Psalidognathus reichei Quentin and Villiers, 1983

Santos-Silva, Antonio & Komiya, Ziro, 2012, Contribution towards the knowledge of Psalidognathus Gray, 1831 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae), Insecta Mundi 2012 (247), pp. 1-28 : 10-13

Psalidognathus reichei Quentin and Villiers, 1983

( Fig. 14-17 )

Psalidognathus erythrocerus reichei Quentin and Villiers, 1983: 442 ; Monné and Giesbert 1994: 16 (checklist); Monné 1995: 58 (cat.); Monné and Hovore 2005: 21 (checklist); 2006: 20 (checklist); Monné

2006: 89 (cat.). Psalidognathus (Psalidognathus) erythrocerus ; Lameere 1910: 371. Psalidognathus pubescens ; Jeniš 2010: 21 (male and females), 94 (male), 95 (female). Psalidognathus reichei subsp.?: Komiya 2003: fig. 19 (male).

Redescription. Male ( Fig. 14, 15 ). Integument brown; head dorsally blackish, and ventrally brownish; mandibles blackish; legs dark brown partly blackish; elytra dark brown on base, gradually lighter towards apex; scape, pedicel and almost entire antennomere III blackish; apex of antennomere III and entire antennomere IV brown; antennomeres V-XI distinctly lighter, mainly after VIII.

Dorsal surface of head coarsely rugosely confluently punctate between cephalic carinae, punctures finer laterally and between apices of cephalic carinae and prothorax; area between cephalic carinae with very short sparse hairs; area between cephalic carinae and prothorax, and area between cephalic carinae and lateral conical tubercles with short, abundant hairs (including external lateral faces of cephalic carinae and on conical tubercles); cephalic carinae, in dorsal view, start at inner edge of antennal tubercle, convergent to posterior line of eyes, then divergent posteriad, acutely pointed upward at about posterior half of head and then suddenly ending; carinae, in lateral view, strongly elevated, triangular, with gentle anterior slope and steep posterior slope; in front view, looking like horns of a goat and apices open in V-form. Area between carinae slightly concave before the triangular apices, and distinctly longitudinally sulcate between triangular apices. Eyes not strongly bulging, convex from lateral margin of head; greatest width about 0.4 times the length; distance between upper ocular lobes about 2.6 times width of one lobe. Antennal tubercles moderately finely punctate (partially confluent) on basal half, becoming almost impunctate towards apex. Clypeus finely sparsely punctate; pilosity very short and sparse. Labrum almost vertical, finely, very sparsely punctate; pilosity transverse on basal third and central apex. Head with distinct lateral conical tubercles. Genal apex not elongate, pointed apically. Hypostomal sclerite moderately finely punctate; pilosity rather long and not dense.

Mandible about 1.6 times as long as head, moderately curved downward and inward, thick and broad at base, gradually becoming flatter and thinner apicad; external side rounded and internal side vertically flat in basal half and steeply edged along internal margin in apical half; coarsely and confluently punctate on dorsal basal half, gradually becoming more finely and sparsely punctate towards apices except on edges, which are smooth and shiny; each mandible with one tooth, distinct pointed in right mandible and obtuse in left mandible.

Antennae do not reach elytral apex; apico-internal end of antennomeres IV-X triangular; scape does not reach base of lateral conical tubercle on head, gradually enlarged towards apex (mainly at apical fourth), coarsely, densely punctate dorsally, and transversely striate ventrally; antennomeres III-VI finely, sparsely punctate; antennomere III twice as long as scape.

Pronotum rugose throughout, covered with short, sparse hairs on central disc, hairs longer and distinctly more abundant laterally; posterior and anterior margin well elevated and fringed with erect and abundant hairs; lateral margins with two large, widely acute teeth; anterior angle distinctly projected forward beyond anterior margin of pronotum, acute at apex; posterior angle distinctly projected and rounded at apex. Prosternal process convex at middle, with a keel extending from base. Scutellum semicircular, about twice as wide as long, with sparse short hairs. Elytra somewhat shiny, deeply, densely and confluently punctate on basal fifth; punctures gradually becoming finer from base to apex; with short and acute spines on humeri; sutural angle distinctly projected. Metasternum finely punctate. Ventrites I-IV very finely punctate, mainly centrally, with short, sparse hairs centrally, distinctly more abundant laterally. Ventrite V finely punctate, covered with long, abundant pilosity that is shorter and sparser on basal part, longer laterally and apically. Profemora densely and coarsely punctate-granulate on dorsal side; ventral side of pro-femora, meso- and metafemora finely and sparsely punctate. Protibiae gradually enlarged; depression of ventral surface extending from almost base to apical sixth, densely, abundantly pilose. Apices of metatarsomeres I-III distinctly spinose.

Female ( Fig. 16, 17 ). Body broad. Mandibles about as long as head. Distance between upper ocular lobes about 1.3 times length of scape. Cephalic carinae as in males, but more distance between them, and with the apices less pronounced. Antennae reach apical third of elytra; scape just surpasses posterior edge of eyes; antennomere III about 1.6 times as long as scape. Pronotum as in males, but laterally more expanded. Lateral elytral margins slightly divergent from base to middle; apex rounded with central emargination; sutural angle without spine; sculpture as in males. Apical half of fore tibiae not expanded on inner margin.

Variation. Males: posterior angles of prothorax from rounded to acute at apex; profemora punctatestriate on dorsal side.

Dimensions in mm (male/female). Total length (including mandibles), 53.0-89.0/52.0-63.0; length of prothorax, 5.0-10.0/6.0-8.0; width of prothorax between the apices of the anterior angles, 11.0-18.0/15.0- 17.0; width of prothorax between the apices of the posterior angles, 9.0-16.0/12.0-13.0; humeral width, 16.0-23.0/17.l0-20.0; elytral length, 33.0-45.0/33.0-36.0.

Geographical distribution. Ecuador and Peru ( Quentin and Villiers, 1983).

Material examined. ECUADOR, Chimborazo: Riobamba, 2 males, 1921, E. Feyer col. ( MZSP). Tungurahua: Route Baños-Viscaya (2500 m), 2 males, V.2002 [no collector indicated] ( ZKCO) ; female, VI.2002, [no collector indicated] ( ZKCO); (2000) , male, XII.2003, [no collector indicated] ( ZKCO) ; Route Viscaya-Tungurahua (2300 m), male, XII.1991, [no collector indicated] ( ZKCO); (2000) , female, VII.2003, [no collector indicated] ( ZKCO) .

Remarks. Psalidognathus erythrocerus sensu Lameere (1910) does not correspond to P. erythrocerus erythrocerus sensu Quentin and Villiers (1983) , but it does to P. erythrocerus reichei Quentin and Villiers (1983) .

The redescription of P. erythrocerus Reiche, 1840 in Lameere (1910) provides some details that support this (translation): “This is the most primitive species by the large width of the space between the eyes above; the cephalic carina bordering the eye ends on the occiput by a strong conical tubercle, but less distinct than in P. modestus , the two tubercles are widely separated.” Besides, the specimens deposited at ISNB ( Fig. 15, 16 ), identified by Lameere as P. erythrocerus , are distinctly different from the neotype of P. erythrocerus erythrocerus designated by Quentin and Villiers (1983).

The description of P. erythrocerus in Quentin and Villiers (1983) discusses the cephalic carinae (translation): “Reiche’s description does not mention anything on the conical tubercles on the head, but said “head canaliculated.” The examination of large series of that species shows that in effect only the specimens from Colombia have the cephalic carinae slightly marked, but separated by a depression, and ending with a simple mucro. Contrariwise, the specimens from Ecuador and Peru, the most common in the collections, have on the head strong cephalic carinae ending with a strong conical tubercle; and they constitute two subspecies described below.”

Unfortunately, as seen above, according to Quentin and Villiers (1983) the syntypes of P. erythrocerus are lost. However, it is probable that the interpretation of P. erythrocerus in Lameere (1910) is really a misidentification and that the species described by Reiche (1840) is best represented by the neotype ( Fig. 8 ).

Curiously, Quentin and Villiers (1983) did not comment on the redescription by Lameere (1910) who affirmed, mistakenly, that the species was from Peru. Indeed, Reiche (1840) described the species from Colombia: “Hab. Columbia. Dom. Lebas invenit”. Evidently, P. erythrocerus also can occur in Peru, but the description by Reiche (1840) (“Capite canaliculato”) suggests that the interpretation by Quentin and Villiers (1983) is more likely. However, the limits of what we know now as Colombia are very different from what they were at the time in which the specimen was described (and it is not known when the specimen was actually collected). According to Cardona-Duque et al. (2010) (translation): “Between 1816 and 1819 the Spanish reconquest happens and apparently from 1819 always encompassed the territories of Panama and Colombia, having different names: Colombia (between 1819 and 1830), Republic of New Granada (between 1830 and 1858), Granadina Confederation (between 1858 and 1861), United States of the New Granada (between 1861 and 1863), United States of Colombia (between 1863 and 1886), Republic of Colombia (between 1866 and 1903), and finally became independent from Panama in 1903 (Montoya- Guszmán pers. comm.). Palacios & Safford (2002) affirmed that Venezuela became independent in 1830, and then Venezuela was not part of the territory, at least, since 1830”.

The main differences between P. reichei and P. erythrocerus , besides those mentioned by Quentin and Villiers (1983), are: distance between upper ocular lobes in males equals to approximately the length of the scape; distance between upper ocular lobes in females smaller than 1.5 times the length of the scape; cephalic carinae in males very distant from each other between the eyes, strongly divergent towards the apex; anterior tibiae distinctly narrower. In P. erythrocerus the distance between upper ocular lobes in males is equal to half the length of the scape, and in females equals about 0.7 times the length of the scape; the cephalic carinae in males are close to each other between the eyes and slightly divergent at apex; and the anterior tibiae are distinctly wider.

The study of specimens of other species of Psalidognathus shows that this marked difference in the shape and disposition of the cephalic carinae, and of the distance between upper ocular lobes, is not likely to represent intraspecific variation. Moreover, it is difficult to understand why Quentin and Villiers (1983) chose to consider P. reichei Quentin and Villiers, 1983 as subspecies of P. erythrocerus . We consider P. reichei as a species distinct from P. erythrocerus , based on the clear structural differences, absence of intermediate specimens, and an assessment of the intraspecific variability documented in other species of the genus.

Although Quentin and Villiers (1983) did not comment on the pronotum in their description of P. erythrocerus reichei , they affirmed in the key (translation): “Head and pronotum glabrous.” However, the study of photos of the types shows that there is, at least laterally, very evident pubescence. Such pubescence on the head and pronotum, though not so distinct, was also confirmed on the specimens at the MZSP.

Jeniš (2010: 20, 21, 90, 91) considered P. reichei and P. erythrocerus as distinct species, but this was a questionable nomenclatural act. Besides, the specimens figured (p. 90, 91) do not agree with the original description or photos of the holotype (in color, antennal length, or shape of antennomere III). The male (p. 90), probably corresponds to a variant of P. modestus ; the female (p. 91) corresponds to P. onorei .

Figures

Figure 14-19. Dorsal habitus. 14) Psalidognathus reichei, holotype male. 15) P. reichei, paratype male. 16) P. reichei, paratype female. 17) P. reichei, female. 18) P. pubescens, holotype male. 19) P. pubescens, paratype female. Photos 14, 18, 19 by Eugenio Nearns. Photos 15 and 16 by Noël Mal.

Figure 8-13. Dorsal habitus. 8) Psalidognathus erythrocerus, neotype male. 9) P. erythrocerus, male from MNHN. 10) P. erythrocerus, female. 11) P. onorei, holotype male. 12) P.onorei, male. 13) P. onorei, female. Photos 8 and 9 from Eugenio Nearns. Photo 12 by Ivo Jeniš.