Cis leoi Lopes­Andrade, Gumier­Costa & Zacaro, 2003

Lopes-Andrade, Cristiano, Gumier-Costa, Fabiano & Zacaro, Adilson Ariza, 2003, Cis leoi, a new species of Ciidae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea) from the Neotropical Region, Zootaxa 161, pp. 1-7 : 2-6

Cis leoi Lopes­Andrade, Gumier­Costa & Zacaro , sp. nov. ( Figs 1­6 )

Holotype. Male, BRASIL: MG: Ubá, Fazenda Córrego do Pari, [S 21 °08’, W 42 °52’], 311m, 02­05.xi. 2000 (F. Gumier­Costa). Allotype. Female, same data as holotype. Besides a locality label, both holotype and allotype have a red label with their identifications.

Diagnosis. This species is easily separated from the other described Brazilian species by the distinct seriate and dual elytral punctation, combined with the lack of conspicuous frontoclypeal tubercles in both sexes.

Description of holotype. Male. Body length (excluding head): 1.75 mm; greatest elytral width: 0.7 mm; greatest pronotal width: 0.65 mm; greatest depth (taken through the elytra and metasternum): 0.45 mm.

Body 2.5 times as long as elytral width, convex, opaque on dorsum, dark reddish brown; antenna and palpi yellowish brown; legs reddish brown.

Head convex, deeply and ovally concave in the middle of vertex, conspicuously punctate; punctures uniform in size, bearing short and robust yellowish bristles; interstices between punctures finely reticulate; clypeus with one small, inconspicuous tubercle on each side; antenna with 3rd segment as long as 4th; 5th to 7th subequal; 8th to 10th forming a loose club, each club segment bearing four “sensillifers” formed by a group of short, sparse and not well­organized sensilla.

Pronotum 0.92 times as long as broad, strongly convex; anterior angles slightly produced; lateral margins narrow, finely crenulate ( Fig. 3 ), barely visible for their entire lengths from above; dorsum irregularly and distinctly punctate; punctures uniform and similar in size to those on head, each bearing a short, robust, yellowish bristle; intervals between punctures finely reticulate. Scutellum pentagonal ( Fig. 2 ). Elytra 1.64 times as long as broad, and 1.9 times as long as pronotum; sides subparallel in basal two­thirds, then gradually converging to apex; lateral margins not visible from above, except for basal corners; disc with dual and seriate punctation ( Figs 1, 2 ), the larger punctures being two to three times the size of the smaller ones; the smaller punctures inconspicuous, bearing bristles similar to those of pronotum; suture not margined.

Prosternal disc weakly tumid medio­longitudinally; prosternal process parallel­sided, almost the same length as prosternum, and slightly curved. Outer angle of protibial apex produced forming a tooth. Metasternum with a median suture, extending from the posterior portion of the metasternum to the beginning of its disc. First urosternite (ventrite I) with a circular, margined pubescent fovea at middle, with a diameter of one­third the distance between the intercoxal process apex and the base of the urosternite I.

Male genitalia. ( Fig. 4 ) Eighth abdominal sternite subtrapezoidal, with a truncate apical margin armed with relatively short hairs at the middle and long hairs at the lateral corners. Tegmen rather stout, nearly parallel­sided and with a deep emargination at its middle. Aedeagus almost twice as long as tegmen, larger at middle.

Description of allotype. Female. Body length (excluding head): 1.65 mm; elytral length: 1.05 mm; greatest elytral width: 0.7 mm; greatest pronotal width: 0.65 mm; greatest depth: 0.4 mm. Outer angle of protibial apex angulate, sometimes barely pronounced. First urosternite lacking a pubescent fovea.

Other specimens examined. Paratypes: 19 males, 39 females, 17 with undetermined sex, same data as holotype; 27 males, 37 females, 53 with undetermined sex, BRASIL: MG: Viçosa, Vila Gianetti, iv.2001 (A.A. Zacaro & C. Lopes­Andrade). Besides a locality label, all paratypes have a yellow label with their identifications.

Variation in a series of paratypes. Male paratypes (n = 10; 5 from each locality): body length (excluding head): 1.2 ­ 1.95 mm (mean = 1.48; S.D. = 0.29); elytral length: 0.75 ­ 1.2 mm (mean = 0.95; S.D. = 0.17); greatest elytral width: 0.6 ­ 0.8 mm (mean = 0.67; S.D. = 0.10); greatest pronotal width: 0.5 ­ 0.8mm (mean = 0.6; S.D. = 0.12); greatest depth: 0.45 ­ 0.6 mm (mean = 0.48; S.D. = 0.07).

Female paratypes (n = 10; 5 from each locality): body length (excluding head): 1.0 ­ 1.7 mm (mean = 1.48; S.D. = 0.2); elytral length: 0.65 ­ 1.15 mm (mean = 0.97; S.D. = 0.14); greatest elytral width: 0.5 ­ 0.75 mm (mean = 0.68; S.D. = 0.08); greatest pronotal width: 0.45 ­ 0.65 mm (mean = 0.58; S.D. = 0.06); greatest depth: 0.4 ­ 0.55 mm (mean = 0.48; S.D. = 0.05).

In some males and females, the clypeus lacks the lateral small tubercles. In some males, these tubercles are somewhat conspicuous, being easily seen in ventral or dorsal view; however, it is not a reliable characteristic to differentiate them from females. In this species, there are two accurate ways to confirm the sex: the presence of the fovea in males; and the morphology of the genitalia.

Karyology. Metaphase I plates of spermatocytes of Cis leoi from Viçosa (MG) showed nine autosomal bivalents and a sexual bivalent which was morphologically identified as belonging to the Xyp sex determination system ( Fig. 4 ). The meioformula of this population is 9II + Xyp. Although many specimens of Cis leoi from the population of Ubá (MG) were analysed, only suitable information about the sex determination system (Xyp) could be obtained ( Fig. 5 ).

Host fungus. Bracket mushroom ( Polyporaceae s. lat.), undetermined species.

Etymology. This species is named in honor of Léo Falqueto Vaz­de­Mello, born in april 16th, 2002, son of the coleopterologist Mr. Fernando Zagury Vaz­de­Mello and the microbiologist Ms. Silvia Altoé Falqueto.

Distribution. Minas Gerais State, Southeast Brazil. Known to occur in two cities, Ubá and Viçosa.

Depositories. Holotype (male), allotype (female), 4 males and 4 females paratypes at Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, BRAZIL. Eight specimens will be deposited in the following personal or institutional collections: Dr. Paulo Sérgio Fiuza Ferreira, Museu de Entomologia da Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, BRAZIL; Mr. Rafal Ruta (personal collection), POLAND; Mr. Roman Królik (personal collection), POLAND; M.C. José Luís Navarrete­Heredia, Colección Entomológica del Centro de Estudios en Zoología, Universidad de Guadalajara, MEXICO; Dr. Makoto Kawanabe, collection of the Entomological Laboratory, College of Agriculture, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime Pref., JAPAN; Dr. John F. Lawrence, Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, AUSTRALIA. Two males and 2 females in the personal collection of Mr. Ayr de Moura Bello (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BRAZIL). Remaining paratypes (132) are in the personal collection of the senior author.

Discussion. Cis leoi may be included in the Cis comptus group (sensu Lawrence 1971), due to the following characteristics: (i) distinct seriate and dual elytral punctation; (ii) lack of conspicuous frontoclypeal tubercles in male; and (iii) the morphology of the male genitalia, since the tegmen and aedeagus resemble that of Cis orius Kompantsev. The group comptus was originally proposed by Lawrence (1971) and comprised four species: the holarctic species Cis comptus Gyllenhal and Cis striatulus Mellié ; and the nearctic species Cis striolatus Casey and Cis versicolor Casey. Kompantsev (1996) included other three palearctic species in this group: Cis seriatocribatus Reitter , Cis clavicornis Baudi and Cis orius Kompantsev. In addition, Cis tauriensis Królik , a Turkish new species of the comptus group, was described recently ( Królik 2002). Kawanabe (2001) pointed out that Cis sasajii Kawanabe is closely allied to Cis comptus in general features, but did not effectively include this species in the group comptus . Therefore, the group comptus have nine described species until now. It should be emphasized that these groups of species are just taxonomic tools, and they cannot be considered a priori to be monophyletic taxa. Little information on Ciidae cytogenetics is found in the literature ( Smith & Virkki 1978). Data on Cis fuscipes Mellié (and its synonym Cis impressa Casey, Lawrence 1965 ), with 2n = 14, shows a deviation from the basic meioformula (9II + Xyp) described for polyphagan species ( Smith & Virkki 1978).

Figures

FIGURES 1 ­ 3. Cis leoi sp. nov., male paratype (SEM); Fig. 1. Body, dorsal view; Fig. 2. Scutellum surrounded by part of the elytra and pronotum; Fig. 3. Part of the head, dorsal view. Scale bars, respectively: 100 µm, 50 µm, and 50 µm.

FIGURES 4 ­ 6. Cis leoi sp. nov.; Fig. 4. Male genitalia. The arrow indicates the VIII sternite; Fig. 5. Male metaphase I (population from Viçosa, MG, Brazil) showing nine autosomal bivalents and the sex bivalent Xyp (arrow); Fig. 6. First meiotic bivalents of a male (population from Ubá, MG, Brazil), showing the sex bivalent Xyp (arrow). Scale bars: 100 µm (Fig. 4); 5 µm (Figs. 5 and 6).