Silesis fulvus Fleutiaux

Fuller, E. & Platia, G., 2006, A revision of the click beetle genus Ctenoplus Candèze, 1863 (Coleoptera: Elateridae, Synaptina), Zootaxa 1217 (1), pp. 1-76 : 74

Silesis fulvus Fleutiaux

Figures 59, 88

Silesis fulvus Fleutiaux 1918: 271 ; sex and number of specimens not stated; type locality: " Tonkin: Hoa­Binh (DuPort)".

Silesis fulvus, Schenkling 1927: 489 .

Ctenoplus fulvus, Fleutiaux 1940a: 20 .

This species was transferred to Ctenoplus from Silesis by Fleutiaux (1940a). Fleutiaux (1918) described this species based on an unspecified number of specimens from Vietnam. A single female was received from MNHN. It bears the following labels: “Hoa­Binh; Tonkin 1912" [handwritten]/ “TYPE” [red ink]/ “ Silesis ; fulvus Fleut. ; type” [handwritten]/ “ Ctenoplus ; fulvus Fleut. ” [handwritten]; “COLLECTION FLEUTIAUX”. This specimen is here designated the lectotype.

Externally, this species has two shallow periocular pits, but differs from Ctenoplus in having the anteromesal margin of the hypomeron not raised and concave, a visible and subrectangular mesotrochantin, and the dorsal surface of the prosternal spine is much wider than the ventral surface (Fig. 59). In Ctenoplus , the anteromesal margin of the hypomeron is raised and concave, the mesotrochantin is concealed, and except for C. rufoantennatus and C. neosiamensis , the dorsal surface of the prosternal spine is only slightly wider than the ventral surface (c.f., Fig. 58). The female genitalia of S. fulvus ( Fig. 88 ) differs from the species of Ctenoplus in having three spiny plates on the bursa, no free spines on the bursa, and two tubular spermathecae on the tubular extension. In Ctenoplus ( Fig. 86 ), only two spiny plates are present on the bursa, the bursa bears a band of free spines, and a spermatheca, if present, is sac­like. On the basis of these differences, S. fulvus is not regarded as a species of Ctenoplus as defined in this work, and is returned to Silesis , in which it was originally described.

Whether or not S. fulvus belongs in Silesis cannot be definitively established at present. S. fulvus differs from other species of Silesis in lacking a ventral lobe on tarsomere 4, traditionally a diagnostic character of Silesis . However, we have concluded that the presence or absence of a lobed tarsomere 4 alone is insufficient to define Silesis or Ctenoplus .

Figures

FIGURES 86–88. Female genitalia of Ctenoplus and Silesis species. 86, C. javanensis Cand., a, dorsolateral, b, ventrolateral; 87, S. hilaris Cand.; 88, S. fulvus Fleut., a, ventrolateral, b, dorsolateral. Abbreviations: bp, spiny plates on bursa copulatrix; di, spermatheca; re, reservoir of spermathecal gland; sd, tubular extension. Scale bar = 0.5 mm.