Micraspis Chevrolat

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 : 178-179

Genus Micraspis Chevrolat

Micraspis Chevrolat , in Dejean 1836: 435.

Type species: Coccinella striata Fabricius, 1792 , by subsequent designation of Hope 1840: 157.

Alesia Mulsant, 1850: 343 . Type species: Coccinella striata Fabricius, 1792 . Synonymized by Korschefsky 1932: 304.

Verania Mulsant, 1850: 358 . Type species: Coccinella comma Thunberg, 1781 . Synonymized by F̧rsch 1964: 71.

Cisseis Mulsant, 1850: 129 . Type species: Coccinella furcifera Guérin-Méneville, 1835 . Synonymized by Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1979: 72 (junior homonym).

Cissella Weise, 1895b: 153 . Replacement name for Cisseis Mulsant, 1850 .

Mononeda (Paramicraspis) Hoang : Kovář 2007: 72 (synonymy).

Diagnosis. Small to medium sized beetles. Form circular, broad oval, or distinctly elongate oval; dorsum convex, glabrous. Ground colour typically orange, yellow or reddish, with or without spots and other patterns on head, pronotum and elytra. Antenna shorter than head width, slightly longer than frons, with a distinct three-segmented club. Eye canthus narrow, long and prominent, rarely broad and short. Anterior margin of clypeus nearly straight between lateral projections. Scutellar shield very small, less than one-tenth of pronotum, triangular. Prothoracic hypomeron very shallowly depressed, anterolateral corners not foveate. Prosternal intercoxal process with parallel or divergent carinae. Anterior margin of mesoventrite medially distinctly, though shallowly, emarginate. Abdominal postcoxal lines incomplete, running parallel to posterior margin of ventrite 1, apically not recurved, associated line absent. Tibial spur formula 0-0-0. Tarsal claws appendiculate. Female genitalia with coxites of blade and handle type, spermatheca with ramus and nodulus often not well differentiated, infundibulum present and distinct.

Distribution. Micraspis is widely distributed in the Old World with about 30 known species, distributed in Asia, Africa and the Australian region ( Ślipiński et al. 2020).

Affinities. In the latest phylogenetic analysis of Coccinellini, Tomaszewska et al. (2021) recognized Micraspis (Australian-Asian species) as distinct from a paraphyletic series comprising Micraspis of Africa and Madagascar, Xanthadalia Crotch 1874 and Declivittata F̧rsch 1964. All these genera along with Protothea Weise 1898 and Anegleis Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1982 were included in the Coccinella group of genera by Tomaszewska et al. (2021).

Notes. There are some anomalies in the description of Micraspis by various workers. Sasaji (1971) in his diagnostic account of Micraspis mentioned that middle and hind tibiae have a pair of apical spurs, however, Ślipiński (2007) stated that tibial spurs are absent. But Ślipiński et al. (2020) in their revision of Australo-Pacific Coccinellini mentioned that tibial spur formula in Micraspis was 0-2-2. However, Tomaszewska et al. (2021) also mentioned about the lack of tibial spurs in Micraspis spp. Ślipiński et al. (2020) also stated that the anterior margin of mesoventrite in Micraspis was straight and a ‘usually distinct’ oblique postcoxal line was present. However, in all the Indian species studied, anterior margin of the mesoventrite is distinctly albeit shallowly emarginate, tibial spur formula is 0-0-0 and the abdominal postcoxal line does not have an associate oblique line.

Included species. Seven species are known from the Indian subcontinent, most of them associated with rice paddies.