Chrysodema (Chrysodema) sonnerati Laporte de Castelnau & Gory, 1835

Frank, David & Sekerka, Lukáš, 2020, Studies on the genus Chrysodema (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Chrysochroinae) part I., Zootaxa 4720 (1), pp. 1-62 : 8-10

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) sonnerati Laporte de Castelnau & Gory, 1835

( Figs 10–12 , 73 )

Chrysodema Sonnerati Laporte de Castelnau & Gory (1835) : 3 (original description, incl. colour Fig. 2 , Pl. 1); Kurosawa (1982): 190 (designation as the type species of Chrysodema ); Nelson & Bellamy (1994): 300 (clarification of authorship and date); Bellamy (2002a): 185 (proposal type species fixation); Westcott (2003): 53 (comment on proposed type species designation); ICZN (2004): 128 (type species designation).

Chalcophora sonnerati: Lacordaire (1857) : 23 (noted); Gemminger & Harold (1869): 1359 (catalogue).

Iridotaenia sonnerati: Saunders (1871) : 15 (catalogue); Kerremans (1892): 42 (catalogue); Kerremans (1903): 73 (catalogue).

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) sonnerati: Kerremans (1909) : 513 (key), 520 (redescription); Obenberger (1926): 134 (catalogue); Lander (2003): 14 (key), 66 (redescription), 83 (colour Fig. 135); Bellamy (2003): 35 (catalogue); Bellamy (2008): 541 (catalogue); Hołyński (2014): 374 (clarification of assignment to Chrysodema s. str.).

Chrysodema yerburyi Waterhouse (1905) : 583 (original description).

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) yerburyi: Kerremans (1909) : 518 (key), 568 (redescription); Obenberger (1926): 135 (catalogue); Lander (2003): 66 (revision, as synonym of C. (C.) sonnerati ); Bellamy (2008): 541 (catalogue, in synonymy of C. (C.) sonnerati ), 543 (listed as synonym of C. (C.) sonnerati ).

Type localities. Chrysodema sonnerati : original type locality: ‘Indes-Orientales. (Du cabinet de M. Serville.)’ change to Sri Lanka, Trincomalee by neotype designation; C. yerburyi : ‘ Ceylon, Trincomali’ [ Sri Lanka, Trincomalee].

Type material examined. Chrysodema sonnerati . NEOTYPE (present designation) and C. yerburyi LECTOTYPE (present designation): ♀ ‘ Ceylon. / Yerbury. / 92-59. [w, p] // Trincomali / 31. 3. 92 [w, h] // Type / H. T. [r, p, cir- cle] // Chrysodema / Yerburyi / (Type) Waterh. [w, h]’ ( BMNH); PARALECTOTYPE: ♀ ‘ Ceylon. / Yerbury. / 92-59. [w, p] // Trincomali / 31. 3. 92 [w, h]’ ( BMNH). Both specimens were provided with an additional red printed label: ‘ LECTOTYPE [or PARALECTOTYPE respectively] ♀ / Chrysodema / yerburyi / WATERHOUSE, 1905 / David Frank & / Lukáš Sekerka des. VIII. 2018 [date handwritten]’. The lectotype was provided with red printed label: ‘NEO- TYPE ♀ / Chrysodema / sonnerati / LAPORTE & GORY, 1835 / David Frank & / Lukáš Sekerka des. VIII. 2018 [date handwritten]’. The paralectotype was provided with white printed label: ‘ Chrysodema (Chrysodema) / sonnerati / LAPORTE DE CASTELNAU & GORY, 1835 / David Frank det. VIII. 2018 [date handwritten]’.

Additional material examined (3 ♂♂, 8 ♀♀). SRI LANKA: Ceylan , Schenckl, 1 ♂ ( MNHN); Ceylon, Coll. Jul. Moser, 2 ♀♀ ( MFNB); Ceylon, Koll. Dr. A. Frh. v. Hoschek, 1 ♀ ( IRSN); Ceylon, Collect. Plason, 1 ♀ ( NHMW); Sri Lanka, 2 ♀♀ ( MHNG, DFPC); Nalanda, 2 de- trim[estre]. [18]89, I. Z. Kannegieter, 2 ♀♀ ( MNHN, IRSN); Nalanda, v.1989, 1 ♂ ( MHNG); Trincomale, 1997, 1 ♂ ( MHNG) .

Description of neotype. Well preserved ♀ specimen with all appendages intact, only left mid leg without ulti- mate tarsomere. Length 28.75 mm, width 10.25 mm, length/width ratio: 2.80.

Body generally metallic green. Dorsal side centrally with variegate purple tint, on pronotum and particularly on elytra changing towards sides to golden. Ventral side centrally with obscure dark violet tint and laterally with variegated purple-golden tint. Legs including tarsi metallic green, ventral pads brown. Labrum, maxillae and labium including palpi yellow. Scape and pedicel metallic, remaining antennomeres brownish-black.

Pronotum densely macropunctate, shiny parts moderately densely micropunctate and weakly shagreened. Central part with shiny areas. Macropunctation laterally gradually coarser and denser. Medial line narrow, irregular, anteriorly not visible, sparsely micropunctate, not elevated. Medial impressions absent. Principal impressions shallow and weakly delimited from disc. Lateral impressions shallow, their punctation similar to surrounding punctures. Lateral margin rounded, distinct only in basal 1/2.

Elytra regularly convex, in basal 2/3 smooth without impressions or costae, only base with slightly indicated short costa internally of humeral calli. Apical 1/3 with more or less elevated intervals 2, 4 and 8, first two united on apical 1/6 and continuing as single costa (interval 6). Area between intervals 6 and 8 shallowly but distinctly impressed, with condensed wax layer thus appears like elongate opaque yellow stripe. Sutural interval gradually elevated towards apex and with row of punctures along suture. Punctation generally irregular, not forming rows. Internally (up to position of imaginary interval 6) formed by irregularly dispersed groups of 3–6 punctures. These groups gradually impressed from postscutellar area towards lateral sides and apex. Interspaces circa 2 × as wide as puncture diameter, moderately densely micropunctate. Externally (outside position of imaginary interval 6) punctures smaller and very densely arranged, not grouped. External and internal punctation intermixed in vicinity of position of imaginary interval 6. Epipleura in basal 1/4 broad, smooth and very sparsely punctate, in narrowing with short acute tooth thus not continuous.

Fore and mid femora in central part strongly shiny, sparsely punctate; hind femora distinctly more densely punctate and semi-matt.

Ventral side of body ( Fig. 11 ) overall coarsely and very densely punctate, only central parts of thoracic ventrites sparsely punctate. Lateral sides of all abdominal ventrites densely and coarsely punctate ( Fig. 12 ).

Variation. Body ♂♂ (n=3) length: 22.50–25.25 mm, width: 7.75–9.00 mm, length/width ratio: 2.81–2.97; ♀♀ (n=8): length: 23.25–31.25 mm, width: 8.00– 11.50 mm, length/width ratio: 2.72–2.91. Body colouration al- ways green in background, most specimens with purple/copper tint on top of disc; one specimen from Trincomale (MHNG) dark blue-green and one without locality data (also MHNG) turquoise-green. Apicolateral impressions on elytra present in all examined specimens and of constant size. Pronotum varies in density of punctation, some specimens with quite sparsely punctate pronotum in contrast to neotype. Medial line from nearly invisible to well visible but always not elevated. Principal impressions shallow, in some specimens hardly visible at all. Structure of elytra in all specimens quite similar, only groups of punctures in internal part variously impressed. Aedeagus (n=1) length: 6.11 mm, width: 1.33 mm, length/width ratio: 4.59. Apices of parameres obliquely rounded. Penis stoutoval, in ventral view with deep and wide impression along midline, lateral sides with deep canaliculus, which has both margins equal ( Fig. 73 ).

Differential diagnosis. Chrysodema (C.) sonnerati is similar only to C. (C.) lewisi and the latter can be distinguished by elytra with indicated costae on 2 nd and 4 th intervals and moderately deep impression along entire outer margin of each elytron, while C. (C.) sonnerati has elytra smooth, without indicated costae and the lateral impression is shallow and limited only to apical 1/3 (tappering part). Chrysodema (C.) sonnerati also has very shallow principal impressions on pronotum (shallowest of all Chrysodema , with exception of Thymedes ) and medial line not indicated, while C. (C.) lewisii has them shallow but distinctly impressed. Finally lateral sides of abdominal ventrites in C. (C.) sonnerati are sparser and finer punctate, with distances between punctures at least 2 × as wide as puncture diameter, while C. (C.) lewisii has distinctly coarser and denser punctation with distances between punctures equal to puncture diameter. Both species are also separated geographically as C. (C.) sonnerati is restricted to Sri Lanka while C. (C.) lewisii occurs in Japan and Taiwan. For summary see Table 1 on page 11.

Distribution. Sri Lanka.

Remarks. In the original description, Laporte de Castelnau & Gory (1835: 3) wrote following: ‘Nous ne connaissons de cette espèce qu’un individu en très-mauvais état, rapporté par Sonnerat; il serait possible qu’il dût entrer dans le genre Chrysochroa . Nous croyons cependant y distinguer un écusson extérieur. C’est à l’obligeance de M. Serville que nous devons la communication de cette espèce. [Of this species we know only one individual in very bad condition, reported by Sonnerat; it is possible that it belongs to the genus Chrysochroa . Nevertheless, we suppose that is has external scutellum. It is the kindness of Mr. Serville, that we owe the communication of this species.]’. Therefore we suppose they have never seen an actual specimen of this species and only obtained information from Mr. Serville. Depository of Coleoptera from the Serville collection is unknown. Non-beetle parts of his collection are nowadays deposited in MNHN, NHMW and in the Spinola collection (in Torino) ( Horn & Kahle 1935). We have searched all three museum collections or contacted respective curators but the original holotype specimen was not found ( Giachino 1982, H. Schillhammer pers. comm. April 2018). Therefore we assume that the holotype is lost and designate a neotype for this species not only to fix its identity but also to fix the concept of the genus.

Bellamy (2002a: 187) published photograph of ‘ Chrysodema sonnerati Laporte de Castelnau & Gory. 1835 . Type specimen in Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Body length: 25 mm. Photograph: T. Lander.’. However, this specimen certainly does not represent the original holotype because 1) it is well preserved, not damaged as mentioned in the original description and 2) has length only 25 mm while Laporte de Castelnau & Gory (1835: 3) mentioned length: ‘Long. 15 lig.’; we suppose that authors meant French lines and 1 ligne= 2.2558 mm, thus the holotype should be 33.873 mm long. On the contrary, Lander (2003) was unable to locate the holotype, however published exactly the same photograph of C. sonnerati he provided to Bellamy.

Laporte de Castelnau & Gory (1835: 3) wrote the size of holotype as ‘Long. 15 lig. Larg 4 lig.’, what equals to 33.9 × 9.04 mm (1 ligne ≈ 2.26 mm). The largest specimen of C. sonnerati known to us has length 31.25 mm. On the other hand, the length itself is quite variable in Chrysodema and such large specimens are known in many species. However, the length/width ratio 3.75 is very strange, which is not present in any other species of Chrysodema . Moreover, when the original figure is measured (Laporte de Castelnau & Gory, 1835: Pl. 1, Fig. 2 ) the length/width ratio is only 3.23. On the other hand, Laporte de Castelnau & Gory probably had not seen the specimen, thus it is questionable how the original figure was made and how the original specimen was measured. In our opinion this seems to be result of an error in measurements, perhaps due to the fact that the original type was damaged. We checked also several other species of Chrysodema described by Laporte de Castelnau & Gory (1835) and the specimens have stouter body than mentioned in the original description but the difference is not as conspicuous as in C. sonnerati . Even when the ratio from the figure is considered it is still quite narrow in contrast to species of Chrysodema as they have length/width ratio: 2.70–3.02(3.13). Finally, the original type locality ‘Indes-Orientales’ is not helpful to determine where the specimen was collected.

Due to these discrepancies the designation of C. (C.) sonnerati as the type species of Chrysodema is a bit unfortunate. On the other hand, the taxon presently identified as C. (C.) sonnerati agrees with the original description (except for the size) as well as the basic original figure and it is in perfect agreement with C. yerburyi , which was synonymized with C. sonnerati . Therefore we decided to designate a neotype of C. sonnerati from the lectotype of C. yerburi not only to fix the identity of the taxon but also to conserve the present concept of the genus Chrysodema which has been in use for the past 100 years.

Figures

FIGURES 7–12. Chrysodema, general aspect: 7—C. (C.) oschimana Nonfried, 1895 (syntype, ♀ 23.50 mm)=C. (C.) lewisii lewisii Saunders, 1873. 8—C. (C.) lewisii lewisii Saunders, 1873 (Akajima Is. (DFPC), ♀ 25.25 mm). 9—C. (C.) lewisii lewisii Saunders, 1873 (Hachijo Is. (DFPC), ♀ 21.75 mm). 10–12—C. (C.) sonnerati Laporte de Castelnau & Gory, 1835 (neotype, ♀ 28.75 mm) and lectotype of C. (C.) yerburyi Waterhouse, 1905. 7–10—dorsal view; 11—ventral view; 12—lateral view.

FIGURES 73–95. Chrysodema, genitalia and terminal abdominal segments. 73—Chrysodema (Chrysodema) sonnerati Laporte de Castelnau & Gory, 1835 (Sri Lanka, MHNG); 74—C. (C.) lewisii lewisii Saunders, 1873 (holotype); 75—C. (C.) lewisii nakatai subsp. nov. (holotype); 76—C. (C.) tonkinea Kerremans, 1909 (lectotype); 77—C. (C.) vrabeci sp. nov. (holotype); 78—C. (C.) aeneoviolacea Deyrolle, 1864 (Kai Is., MHNG); 79—C. (C.) dany sp. nov. (holotype); 80—C. (C.) sibuyanica Fisher, 1924 (Sibuyan Is., NMPC); 81—C. (C.) wallacei Deyrolle, 1864 (Ambon Is, MNHN); 82—C. (C.) dohrnii Saunders, 1874 (Mindanao Is., DFPC); 83—C. (C.) fuscitarsis Kerremans, 1895 (Palawan Is., MNHN); 84—C. (C.) gottwaldi sp. nov. (holotype); 85—C. (Pseudochrysodema) coelestina Obenberger, 1922 (lectotype); 86—C. (P.) instabilis Deyrolle, 1864 (Halmahera Is., DFPC); 87—C. (C.) dohrnii (ibid., DFPC); 88—C. (C.) fuscitarsis (ibid., MNHN); 89—C. (C.) gottwaldi sp. nov. (holotype); 90, 91—C. (C.) aurostriata (lectotype); 92, 93—C. (C.) tonkinea (Hoa Binh, DFPC); 94, 95—C. (C.) vrabeci sp. nov. (Ban Huay Kon, MOOC). 73–79, 85–86—tegmen, parameres and penis; 80–84—aedeagus; 87–89—male ventrite VIII; 90, 92, 94—female ventrite VIII; 91, 93, 95—female tergite VIII. The scale bar does not apply to Figs 87–95.

FIGURES 1–6. Chrysodema, general aspect: 1–3—C. (C.) lewisii lewisii Saunders, 1873 (holotype, ♂ 19.50 mm). 4–6—C. (C.) lewisii nakatai subsp. nov. (holotype, ♂ 18.25 mm). 1, 4—dorsal view; 2, 5—ventral view; 3, 6—lateral view.