Nothoodes, Guéorguiev & Liang, 2020

Guéorguiev, Borislav & Liang, Hongbin, 2020, Revision of the Palaearctic and Oriental representatives of Lachnocrepis LeConte and Oodes Bonelli (Coleoptera: Carabidae), with special account on Chinese species, Zootaxa 4850 (1), pp. 1-89 : 68-69

Nothoodes gen. n.

Type species: Oodes angustatus Lorenz, 1998 , by present designation. Oodes angustatus Lorenz is a replacement name for O. parallelus LaFerté- Sénectère, 1851. The latter name is a junior primary homonym of O. parallelus Say, 1830 and thus invalid according to Article 57.2. ( ICZN 1999).

Diagnosis. The species of this genus share the following character states:

(1) Submentum with medial and lateral setiferous punctures;

(2) Pronotum with basal setiferous punctures;

(3) Abdominal ventrite 3 with ambulatory setae;

(4) Male protarsomere 3 subtrapezoidal, with sides constricted distally;

(5) Basal bulb of median lobe of aedeagus open dorsally, without apical aileron;

(6) Spermathecal complex with extraordinarily short seminal canal.

Description. Microsculpture and micropunctuation. Dorsal surface of head, pronotum and elytra with regular micropunctuation and isodiametric meshes well-impressed which together form “punctate rosettes” microreticulation, micropunctuation larger, denser and more regular on head than on pronotum and elytra; ventral surface without regular micropunctuation, with obliterated sculpticells (sometimes meso- and metacoxae, as well as metasternum with distinct microreticulation). Chaetotaxy. Labrum with six more or less equidistant setae, with two lateral being slightly remote from medial four. Clypeal setae present. Anterior supraorbital seta absent. Ventral seta of antennomere 2 located in apical half. Anterior seta of stipes present. Setae on apical margin of ligula distant. Penultimate labial palpomere glabrous. Parascutellar seta on elytron present. Elytral interval 3 with two discal setiferous punctures situated closer to stria 2, first in medial third, second in posterior third. Mesocoxa with lateral and posterior setae; mesotrochanter with one seta. Hind femur without posterior setae. Last visible sternite with two apical punctures in male and four in female. Basal gonocoxite with lateroapical setae, without medioapical setae. Apical gonocoxite with one to two very small dorsolateral ensiform setae; dorsomedial ensiform seta present, located near base or near middle; nematiform setae present, located near apex or removed medially from it. Head. Eye large (vertical diameter greater than length of antennomere 1), prominent. Anterior margin of labrum straight or slightly emarginate. Antenna long, with last two segments exceeding pronotal base. Mandibles large, convex. Last two maxillary palpomeres of subequal length. Paraglossa long, not expanded. Thorax. Pronotum with anterior angles slightly (most species) to moderately projected anteriorly ( N. taprobanae ). Prosternal process round or subelongate, distinctly bordered subapically, superficially bordered or unbordered at apex. Mesosternum deeply concave; mesepisternum without apodemal pit; mesocoxal rim entire. Elytra. Parascutellar striola more or less distinct, situated between suture and stria 1; stria 7 as distinct as medial striae. Granulation in marginal furrow continuous or discontinuous. Legs. Metacoxal basal sulcus well-developed, extending to lateral fourth. Male mesotibia moderately modified, with a swelling in apical half or apical two-thirds (swelling best seen from above). Meso- and metatarsomeres 1–4 in both sexes as well as protarsomeres 1–4 in female without long and dense pubescence on ventral surface. Male front tarsomeres 1–3 with numerous adhesive setae beneath; adhesive setae covering apical three-fourths of tarsomere 1. Male genitalia. Basal bulb of median lobe more or less reduced at base, open dorsally. Ostium long, nearly reaching basal bulb. Internal sac with two connected sclerites more or less chitinized, a smaller proximal one and a broader distal one (sclerites best seen from ventral side). Female genitalia. Apical gonocoxite sub-triangular or elongate. Bursa copulatrix subconical or globe-shaped; spermatheca very short, undifferentiated (seminal canal), with spermathecal gland attached; common oviduct with villous canal.

Monophyly and relationships. The presence of the following two synapomorphies among species of Nothoodes suggests that the group is monophyletic: (1) basal bulb of median lobe open dorsally (state unknown in N. taprobanae ); and (2) unusually short spermatheca (state unknown in N. longus ).

The open dorsally basal bulb is a well-known special feature for some Oodini . The dorsal part of the basal bulb is more or less wide open between the two lateral lobes, which turn into free lamellae (since the ventral part of the bulb is always occupied by the basal orifice of median lobe). Thus, the basal orifice of median lobe is extended to dorsal part of the basal bulb. This trait has been considered unique for subtribe Sphaerodina Jeannel, 1949 ( Jeannel 1949; Basilewsky 1953; Guéorguiev & Schmidt 2016), but present data suggest that it may be homoplastic in Oodini .

Excluding N. longus whose female specimens have not been studied, the other species have extraordinarily short seminal canals, represented by a tiny appendage of the bursa copulatrix. This structure seems to be the result of a long-term trend toward shortening of the seminal canal, and this reduction does not affect the spermathecal gland. A somewhat similar design of spermatheca exists in species from Anatrichis LeConte, 1853 , and Oodinus Motschulsky, 1864 ( Bousquet 1996; Guéorguiev & Morita 2017), two genera supposedly of Gondwanaland descent ( Spence 1983: 575). However, the species of both aforementioned genera have spermatheca without seminal canal and spermathecal gland directly attached to basal swelling (in Anatrichis ) or bag-like structure (in Oodinus ), both structures representing distal enlargements of bursa copulatrix ( Bousquet 1996: 456, 530–531, figs 125, 126, 128, 129).

Another likely innovative character for the taxa of Nothoodes is the sexual dimorphism (see following section); such peculiarity has not been observed in species from the other three genera studied.

External sexual dimorphism. Sexual dimorphism in N. angustatus and N. bharat was established as a phenotypic difference expressed by EL/EW. To ascertain this, we measured six males and ten females of the first species and two males and two females of the second ( Table 5). The respective values for the ratio in question are 1.50–1.58 (♂♂) and 1.40–1.48 (♀♀) for N. angustatus and 1.50–1.52 (♂♂) and 1.43–1.47 (♀♀) for N. bharat . The smaller proportions of EL/EW in the females of both species indicate their shorter and wider elytra compared to the elytra of males. Whether individuals of N. longus and N. taprobanae exhibit the same dimorphism is unknown for the lack of specimens available for measurement.

The males and females in N. angustatus are further distinguished by PW/PL, 1.49–1.54 (♂♂) and 1.55–1.62 (♀♀). The wider pronotum in the females may be in connection with their wider elytra that relate to their reproductive function.

Etymology. A compound name, which applies to the Greek stem νóθος [nóthos] (spurious, unauthentic) and genus name Oodes also of Greek origin. It is treated as a Latin masculine.

Geographical distribution and diversity. The group includes four species: N. angustatus , N. taprobanae , N. longus , and N. bharat . The species are endemic to the Indian subcontinent, a region geologically connected to the former supercontinent Gondwanaland in the Cretaceous period. It is worth noting that the generic range of Nothoodes does not overlap with those of other genera from the Oodes generic group. Only N. longus and Pseudoodes cribristernis live close to each other in the Kra Isthmus, southern Myanmar.