body color dark brown; appendages, head and lateral pronotum reddish-brown; elytra dark brown with reddish brown mark on humerus and apical third; dorsal surface distinctly punctate, surface appearing shiny, dorsal punctation with short procumbent hairs, ventrally mostly covered with short procumbent setae.

Head in dorsal view conical, gradually narrowed apically, surface convex, distinctly punctured; width 0.86 mm; dorsal interocular distance 0.53 mm, head width/dorsal interocular distance ratio 1.61, ventral interocular distance 0.40 mm, head width/ventral interocular distance ratio 2.18. Eye globular; bordered dorsally with short supraocular stria at basal 1/3 of eye; projected laterally, with large black facets and short, inconspicuous interfacetal setae. Frons with short, dark, subcuticular suture on each side, approximately 1/4 width of frons in length, extending obliquely to lateral margin above and anterior to antennal insertion. Antennal length about 2/3 pronotal width, and slightly longer than head width, antennomere relative lengths from base to end approximately 16:13:13:10:10:10:10:10:15:15:19; antennomere I (scape) fairly large, slightly elongate, antennomere II slightly smaller than III; IV–VIII small, width equals length; club fairly large, IX–XI similar in length, XI globular. Clypeus truncate anteriorly, anterior margin with long setae; densely punctate; somewhat emarginate, with narrow margin. Maxillary palpomeres II, III slightly longer than wide; IV elongate oval, apex densely papillate; relative lengths of II–IV approximately 4:3:7. Labium with mentum pentagonal with carina forming triangular plate projecting medially, with distinct lateral pockets; labial palpomere III elongate-oval. Mentum and submentum with moderate punctation and setation, setae short. Gular area smooth, without setae or punctation, except near suture with submentum where a shallow depression with setose punctures is present on each side of middle.

Thorax with pronotum transverse in dorsal view, with marginal beads on all sides; length/width ratio 0.60, convex, nearly parallel-sided; anterior angles projecting, weakly angulate; lateral carinae nearly straight, diverging slightly posteriorly, with thin bead, bead bearing row of setose punctures; posterior angles sharp, nearly 90o; posterior margin straight laterally, weakly lobed medially; with narrow, short longitudinal furrow posterolaterally, beginning at pore on posterior margin, extending forward and ending abruptly, length of furrows relative to pronotal length 0.13. Prosternum with anterior margin slightly emarginate, finely denticulate with fringe of long, anteriorly directed setae; posterior prosternal process truncate, weakly convex in lateral view, weakly projecting. Hypomeron with coarse punctures laterally, medially without longitudinal striations. Scutellar shield transverse, posterior margin projected, pentagonal. Elytra elongate nearly parallel sided, length/width 3.31, greatest width near midlength; with marginal bead basally, scutellary striole with 10 punctures; intervals of striae with fine, distinct punctures. All elytral punctures bearing a single short seta; seta length less than interpuncture distance. Punctation on meso- and metaventrite distinct. Metaventrite long, convex laterally, slightly impressed medially, metathoracic discrimen extending slightly over half metaventrite length. Legs narrow, similar in length; femora compressed laterally, weakly widened medially; tibiae shorter than femora, narrow and parallel-sided to apex. Protibia not dilated at apex, with fine setal fringe on ventral, lateral margin smooth without stout spinules. Meso- and metatibia narrow, similar to protibia.

Abdomen with 5 ventrites bearing fine punctures; anterior margin with intercoxal process narrow, with triangular point anteromedially, lateral edges slightly projected, lateral and posterior margins arcuate, converging posteriorly; anterior and posterior margins of ventrites more or less straight; ventrite I lacking subcoxal line, slightly longer medially than II; I–IV apparently lacking erect sensory hairs located on either side of the middle; II– IV subequal in length; V slightly longer than IV with lateral margins converging posteriorly to a rounded apex bearing row of short appressed, densely arranged setae.

Male unknown, sexual dimorphism unknown.

Type locality. Thailand, Chieng Mai.

Range. Thailand, Chieng Mai.

Material examined. Holotype (by designation) female with the following labels: 1) [rectangular; white; printed in black ink] “ THAILAND: Chiengmai, 12-19-V-1958, Viniol Notananda ”; 2) [rectangular; red; printed in black ink] “ HOLOTYPE ♀ Cycadophila eurynota P. Skelley, G. Xu & W. Tang 2017 ”. Deposited in the USNM .

Etymology. The species epithet combines the Greek ‘ eurys’, meaning broad, with the shortened name for the structure pronotum, and Latinizing them into the feminine ‘ eurynota ’.

Remarks. The color, head and pronotal characters place this species in the nigra species group; however, the shape of the pronotum is unique among members of this group. Other characters, like the narrowed legs, are found on few others in the genus. These unique characters warrant description of the species even without a male. In color pattern, C. eurynota fits the description of C. intermedia . However, Chûjô (1967) distinctly states the tibia are triangularly widened, where they are decidedly not so in C. eurynota . The type locality, Chieng Mai, or Chiang Mai Province, has three species of Cycas , C. pectinata , C. siamensis and C. simplicipinna ( Tang et al. 1997; Tang, unpublished data). Surveys of the first two species have not yielded specimens matching C. eurynota . Wild coning plants of C. simplicipinna have not been adequately surveyed and Coleoptera visitors, if any, are not known.

Figures

FIGURE 10. Photographs of Cycadophila (Cycadophila) eurynota, female holotype: A) dorsal habitus; B) ventral habitus; C) lateral habitus; D) head and prosternum, ventral; E) hind legs.