Penia Laporte, 1838

Arimoto, Kôichi, 2023, Taxonomic revision of the genus Penia Laporte (Coleoptera, Elateridae, Dendrometrinae) from Taiwan, Zootaxa 5375 (3), pp. 301-335 : 303

Genus Penia Laporte, 1838

Penia Laporte, 1838: 11 (original description;

type species: Elater eschscholtzi Hope, 1831 ).

Diagnosis. Adults. Body widest at elytra. Pronotum without protruded structure and pits around anterior angles; posterior edge without carinae next to sublateral incisions. Prosternal process without subapical tooth, curved dorsad from around procoxal cavities in lateral view. Hind angles of pronotum without subapical tooth. Pronotosternal sutures and mesial margin of hypomeron not grooved. Elytral shoulder without conspicuous cutout. Hind wings fully developed. Tarsomeres III and IV with lobe ventrally.

Distribution. Oriental region ( Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam): 115 species ( Kundrata et al., 2018; Kundrata and Németh, 2019; Qiu, 2021; this study).

In Taiwan, Penia species have been found mainly in the central and south areas of the island ( Fig. 1 ) but it is not known whether this is due to the features of the Taiwanese species or sampling bias. Further research is needed because few individuals have been collected in Taiwan.

Ecology. Adults are found throughout the year but distributional records are concentrated from May to July ( Schimmel and Platia, 1991; Schimmel 1996). In Taiwan, adults were collected from February to August. Adults are attracted to lights at night and collected by sweeping and beating vegetation or with Malaise traps ( Platia and Schimmel, 2007; Kundrata and Németh, 2019; Qiu, 2021; this study).

Included species from Taiwan. Eight species: Penia alishanensis Arimoto , sp. nov., P. babai Kishii, 1994 , P. elongata Arimoto , sp. nov., P. inopinata Arimoto , sp. nov., P. pulla Arimoto sp. nov., P. smetanai Schimmel, 1996 , P. takasago Kishii, 1997 , P. tsou Arimoto sp. nov.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map of Taiwan. A: location of Taiwan; B: the collection sites of the material used in this study.