Xylopertha retusa ( Olivier, 1790 )

Liu, Lan-Yu & Beaver, Roger A., 2017, A review of the powderpost beetle genus, Xylopertha Guérin-Méneville, 1845, with a new species and new synonymy (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae: Bostrichinae: Xyloperthini), European Journal of Taxonomy 380, pp. 1-22 : 13-15

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.5852/ejt.2017.380

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F80DE451-78CA-406A-A879-E7BD08279ECD

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5695409

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03DF879F-9F20-A020-1824-FDF2FAA2FC5E

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Xylopertha retusa ( Olivier, 1790 )
status

 

Xylopertha retusa ( Olivier, 1790) View in CoL

Figs 1C–D View Fig. 1 , 2A View Fig. 2 , 3A View Fig. 3 , 4A View Fig. 4 , 5A–B View Fig. 5

Bostrichus retusus Olivier, 1790: 110 .

Apate sinuata Fabricius, 1792: 362 . Synonymy: Schilsky 1899: 291.

Apate aterrimus Faldermann, 1837: 250 . Synonymy: Lesne 1901: 578.

Xylonites retusus – Lesne 1901: 577.

Xylopertha retusa – Fisher 1950: 143.

Type material of X. retusa was not located, but the species is well-known in the Mediterranean area, and the senior author has examined numerous specimens determined by Lesne, Vrydagh and others in IRSNB, LYL, MAIC, MIZPAN, MNB, MTM, NHMUK, NMBS, NMPC, NMS, NMW, SDEI, SNSD, ZMHB and ZSM, mainly from North Africa, South and Central Europe, Turkey, and Iran.

Diagnosis

The species is easily separable from X. praeusta and X. reflexicauda by the absence of spines on the elytra in both sexes. The male can be separated from X. elegans sp. nov. by the presence of long, erect hairs on the upper margin of the elytral declivity (absent in X. elegans sp. nov.), and by the form of the 8th tergite and genitalia ( Fig. 5A–B View Fig. 5 : X. retusa ; Fig. 5E–F View Fig. 5 : X. elegans sp. nov.). In the female of X. retusa , the apex of each elytron is strongly emarginate, the emargination filled by a pair of ventrally-directed processes with rounded tips next to the suture ( Fig. 3A View Fig. 3 ); in X. elegans sp. nov., the apex of each elytron projects as a broad, approximately rectangular process, its apex with a small pointed tooth next to the suture, the processes separated by a shallow U-shaped emargination, a broad emargination lateral to each process ( Fig. 3C View Fig. 3 ). In the female of X. retusa , the fourth ventrite is visible across its entire width, and the base of the emargination of the 5th ventrite does not project ventrally ( Fig. 4A View Fig. 4 ); in X. elegans sp. nov., the 3rd abdominal ventrite projects medially over the 4th, which is visible only at the sides, and the 5th ventrite is very deeply, broadly emarginate, the base of the emargination projecting as a thin lamina behind the process on the 3rd ventrite ( Fig. 4B View Fig. 4 ).

Material examined

AUSTRIA: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, [Mistelbach, 16 May 1992, Schillhammer leg.] ; 1 ♂, [A.B. Leche, Seewinkel, Apr. 1967, Holzschuh leg.] ( LYL) .

BELGIUM: 1 ♀, [Yvoir, 7 Jul. 1946, A. Collart leg.] ( LYL, more than 50 in IRSNB from South Europe ).

CZECH REPUBLIC: 1 ♀, [Bohemia, Dievic Dřevíč , 8 Jun. 1995, P. Zahradnik leg.] (LYL, 80 more in NMPC).

FRANCE: 1 ♂, 1 ♀, (no locality); 1 ♀, (no locality), [deciduous forest, #51 , I.G. 19.501 ].

MACEDONIA: 1 ♂, [10 km N of Struga, 4 Jun. 1992, Zbaždi, P. Zahradnik leg.] ( LYL).

IRAN: 2 ♀♀, [Prov. Mazandaran, vic. Kolijak , mountain slope, 36°28′18″ N, 51°40′14″ E, 1840 m, 5 May 2010, A. Weigel leg. #22a.] (1 ♀ in LYL, 1 ♀ in NME) GoogleMaps .

The specific identity of more than 800 further specimens was checked in the following museums: IRSNB, MAIC, MIZPAN, MNB, MTM, NHMUK, NMBS, NMPC, NMS, NMW, SDEI, SNSD, ZNHB and ZSM, but detailed locality data were not recorded. All specimens came from the distributional area given below.

Description

BODY. 3–6 mm long, about 2.8–3.0 times as long as wide, elongate. Black or dark brown, moderately shiny, antennae and tarsi reddish, the posterior part of the elytra often paler.

HEAD. Clypeus finely and densely punctured, not convex in front. Frons with puncturation less fine and less dense than the clypeus, slightly rough, and covered by fairly long, fine pubescence directed upwards. First and second segments of antennal club as wide as long.

PRONOTUM. Slightly wider than long, fairly strongly narrowed in the anterior third, bearing golden, long, erect pubescence on the anterior angles; area above head finely and more or less roughly punctured; median and posterior areas shiny with fine, sparse puncturation; sides evenly rounded; posterior angles rounded; widest in basal part.

ELYTRA. 1.8–2.2 times longer than wide, parallel-sided at disc and widest at middle of declivity. Elytral disc moderately dense puncturation, not coarser posteriorly. Upper margin of the elytral declivity bearing reddish, quite long erect pubescence, denser in the male. Elytral suture projecting on declivity, more strongly towards the apex. Elytral declivity without spines on each elytron in both sexes.

LEGS. External face of the anterior tibiae broadly grooved, not narrowed towards the apex. Segments 2 and 3 of anterior tarsi distinctly wider than the others.

Male

ELYTRA. Widened posteriorly. Upper margin of elytral declivity bearing long, erect pubescence. Elytral suture not raised on disc, strongly raised on declivity. Declivity rather finely punctured in the upper half, almost impunctate below, sometimes transversely ridged on much of its surface. Apical declivity larger than in female, more sharply truncate, a little concave, bordered on the lower-lateral side by a carina not extending to the sutural angle, the carina expanded at the sides of the declivity to form a marginal callus. Sutural angles pointed, conjointly projecting or weakly separated at the apex ( Fig. 1C–D View Fig. 1 ).

ABDOMEN. Anterior margin of 8th tergite fringed by long erect outwardly directed hairs. Genitalia strongly sclerotised, with extended lobes laterally, fringed with long hairs at apex and on a small inwardly projecting lobe towards base on each side. Aedeagus simple, without long apophyses ( Fig. 5A–B View Fig. 5 ).

Female

HEAD. Frons covered by longer, denser upwardly directed hairs than in male.

ELYTRA. Parallel, suture strongly raised on declivity. Declivity strongly and densely punctured with a truncate raised area at apical third. Lateral margin of declivity sinuate. Apex of each elytron strongly emarginate, the emargination filled by a pair of ventrally-directed processes with rounded tips next to suture ( Fig. 3A View Fig. 3 ).

ABDOMEN. Third abdominal ventrite not projecting medially over 4th, which is visible across its entire width; 5th segment longer than 2 to 4 together, strongly, longitudinally grooved in the middle, and provided on its posterior margin with two large teeth, contiguous at the base, strongly pointed, and slightly recurved dorsally near the apex; on the outer side of the teeth the posterior margin of the segment is semicircularly emarginate ( Fig. 4A View Fig. 4 ).

Distribution

Central and southern Europe, North Africa (except Egypt), Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, Iran, part of Caucasia and Siberia ( Liu et al. 2016b).

Biology

The species has been recorded from the wood of trees in the families Fabaceae , Fagaceae , Moraceae , Ulmaceae Mirb. and Vitaceae Juss. ( Lesne 1901; Bahillo de la Puebla et al. 2007; Marković & Stojanović 2012; Buse et al. 2013). The species is active from May to July in Southern Europe ( Cymorek 1961 as Xylonites retusus ; Bahillo de la Puebla et al. 2007), but from October to December in Israel ( Buse et al. 2013). In Central Europe, the beetles prefer boring into dry oak branches; the larvae tunnel particularly in the sapwood; they overwinter in diapause and pupate in spring ( Cymorek 1961 as Xylonites retusus ). Several clerid and a melyrid predators ( Coleoptera : Cleridae , Melyridae ) are listed by Bahillo de la Puebla et al. (2007). Yu et al. (2012) list three species of braconid Hymenoptera as parasitoids.

IRSNB

Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique

MAIC

Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania

NHMUK

Natural History Museum, London

NMPC

National Museum Prague

NMS

National Museum of Scotland - Natural Sciences

NMW

Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien

ZSM

Bavarian State Collection of Zoology

NME

Sammlung des Naturkundemseum Erfurt

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Bostrichidae

Genus

Xylopertha

Loc

Xylopertha retusa ( Olivier, 1790 )

Liu, Lan-Yu & Beaver, Roger A. 2017
2017
Loc

Apate aterrimus

Faldermann 1837: 250
1837
Loc

Apate sinuata

Fabricius 1792: 362
1792
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