Cis castaneus (Herbst, 1793)

Królik, Roman, 2016, Two new species and nomenclatural changes in the Cis castaneus species group (Coleoptera, Ciidae), Zootaxa 4114 (4), pp. 492-500 : 498-500

The Cis castaneus (Herbst, 1793) species group

The species belonging to the Cis castaneus group, previously known as Cis nitidus are morphologically distinct from other species of the genus Cis Latreille, 1796 and seem to represent a monophyletic group ( Jelínek 2007). For this reason it was given a rank varying between the discrete genus Eridaulus Thomson, 1863 ( Lawrence 1965), the subgenus Eridaulus ( Reitter 1901, 1915; Strand 1965) and species group ( Lohse 1965, Lawrence 1971, Kawanabe, 1997). However, when this group is treated as a genus-group taxon, Eridaulus is not available as its name, for reasons mentioned by Jelínek (2007). These species are characterised by the following main features: body oblong, strongly convex with shining body surface; vestiture usually consisting of short, fine hairs; head moderately declined, partly covered by pronotum; fronto-clypeal ridge in male produced on each side forming two flat, rounded, triangular plates or forming two long horn-like projections; pronotum strongly convex, variously margined laterally, anterior angles rounded to produced and acute; anterior edge in male simple or produced and emarginate; elytra with dual punctation, consisting of larger nude macropunctures, and smaller setiferous micropunctures, the punctures uniform or seriate; prosternum relatively short, concave laterally and carinate medially; intercoxal process relatively narrow but not laminate, subacute at apex; protibia expanded at apex, outer apical angle produced and dentate; first abdominal ventrite of male with median pubescent fovea or patch ( Lawrence 1965, 1971; Kawanabe 1997).

Cis lasoni and Cis lugowoji share most of the features of the Cis castaneus group, although none of them has the modified fronto-clypeal ridge. The males of both species have the fronto-clypeal ridge devoid of any plates or projections, resembling the same structure in females.