Nubosoplatus inbio Swift, 2008

Swift, Ian, 2008, A new genus and two new species of Pteroplatini Thomson from Central America (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), Insecta Mundi 2008 (45), pp. 1-9 : 3-5

Nubosoplatus inbio Swift , new species

( Figure 1 A-C, 3)

Description. Male: as in figure 1A-C, form moderately robust, parallel-sided, integument opaque, abdomen glossy, dorsal coloration orange-yellow with black maculae.

Head: very finely, densely or confluently punctate, thinly-clothed with fine, appressed pubescence with sparse, long, erect, golden setae; temporal region glabrous and impunctate; front-clypeal suture glossy, impunctate, front laterally impressed before lower eye lobes, vertex weakly, longitudinally impressed; eyes emarginate, lower lobe moderately large, subtriangularly rounded, upper lobes moderately narrow, rounded, separated on vertex by about one-fourth more than the greatest width of the antennal scape, ommatidia fine; antennae surpassing elytral apices by about one antennomere, scape, pedicel, and III-VI glossy, moderately coarsely, densely punctate, clothed with short, appressed, black to dark orange setae and sparse, longer suberect setae, apical antennomeres dull, minutely, poriferous and minutely pubescent, sparsely scattered longer setae at apices of VII and VIII.

Thorax: wider than long, widest across lateral tumid areas, pleura obtusely, broadly angulate-tuberculate to enlarged at middle, narrowly angulated anteriorly, with a low, obtusely-angulate postmedian tumescence at the pleura of the disk, apex and inner margin of tumescence with glossy, impunctate calli, lateral portions of disk on apical one-half broadly impressed, midline and basal one-half of disk unmarked, surface finely to moderately coarse, densely, irregularly punctate, a dull, impunctate longitudinal postmedian callous on midline; prosternum with large, quadrate, coarsely rugosely punctate impression at either side of narrow midline, thinly clothed with appressed pubescence and scattered erect setae; meso- and metasternum finely punctate, sparsely pubescent; metepisternum minutely punctate and pubescent; scutellum slightly longer than broad, impressed medially, finely, densely punctate, thinly clothed with appressed black pubescence.

Elytra: with sides parallel, rounded to suture, sutural angle narrowly rounded; integument minutely granulate, finely, shallowly, sparsely punctate basally, becoming nearly impunctate apically, moderately densely clothed with short, appressed pubescence and sparse, longer, thicker, erect setae, lateral margin fringed with short, suberect setae, denser apically.

Legs: with femora clavate, apices rounded, finely, irregularly punctate, sparsely pubescent; tibiae weakly curved anteriorly, finely, densely punctate and pubescent, metatibia with two short, thin apical spurs; tarsi moderately expanded, first metatarsomere subequal in length to following two together.

Abdomen: weakly concave, surface finely, moderately densely punctate and pubescent with black appressed setae, apex of fifth sternite and fifth tergite broadly subtruncate, thinly fringed with long setae.

Length: 8.33-12.54 mm, mean = 10.74, n = 11.

Female: Coloration and pattern variation as in the male, differing by the broader, more explanate dorsum; antennae extending only to apical two-thirds of elytra, antennomeres abbreviated, basal antennomeres more conical, apical antennomeres subcylindrical; pronotal tumescences less-strongly developed; prosternum lacking impressed punctate areas, surface finely, uniformly punctate and pubescent, procoxal process slightly broader; mesocoxal process more flattened; legs less robust, femora less clavate; abdomen more elongate and convex, fifth sternite broadly rounded apically, weakly impressed medially, fifth ventrite elongate, flattened, broadly rotundate to truncate apically, weakly notched medially.

Length: 7.98-13.80 mm, n = 7; (both sexes) overall range 7.98-13.80 mm, n = 18.

Type material. Holotype male and allotype deposited in INBio from: Costa Rica, Guanacaste Province, Cacao Biological Station, southeast side of Volcán Cacao , 1,000-1,400 m, July 1989 - March 1990, in Malaise trap, LN323300, 375700.

Additional paratypes: two males and two females, same data as holotype ( INBio) ; three males and one female from: Costa Rica, Puntarenas Province, Monteverde , 29-31 December 1979 and 24 December 1985, E. Giesbert collector ( FSCA) ; one male from: Costa Rica, Puntarenas Province, San Luis Monteverde , 1,000 -1,350 m, December 1994, LN 250850 449250 #6169, Z. Fuentes, collector ( MZSP) ; one female from: Costa Rica, Guanacaste Province, Cabro Muco Biological Station, Volcán Miravalles , 1,100 m, 16 March- 03 April 2003, in Malaise trap, LN 299769 411243 #73586, in Malaise trap #8, J. Azofeifa, B. Hernández, J. D. Gutiérrez, collectors ( MNRJ) ; one female from: Costa Rica, Monteverde , 4,000’, 09 July 1983, H. W. Colby, collector ( CASC) ; one male from: Costa Rica, Puntarenas Province, Monteverde , 1350 m, 23 November 1987, no collector ( USNM) ; two males, two females from: Costa Rica, Puntarenas Province, Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve , 10 o 19’03.42”N / 84 o 48’26.62”W, 1,499 m, 28-30 May 2007, I. Swift, A. M. Ray, B. D. Streit, collectors ( EMEC) .

Diagnosis. This species is distinctive from similar-appearing pteroplatine taxa by the characters enumerated in the generic diagnosis. Immaculate female N. inbio may be similar in coloration to Corynellus ochraceus Bates , but differ by the much less coarsely punctate elytral disk, and longer appendages. Among the type material no two maculate specimens are exactly alike in the extent and configuration of the dark maculae, with the antemedian elytral maculae ranging from narrow to fully expanded into a broad band across the disk and extending anteriad along the suture. A few specimens have the antennae tinged with orange including VI-XI, and femora entirely tan-orange with black.

The type series is generally colored with the head yellow-orange, a median longitudinal black vitta and post-ocular black macula, prothorax yellow-orange with moderately-broad longitudinal median vitta and a broad lateral vittae on either side below disk, prosternum and median portion of mesosternum orange, elytra orange to yellow-orange, ranging form immaculate to having black maculae at apical onethird to one-fourth and including an antemedian sutural maculae or transverse band, the anterior margin usually extending along suture to scutellum, scutellum black, appendages and underside all or partially orange to black; body pubescence golden on orange-yellow integument, black on dark integument, including maculae, femoral pubescence pale, antennal and tibial pubescence dark.

The variation in elytral maculation is similar to that exhibited in other mimetic cerambycid species found in the region, including Mimiptera fulvella (Bates) ( Lepturinae : Lepturini ) and Lycomorphoides simulans Linsley ( Lepturinae : Lepturini ), which also have immaculate and maculated forms. Although participation in a mimetic complex has not yet been conclusively demonstrated for these taxa, the common dorsal pattern variability suggests that they may be involved in more than one mimetic assemblage, perhaps involving Cantharidae (immaculate forms) and Lycidae (maculate forms).

Ecology. The larval habits are unknown, but specimens have been taken walking and mating on freshly-cut Psidium guajava L. ( Myrtaceae ) in cloud forest habitats in and around the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in the Cordillera de Tilarán. A few specimens were taken at building lights around the reserve. Most of the type series was taken during the primary montane dry season in Costa Rica, between late December and early March, with the remainder having been collected in July and August, during the “little dry season” or veranillo.

Etymology. The specific epithet honors the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), whose early collecting efforts and exploration of Costa Rica’s biodiversity first brought attention to this taxon. It is a noun in apposition.

Figures

Figure 1. Nubosoplatus inbio, males. A) Dorsal habitus. B) Ventral habitus. C) Dorsal habitus showing color variation.