Coelophora circumvelata (Hope)

POORANI, J., 2023, An illustrated guide to lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part 1. Tribe Coccinellini, Zootaxa 5332 (1), pp. 1-307 : 102

Coelophora circumvelata (Hope)

( Fig. 72 )

Coccinella cincta Hope, 1831: 31 (preoccupied) (Lectotype, HEC, OMNH; Type locality: Nepal).—Booth & Pope 1989: 350 (lectotype designation).

Lemnia cincta: Crotch 1874: 149 .

Lemnia circumvelata Mulsant, 1850 ; 387, 388 (replacement name); 1866: 255; Korschefsky 1932: 291; Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1982: 220; Ren et al. 2009: 206.

Lemnia (Phrynocaria) circumvelata: Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1984: 210 .

Coelophora circumvelata: Booth & Pope 1989: 350 ; Poorani 2002a: 328; Kovář 2007: 614.

Diagnosis. Length: 6.00– 6.50 mm. Form almost circular, dorsum convex and glabrous. Head yellow, eyes large, narrowly separated and apically strongly divergent; pronotum yellow with a large black macula occupying most of the disc; scutellar shield black; elytra yellow, lateral margins with a black border, about 1/4th of width of elytron ( Fig. 72a–c ). Ventral side more or less yellowish except metaventrite and abdominal ventrite 1 medially darker. Female genitalia ( Fig. 72f ) and spermatheca ( Fig. 72h ) as illustrated. Rarely dorsum fully melanic ( Fig. 72d, e ) except inner ocular margins of head and anterolateral areas of pronotum yellowish, with similar genitalia ( Fig. 72g ).

Distribution. India: Northeastern region (Assam, Meghalaya); Nepal; The Philippines.

Notes. Coelophora circumvelata is of uncertain generic status and Poorani et al. (2021) opined that it could be a synonym of P. unicolor because it is similar to var. cinctipennis Weise, 1892 of P. unicolor . Booth & Pope (1989) designated a lectotype for C. circumvelata and Hope’s type specimen of C. circumvelata ( Fig. 72a , BMNH, examined) looks like a Phrynocaria but could not be dissected. Similar variants of P. unicolor from eastern India have been examined. There is also a rare variant of P. circumusta with black lateral borders of elytra as in C. circumvelata . It is included here in Coelophora following Booth & Pope (1989) and the male genitalia illustrated by Ren et al. (2009) also appear to be characteristic of Coelophora , with the penis composed of two distinct sclerites. A female closely matching C. circumvelata ( Fig. 72a–c ) and an almost fully melanic variant conspecific with this ( Fig. 72d, e ) were examined from Assam, north-eastern India and both are illustrated here. Their genitalia also were almost identical ( Fig. 72f, g ). See Booth & Pope (1989) for notes on its nomenclature.

Figures

FIGURE 72. Coelophora circumvelata (Mulsant): a. Type, dorsal view (BMNH); b, d. adult, dorsal view; c. adult, lateral view; e. adult, frontal view; f, g. female genitalia; h. spermatheca (enlarged).