Chrysodema (Chrysodema) mniszechii Deyrolle, 1864

Frank, David & Sekerka, Lukáš, 2020, Studies on the genus Chrysodema (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Chrysochroinae) part I., Zootaxa 4720 (1), pp. 1-62 : 33-34

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) mniszechii Deyrolle, 1864

( Figs 40–42 )

Chrysodema Mniszechii Deyrolle (1864) : 13 (key), 16 (original description, incl. colour Fig. 4 , Pl. I); Saunders (1871): 14 (catalogue).

Chalcophora Mniszechi [sic!]: Gemminger & Harold (1869): 1358 (catalogue).

Chrysodema Mniszechi [sic!]: Kerremans (1892): 39 (catalogue); (1903): 74 (catalogue); Waterhouse (1905): 583 (note on synonymy); Akiyama & Ohmomo (2000): Pl. 45, Figs 482-1, 482-2 (iconography, misidentification= C. wallacei ).

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) Mniszechi [sic!]: Kerremans (1909): 515 (key), 533 (redescription).

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) Mnizsechi [sic!]: Obenberger (1926): 132 (catalogue).

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) mniszechii: Lander (2003) : 15 (key), 36 (redescription), 78 (colour Figs 60–66 ; all misidentifications, see remarks); Bellamy (2008): 534 (catalogue).

Type locality. ‘ Goram’ [ Indonesia, Maluku Province, Gorong Island] .

Type material examined. SYNTYPES (4 ♀♀): 3 ♀♀, in front of row of beetles: ‘Mniszechii / HDeyr. / Goram [w, h]’, under each specimen: ‘MUSÉUM PARIS / 1952 / COLL. R. OBERTHUR [y, p]’, ( MNHN); 1 ♀, ‘Mniszechii HDeyr. / Goram [w, h] // COLLECTION / de BONNEUIL [w, p] // Chrysodema / Mniszechi H. Deyr / PARATYPE [w/r, h/p]’, ( NHMB, coll. G. Frey). All specimens were provided with an additional red printed label: ‘ SYNTYPE ♀ / Chrysodema / mniszechii / DEYROLLE, 1864 / David Frank & / Lukáš Sekerka labelled VIII. 2018 [date handwritten]’.

Additional material examined (8 ♀♀). INDONESIA: MALUKU PROV.: Moluques, Heyne, 1 ♀ ( BMNH, wrongly labelled as syntype of C. fairmairei ; see Remarks under C. dohrnii ). Gorong Island: Gor., Wallace , 1 ♀ ( BMNH); Moluccas , Goram 1 ♀ ( MHNG). Seram Island : Indonesie , Seram 1 ♀ ( MHNG); Ceram , 1 ♀ ( BMNH); Indonesia , Ceram Is., viii.1990, 1 ♀ ( NMPC) . WEST PAPUA PROV.: Fak-fak, U. N. Guinea, Pratt., 1 ♀ ( MHNG) .

Redescription of syntype ( NHMB). Well preserved ♀ specimen with all appendages intact, only left hind leg without tarsus and left antenna without antennomeres X–XI. Length 31.50 mm, width 11.00 mm, length/width ratio: 2.86 .

Body generally bright metallic green with golden and copper reflections; elytra towards apex gradually more intensively copper. Ventral pads on all tarsomeres dorsally black, only their extreme base dark brown.

Head moderately densely punctate, punctures foveolate, each bearing short seta, thus frons sparsely pubescent. Vertex more densely punctate and punctures bearing adherent setae.

Pronotum moderately densely macropunctate, shiny parts moderately densely micropunctate and weakly micro-reticulate. Micropunctures clearly visible at low magnifications (8–10 ×). Areas besides impressions and medial line rather sparsely punctate with large and deeply impressed punctures, interspaces among them smooth. Macropunctation laterally gradually coarser and more dense. Each macropuncture bearing moderately long white adherent seta. Medial line well visible, sparsely micropunctate, appears slightly elevated. Medial impressions shallow, but well visible. Principal impressions, moderately large, more or less circular, and moderately deeply impressed; internally with stripe of small and very dense punctures. Lateral impressions shallow, with several shallowly impressed punctures. Lateral margin carinate in basal 3/4, then widening and flattened and reaching to approx. 5/6 length of pronotum.

Elytra regularly convex with distinctly elevated rounded and very broad costae along suture and on intervals 2, 4, 6 and 8. Interval 6 shortened, reaching to 2/3 length of elytra, widely separated from interval 4. Costae moderately densely micropunctate (at magnification 50 ×) and each with a few additional confusedly dispersed macropunctures. Intercostal depressions deep and very densely macropunctate. Punctation completely irregular, not forming rows or groups of punctures. Each macropuncture bearing short adherent white seta, but impressions do not appear pilose. Interspaces at maximum 2 × as wide as puncture diameter but mostly as wide as puncture diameter.

Epipleura in basal 1/4 broad, densely punctate, then abruptly constricted with obtusely angled corner and then gradually narrowing apically; punctures becoming finer and vanishing towards apex. Each puncture bearing long erect white seta.

Fore and mid femora in central part strongly shiny, sparsely punctate; hind femora distinctly more densely punctate. Each puncture bearing seta, setation particularly conspicuous on lower side of hind femora.

Ventral side of body ( Fig. 41 ) overall densely and moderately coarsely punctate, only central part sparsely punctate with large shiny impunctate areas. Entire lateral sides of all abdominal ventrites densely and almost uniformly punctate, only towards external margins punctation finer but even denser ( Fig. 42 ).

Variation. Body ♀♀ (n=9): length: 28.00–35.00(37.00) mm, width: 9.50–13.00 mm, length/width ratio: 2.75– 2.95. All examined specimens metallic bright green, most of them with variously intense golden-copper metallic tint. Two of examined specimens entirely green, only with slightly indicated golden tint on impressions. Specimens from Goram have quite constant structure of pronotum with only minor variability in density of punctation and extent of impressions. Specimens from Ceram have much sparser and finer punctation of pronotum and shallow principal impressions, except one which has deep and rather oval principal impressions. Structure of elytra constant, only specimens from Ceram with slightly finer and sparser punctation of costae. Nevertheless, all three Ceram specimens show similar general morphology to typical C. mniszechii thus we consider them as intraspecific variability. Ventral pads on tarsi dorsally black in all examined specimens but one ( Moluques, Heyne) with pale yellow ventral parts.

Aedeagus unknown, all examined specimens are females.

Differential diagnosis. Chrysodema (C.) mniszechii can be easily separated from other metallic green coloured species of the group by small, circular to oval principal impression, which has internally a stripe of small and very densely arranged punctures. The other two species, C. (C.) wallacei and C. (C.) excellens , differ in large and cupp shaped principal impressions of pronotum, which are entirely densely punctate with small punctures.

Distribution. Indonesia, Maluku Province, Gorong and Seram islands (see remarks).

Remarks. Deyrolle (1864) described the species from Goram based on unknown number of specimens and did not state any depository. Lander (2003: 36) did not locate the type.

In the collection of R. Oberthür was a series of six specimens. Two are from Philippines, have smaller size and bluish tint and belong to C. (C.) dohrnii . One agrees in size and colouration but it originates from Ambon and in our opinion belongs to C. (C.) excellens . Therefore these three specimens certainly do not belong to the type series. The remaining three specimens do not have any locality label but certainly represent the original type specimens agreeing with the original description. We located a fourth specimen in NHMB (ex coll. G. Frey), which came from the collection of Bonneuil and was labelled by A. Théry as paratype of C. (C.) mniszechii . We assume that Deyrolle (1864) may have seen specimens from the Bonneuil collection as he is mentioned several times in the work and the Deyrolle family traded beetles with him. Therefore we agree with Théry and consider the specimen part of the original type series. Since all four specimens undoubtedly belong to the same species and show similar morphology (except colouration) we leave the specimens as syntypes.

Kerremans (1909) mentioned the occurrence of C. (C.) mniszechii in Ambon based on specimen from Jacquinot, which was provided with manuscript name ‘ Chrysodema serratipennis Blanchard , mss.’. The specimen belongs to C. (C.) excellens , see Remarks under that species for additional details.

Lander (2003) synonymized C. (C.) aeneoviolacea , C. (C.) dohrnii and C. (C.) fuscitarsis with C. (C.) mniszechii but without examination of type of C. (C.) mniszechii . All three nominal taxa are here restored to species rank, see further remarks under respective species. Based on the studied material, C. (C.) mniszechii is known to us only from Gorong and Seram islands. The remaining records mentioned by Lander belong to other species, previously synonymized with C. (C.) mniszechii . Problematic are specimens from Sulawesi and surrounding islands, which we are for now unable to attribute to any species with certainty. Lander (2003: 36) mentioned occurence of C. (C.) mniszechii in Sulawesi without further data. Based on material from his collection he had at disposal specimens from mainland Sulawesi as well as several adjacent islands included in the Sulawesi Province, namely Peleng Isl., Sangihe Isl. and Talaud Isls. Specimens from the two last islands belong to C. (C.) dohrnii , see material under that species. Remaining ones are in general similar to C. (C.) mniszechii and C. (C.) wallacei but we are not sure about their identity. However, we have only a small amount of the material and therefore we leave it to be resolved once more material is available.

We report one female from Fak-Fak, which certainly belongs to C. (C.) mniszechii but it would be desirable to confirm the occurrence in W Papua by more specimens.

Lander (2003: Figs 60–66 ) published photographs of dorsal habitus of seven specimens he identified as C. (C.) mniszechii . We examined most of the specimens and in our opinion none of the depicted specimens belong to true C. (C.) mniszechii : Figs 60 and 62 belong to C. (C.) dohrnii ; Fig. 61 from Sangihe Is. belongs to curious population, see previous paragraph; Fig. 63 belongs to C. (C.) wallacei ; Figs 64–65 belongs to C. (C.) fuscitarsis ; and Fig. 66 belongs to C. (C.) gottwaldi sp. nov.

Figures

FIGURES 37–42. Chrysodema, general aspect: 37–39—C. (C.) excellens Théry, 1923 (holotype, ♀ 28.00 mm) © MNHN. 40–42—C. (C.) mniszechii Deyrolle, 1864 (syntype (NHMB), ♀ 31.50 mm). 37, 40—dorsal view; 38, 41—ventral view; 39, 42—lateral view.

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.

FIGURES 55–60. Chrysodema, general aspect: 55–57—C. (C.) fuscitarsis Kerremans, 1895 (lectotype, Palawan, ♀ 28.00 mm). 58–60—C. (C.) gottwaldi sp. nov. (holotype, ♂ 24.75 mm). 55, 58—dorsal view; 56, 59—ventral view; 57, 60—lateral view.

FIGURES 61–66. Chrysodema, general aspect: 61–63—C. (Pseudochrysodema) coelestina Obenberger, 1922 (lectotype, ♂ 22.75 mm). 64–65—C. (P.) coelestina (Kai Is., ♂ 25.25 mm). 66—C. (P.) coelestina (Tayandu Is., ♂ 24.25 mm). 61, 64, 66—dorsal view; 62, 65—ventral view; 63—lateral view.