Synarmostes tibialis ( Klug, 1833 )

Ballerio, Alberto, 2021, The Ceratocanthinae of Madagascar and Comoro Islands: a revision of the genera Synarmostes and Goudotostes, and of the flightless Philharmostes, with description of 64 new species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea, Hybosoridae), Fragmenta entomologica 53 (2), pp. 105-282 : 164-165

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.13133/2284-4880/545
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B3F75A2C-7603-4027-B8E1-F4A8B5A0CDD9
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0F747550-1161-FFDE-FCAE-AE041ACE95A8
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Synarmostes tibialis ( Klug, 1833 )
status

Treatment

Synarmostes tibialis ( Klug, 1833) View in CoL

( Figs 1 a View Fig , 4 View Fig a-c, 6 g, 10 a, 11 a-h, 27 a-d, 28 a-e, 35)

Acanthocerus tibialis : Klug 1833: 76 (description and distribution); Synarmostes tibialis View in CoL : Germar 1843: 124 (description and iconography); Lacordaire 1855: 159 (listing); Gemminger & Harold 1869: 1093 (catalogue); Harold 1874: 41 (catalogue); Borre 1886: 29 (catalogue); Kolbe 1895: 344 (morphological remarks); Fairmaire 1900: 473 (morphological remarks); Alluaud 1900: 245 (catalogue); Arrow 1912: 45 (catalogue); Paulian 1937: 131 (catalogue, key and iconography); Paulian 1979: 61 (key, description, distribution and iconography); Ocampo & Ballerio 2006: 190 (listing).

Type locality: “ Madagascar ” .

Material examined. Lectotype, ♀, in coll. ZMHB: / 26307/ Type/ Zool. Mus. Berlin / tibialis Kl. Gen. globaria Latr. Madagascar in nidis termit. Latr. / Synarmostes tibialis Kl. R. Paulian det. / A. Ballerio vidit 1997 ♀ / Lectotypus Acanthocerus tibialis Klug, 1832 des. A. Ballerio 2004 / Lectotypus Synarmostes tibialis (Klug, 1832) det. A. Ballerio 2004 /. Paralectotypes: 3 exx. without label data ( ZMHB) . Other material examined (not belonging to the type series): other 20 exx. labelled “ Madagascar ” or without locality label ( BMNH, ZMHB, SMNS, NMW, MNHN). 1 ♂ ( ABCB): / Madagascar Est, Andasibe, Forêt Mitsinjo , 11.I.2011 leg. A. Ballerio e J. E. Randrianirina in Nasutitermes nest /. 1 ♂ ( SMNS): / Madagascar: Moramanga: Andasibe, vi. Anevoka , forêt pluviale de Maromitza NR, 950 – 1150 m, 13- 26.11.2004, J. Berg & D. Bartsch leg. /. 1 ♂ ( CASC): / Madagascar: Toamasina Prov. Reserve Ambodiriana 4.8 km 306° Manompana, along Manompana river elev 125 m 18 Nov. 2005 / 16° 40’ 20” S 049° 42’ 04” E California Academy of Sciences coll. Brian L. Fisher et al. sifted litter, rainforest collection code: BLF 12706 GoogleMaps /; 1 ♂ ( CASC): / Madagascar: Toliara foret Ivohibe, 55.0 km N Tolagnaro 2-4 dec. 2006 24° 34’ 08” S 047° 12’ 14” E / California Acad. of Sciences coll. B. L. Fisher et al. sifted litter elev. 200 m rainforest BLF15450 GoogleMaps /; 6 ♂♂ and 1 ♀ (6 in CASC and 1 in ABCB): / Madagascar: Toliara Parc National Andohahela, Col de Tanatana, 33.3 km NW Tolagnaro elev. 275 m 22-24 November 2006 / 24° 45’ 31” S 046° 51’ 13” E California Academy of Sciences coll. Brian L. Fish- er et al. sifted litter rainforest collection code: BLF15100 GoogleMaps /; 1 ♂ ( CASC): / Madagascar: Toliara Prov. Parc National de Zombitse 19.8 km 84° E Sakaraha elev. 770 m 5-9 Feb. 2003 22° 50’ 36” S 044° 42’ 36” E / coll. Fisher, Griswold et al. California Acad. of Sciences sifted litter (leaf mold, rotten wood) in tropical dry forest collection code: BLF7510 GoogleMaps /.

Diagnosis. Synarmostes tibialis can be differentiated from all other species of Synarmostes by the following combination of characters: a) large size, b) ventral ocular area large-sized, c) dorsal ocular area present, d) dorsal setation absent (20×), e) wings fully developed, f) pronotum without callosities on disc, g) pronotal punctation on disc made of small transverse sparse comma-shaped punctures, h) elytra with a series of narrow striae formed by two or three rows of small comma-shaped punctures interspaced by smooth narrow interstriae, i) carinae of elytral apical third irregular (with some weak tubercles or other irregularities). Synarmostes tibialis belongs to the tibialis group of species and is the largest known Synarmostes . It can be easily distinguished from the other species of the group thanks to the combination of size, pronotal punctation and elytral sculpturing as indicated under characters a), g) and h) above.

Description. Size: HL = 1.5 mm; HW = 2.3 mm; PL = 3 mm; PW = 5.9 mm; EL = 4.2 mm; EW = 4.0 mm. Overall morphology as in generic diagnosis. Large-sized volant Synarmostes . Body moderately convex. Metallic bronze or green or black (two specimens from Col de Tanatana), shiny, dorsum glabrous (50×), underside, tarsi and antennae reddish-brown, setation yellowish. Head: W/L ratio = 1.28, clypeal apex obtuse, apical projection hardly appreciable; dorsal ocular area large, interocular distance about eight times the maximum width of dorsal ocular area, ventral ocular area large; head dorsal surface with disc almost impunctate, remaining surface covered by sparse impressed medium-sized simple punctation becoming comma-shaped only on canthus and along fore margin. Interpunctural distance of simple impressed punctures about as wide as punctural diameter. Vertex with an impressed continuous transverse line. Pronotum: subrectangular (W/L ratio = 2.44), regularly convex, pronotal surface covered by dense medium-sized impressed simple punctures on disc, sides covered by small horseshoe-shaped punctures with opening directed outwards. Interpunctural distance about as wide as punctural diameter. Scutellum : uniformly covered by small impressed transverse comma-shaped punctures. Elytra: longer than wide (W/L ratio = 0.88); subrectangular (dorsal view); inferior sutural stria reaching humeral area; humeral callus weakly pronounced; elytral surface regularly convex, covered by ten longitudinal striae, each stria formed by two or three rows of mixed small transverse comma-shaped and simple punctures, interstriae impunctate, at distal third raised and cariniform, at least eight irregular carinae visible. Elytral punctation impressed as pronotal one. Wings: fully developed ( Fig. 10 a View Fig ). Male genitalia: aedeagus (L = 1.3 mm) with parameres as in Figs 33 View Fig a-b and 33 d-e, spiculum gastrale (L = 1.2 mm) as in Figs 33 c and 33 f View Fig .

Etymology. Latin adjective in the nominative singular, meaning “related to the tibiae”, probably because of the flat tibiae, a typical character of the majority of Ceratocanthinae that probably Klug deemed unusual, due to the poor knowledge of the diversity of Ceratocanthinae at that time.

Distribution and habitat. The type locality is not known but is probably in Eastern Madagascar in the area of Toamasina (see remarks below). Other specimens were collected in eastern and southern Madagascar and, more precisely, in Maromizaha forest ( Fig. 92 View Fig ), Mitsinjo forest (Andasibe) ( Fig. 91 View Fig ), Ambodiriana, Ivohibe, Andohahela and Zombitse. In Andasibe (Mitsinjo forest) one specimen was collected by the author in a nest of Nasutitermes sp. ( Fig. 91 View Fig ). All localities but Zombitse (which is classified as a “dry deciduous forest”) are characterized by the presence of “humid forest”. The wide geographical and ecological range of this species could be explained by its capability to fly, as suggested by the presence of fully developed wings (even if, thus far, there is no evidence of flight).

Remarks. Since Arrow (1912), the year 1832 has been wrongly indicated as the year of publication of Klug’s paper, however, as demonstrated by Bousquet (2016), the correct year of publication is 1833. The type series was collected by Jules Prosper Goudot during a trip to the Eastern coast of Madagascar ( Klug 1833). According to Lacroix (1998) and Brygoo (1981) Goudot made three trips to Madagascar but the last one started in 1834, i. e. after Klug’s paper. According to Brygoo (1981), during the first trip (1828-1829) Goudot collected in the area of Tamatave (now Toamasina) and the second time (1831-1833) he collected again around Tamatave but later made also a boat trip along the eastern coast till Diego Suarez (now Antsiranana). According to Lacroix (1998) in the year 1830 Goudot sold the beetles he had collected to a French insect dealer (H. Dupont) and to the then Berlin Royal Museum. It is, therefore, possible that the specimens studied by Klug come from Goudot’s first trip. Klug did not specify how many specimens he had examined. In ZMHB there are four specimens whose accession number is 26307, the accession record indicates “Madagasc., Latr.” (this means that they were not part of the batch sold directly to the Berlin Royal Museum but came to Berlin through a donation or exchange with Latreille). One of them bears a blue label “tibialis / Kl. [Klug] / Gen. [genus] globaria Latr. [Latreille] / Madagascar / in nidis termit. Latr. [Latreille] ” tibialis Kl .....”, with a red label “type”. Since Klug did not specify how many specimens he had examined, I here as- sume that the type series is made of those four specimens and all those four specimens are syntypes, hence I here select one of them, i.e., the only one bearing the aforesaid identification label, as the lectotype. The ZMHB collection has two more specimens, generically labelled “ Madagascar ”, probably accessed later (and therefore without evidence that they could have been examined by Klug) and I examined a total of other 18 specimens of S. tibialis in four other museum collections (see above), all them quite old, labelled “ Madagascar ” and likely coming from the same material sold by Goudot, as already hypothesized by Paulian (1979).