Sinopyrophorus schimmeli Bi & Li

Bi, Wen-Xuan, He *, Jin-Wu, Chen, Chang-Chin, Kundrata, Robin & Li, Xue-Yan, 2019, Sinopyrophorinae, a new subfamily of Elateridae (Coleoptera, Elateroidea) with the first record of a luminous click beetle in Asia and evidence for multiple origins of bioluminescence in Elateridae, ZooKeys 864, pp. 79-97 : 82-88

Sinopyrophorus schimmeli Bi & Li sp. nov. Figs 2-3, 4-16, 17-23

= Sinopyrophorus schimmeli He et al., 2019: 565 [nomen nudum; published without description, unavailable name according to the ICZN (1999, Art. 13)].

Type locality.

China, Yunnan, Yingjiang, Shangbangzhong, 24°26'N, 97°45'W, 1650 m.

Type material.

Holotype: male, " China, Yunnan , Yingjiang , Shangbangzhong , 24°26'N, 97°45'W, 1650 m, 2017.VI.23, leg. Wen-Xuan Bi "; "Holotype Sinopyrophorus schimmeli sp. nov." [red handwritten label] ( SNUC). Paratypes (9 males, 3 females): 1 female, same data as holotype ( KIZ-CAS); 1 male, 1 female, " China, Yunnan , Longchuan , Husa , 1770 m, 2017.VI.13-14, leg. Wen-Xuan Bi " ( CBWX); 1 male, ditto except 2000 m, 2017.VI.16 ( CBWX); 1 male, 1 female, ditto except 1700 m, 2017.VI.24, leg. Yu-Tang Wang ( CBWX); 2 males, ditto except 1770 m, 2016.V.31 ( CCCC); 1 male, ditto except leg. Xiao-Dong Yang ( CCCC); 3 males, ditto except 2017.VI.25, leg. Wen-Xuan Bi ( KIZ-CAS).

Other material examined.

2 males, China, Yunnan, Longchuan, Husa, 1770 m, 2017.VI.13-16, leg. Wen-Xuan Bi, damaged, partially used for extracting genomic DNA in a project of mitogenome (accession number MH065615; He et al. 2019); 2 males, China, Yunnan, Longchuan, Husa, 1770 m, 2018.VI.13, leg. Wen-Xuan Bi, the whole body of both specimens was used for the extraction of genomic DNA in an ongoing project of de novo genome sequencing and assembly of 18S and 28S.

Diagnostic description.

Male (Fig. 2). Body length 9.6-11.3 mm (holotype: 11.3 mm). Body brown to dark brown, with posterior portion of prothorax, fore- and mid-legs paler; elytra with broad subapical pale band, zigzagged anteriorly, rounded posteriorly. Body surface with fine, suberect brown setae, denser on legs; elytral light band with pale setae.

Head transverse, weakly convex, 0.75 times as long as wide, same width as pronotal anterior edge; sparsely and finely punctate. Frons rectangular, 1.4 times longer than width, 0.3 times as wide as head width across the eyes. Frontoclypeal region concave at sides beneath; with one small median depression. Eyes protuberant, median width of each eye ~ 0.7 times interocular distance in dorsal view. Mouthparts directed anteroventrally. Labrum (Fig. 5) 2.2 times wider than long. Antenna long, reaching second half of elytral length, ~ 0.7 times as long as body length; scape 2.3 times as long as combined length of antennomeres II and III, and of approximately same length as antennomere 4, slightly curved; antennomeres 4-11 successively weakly lengthened, with fine and very long, distinct setae; setae almost as long as apical antennomere.

Prothorax (Fig. 8) slightly convex in lateral view, tallest anteriorly; ~ 1.2 times as long as wide in dorsal view, weakly narrowed anteriorly, slightly narrower than elytral humeral width; sides slightly sinuate; pronotal lateral carina complete; anterior angles short, subacute; hind angles narrowly acute, moderately produced posterolaterally, each with short carina; posterior edge straight from dorsal view, medially elevated; pronotal disk sparsely and finely punctate, with eight shallow depressions: single median and posteromedian, and three pairs at sides. Prosternum and hypomeron more coarsely punctate than pronotum. Elytra ~ 3.0 times as long as combined width, ~ 2.9 times as long as pronotum, parallel-sided; each elytron with three low and evenly spaced swellings, longitudinally arranged at basal half near suture; with nine punctate striae; apices conjointly rounded; epipleura short, abruptly narrowed near metacoxa. Legs long; tarsomeres I–III elongate, tarsomere I ~ 1.4 times as long as tarsomere II, tarsomere II as long as combined lengths of tarsomeres III and IV or as long as tarsomere V; tarsomeres III and IV ventrally lobate (Fig. 12).

Abdomen with each ventrite with paired depressions posterolaterally. Aedeagus (Fig. 20) robust, ~ 1.6 times as long as wide. Phallobase slightly longer than wide, narrowed dorsally, emarginate posteriorly. Median lobe approximately half as long as aedeagus, with basal struts 0.25 times total length of median lobe. Parameres ~ 1.5 times longer than median lobe, shorter than phallobase, with dorsal surface ~ 1.6 times longer than ventral one, partially fused basally in dorsal view; each paramere with dorsal surface angulate on inner margins at basal 2/5, strongly narrowed and curved mesad with dentate inner margin near apical 1/3 and rounded apex; bearing 20-30 fine setae near apex, longer on ventral surface.

Female (Fig. 3). Body length 12.1-14.5 mm. Similar to male in its general appearance but with integument paler. Eyes smaller, median width of each eye ~ 0.4 times interocular distance in dorsal view. Antenna shorter, only reaching elytral humeri, ~ 0.3 times as long as body length. Pronotum relatively shorter with lateral margins more rounded, narrowed anteriorly, with rounded anterior angles. Elytra relatively longer, ~ 3.3 times as long as wide, ~ 3.0 times as long as pronotum. Legs relatively shorter. Abdominal luminescent organ smaller, occupying approximately one third of basal abdominal sternite width.

Immature stages.

Unknown.

Etymology.

This species is named in honor of late Mr. Rainer Schimmel, a specialist in Elateridae , who kindly provided valuable comments at the beginning of this study.

Biological notes.

All specimens of the new species were collected during the late May to June (i.e., the middle of the rainy season) from the mountain area in vicinity of Longchuan County or Yingjiang County, western Yunnan in subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests by searching for flashes or by light trapping during night. The adults of both sexes emitted a continuous yellowish green light from the abdominal luminous organs while in flight, or during a short time when preparing for flight or afterwards. During this process the luminous organ is exposed ventrally by raising and extending the abdomen from the metaventrite (Supplementary material S2, file 2). The reaction of the adults when disturbed during a flight is to retract their abdomen, hide their luminous organ, and show a death-feigning behavior (thanatosis). Thanatoid adults remained inactive for a long time, which was obviously different from the observation in Pyrophorini because the latter begin to emit light and are very active after being disturbed ( Costa 1975). At least three lampyrid species ( Luciola sp., Diaphanes sp., and Pyrocoelia sp.) occurred sympatrically with the new elaterid species and can be found simultaneously during night but can be easily distinguished by different flash patterns. Although some specimens of S. schimmeli were previously collected using light traps in 2016, this species was found to be luminescent only in 2017 when its bioluminescent behavior was observed in the field. This was caused by the abdominal luminescent organ being hidden when the beetle is not active.

Nomenclatural notes.

He et al. (2019) reported the mitochondrial genome of S. schimmeli gen. et sp. nov. and used the genus and species name of the here described taxon in their study. The paper of He et al. (2019) was intended to be published after the formal description of S. schimmeli Bi & Li, gen. et sp. nov. but unfortunately, it was published earlier, causing nomenclatural problems by reporting the genus and species names without available descriptions and thus unavailable according to the Code (ICZN 1999).