Jundlandia Duran and Gough, 2022

Duran, Daniel P. & Gough, Harlan M., 2022, A new genus of tiger beetle (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) from the Nearctic and Neotropical realms, Zootaxa 5175 (2), pp. 293-299 : 296

Jundlandia Duran and Gough , new genus urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:82C5799E-856D-488A-A277-70CB28CB5673

( Fig. 2 , 3 )

Etymology. The name is derived from the film, Stars Wars: A New Hope. In the film, there is a hot, dry place known as the “Jundland Wastes”, a particularly desolate area on the protagonist’s home planet of Tatooine. This desert environment is similar in appearance to the some of the more extreme habitats that Jundlandia lemniscata inhabits within the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts.

Type species. Cicindela lemniscata ( LeConte, 1854) ; by present designation

Description. Small size, 7–11 mm. Body shape slender, cylindrical. Head with distinct rugosity. Frons glabrous except for two supraorbital setae near each eye. Genae polished metallic, glabrous. Clypeus glabrous. Labrum long, approximately as long as wide. Antennal scape with a single long erect seta. Pronotum with shallow transverse rugosity, surface polished. Pronotal setae thick white decumbent, restricted to lateral third. Lateral portions of venter with dense white decumbent setae present. Legs variable in color: femora pale testaceous, occasionally with slight metallic surfaces on upper surface or femora strongly pigmented red or green. Protrochanter with a single subapical seta. Mesotrochanter without a subapical seta. Metatrochanter without a subapical seta. Each elytron bears a single cream-colored vitta that possesses a small inward projection on basal third, bending into an apical lunule at the tip; a small number of individuals may have vitta broken into three separate lines. Elytral apices separately rounded in female, very slightly so in male. Small sutural spine present. Microserrations present.

This new genus is supported by recent phylogenetic studies (Duran & Gough 2019) ( Fig 1 ), and it is most closely related to a New World clade comprised of the genera Ellipsoptera , Dromochorus and Parvindela .

Distribution. The monotypic genus has a large distribution in dry grassland and desert biomes within the southwestern United states ( Pearson et al. 2015) and Mexico ( Cazier 1954), mostly in the Nearctic biogeographic realm, but reaching the northern reaches of the Neotropical realm in western Mexico. Specifically, the species ranges from southern California and southwestern Utah to the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma, south to the southern tip of Baja California and the western Mexico states of Sinaloa and Colima (J. Shetterly, pers. comm. 2022).

Ecology. This genus may be found in a variety of habitats within the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Desert regions, from vegetated to sparely vegetated or unvegetated habitats, near water or in dry areas, from the bottom of washes to uplands.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogeny of Cylindera lemniscata and related taxa. Taxon sampling was informed by Vogler and Welsh (1997), Barraclough and Vogler (2002) and Vogler et al. (2005). Topology redrawn from Duran and Gough (2019).

FIGURE 2. Dorsal habitus of former Cylindera lemniscata, now Jundlandia lemniscata, new combination

FIGURE 3. Jundlandia lemniscata, new combination, in situ in Willcox, Cochise County, Arizona.