Aquilonia Ballantyne 2009

Ho, - Z., 2019, The Luciolinae of S. E. Asia and the Australopacific region: a revisionary checklist (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) including description of three new genera and 13 new species, Zootaxa 4687 (1), pp. 1-174 : 44-45

Aquilonia Ballantyne 2009

Figs 64–66

Aquilonia Ballantyne 2009 in Ballantyne & Lambkin 2009: 28 , fig. 4.

Type species: Luciola costata Lea 1921b by monotypy ( Ballantyne & Lambkin 2000: 31, figs 1–3, 5, 6, 8).

Gilvainsula Ballantyne 2009 in Ballantyne & Lambkin 2009: 58 , figs 192–203. New synonymy.

Type species: Atyphella messoria Olivier designated by Ballantyne & Lambkin 2009: 58.

Diagnosis. Aquilonia is part of the Atyphella complex and has aedeagal LL visible at the sides of the ML and an aedeagal sheath which is evenly emarginated on its right side. It is distinguished from other Luciolinae in the Atyphella ‘complex’ (as defined in the key to genera), by the following: from Lloydiell a which has dark brown non margined elytra and a hooded basal piece of the aedeagus by the colour; Aquilonia males are pale brownish to orange yellow dorsally with or without a black elytral apex, and the basal piece is not hooded; from Convexa which has dark brown elytra having lateral, sutural and apical margins orange by the elytral colour; from Magnalata which has orange pronotum and black elytra with pale lateral margin, by the elytral colour; from Atyphella by the elytral colour; those Atyphella having dark brown pale margined elytra have pale margins on both lateral and sutural margins. Many Atyphella have both the anterior and posterior areas of the hypomeron strongly flattened, or at least the posterior area strongly adpressed. In Aquilonia costata the anterior area is not closely adpressed and the posterior area may be close or not; Aquil. messoria comb. nov. and Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov. have only the posterior area close. Known females are macropterous and a possible larva has laterally explanate tergal margins covering the laterotergites from above.

Redescription of genus. Male.

Pronotum: wider than long; dorsal surface without irregularities in posterolateral areas (1) and longitudinal groove in lateral areas (2); punctation moderately dense (3); anterior margin not explanate (6); lateral margins diverging posteriorly along most of their length (C>A, B) or lateral margins subparallel-sided (B=C) in Aquil. costata ; width> humeral width (subequal to humeral width in Aquil. costata and some Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov.); anterolateral corners rounded obtuse; lateral margins without indentation at mid-point, and sinuosity in either horizontal or vertical plane (15, 16); without indentation in lateral margin near posterolateral corner, and irregularities at corner (17, 18); posterolateral corners rounded obtuse or approximately 90°; posterolateral corners projecting as far as median posterior margin (in Aquil. costata ) or beyond; separated from it by scarce emarginations.

Hypomera: closed; median area of hypomeron not elevated in vertical direction; in the posterior area the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the pronotum may closely approach (strongly adpressed) or not in Aquil. costata ; this area is not adpressed in the remaining species; pronotal width/ GHW 1.4–1.5 in Aquil. costata , 1.6 in other species.

Elytron: lateral margins either parallel-sided or slightly convex sided in Aquil. messoria comb. nov. and Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov.; apices not deflexed; punctation dense (34, 35), not linear (36), not as large as that of pronotum, nor widely and evenly spaced; epipleuron and sutural ridge extend beyond mid-point almost to apex but not extending around apex, neither thickened in apical half; two interstitial lines; elytral carina absent; in horizontal specimen viewed from below epipleuron at elytral base wide, covering humerus or almost so; viewed from above anterior margin of epipleuron arises level with or anterior to posterior margin of MS; epipleuron developed as a lateral ridge along most of length; sutural margins approximate along most of length in closed elytra.

Head: gently depressed between eyes; moderately well exposed in front of pronotum, and capable of partial retraction within prothoracic cavity; eyes with moderate separation beneath at level of posterior margin of mouthpart complex; eyes above labrum moderately to widely separated; frons-vertex junction rounded, without median elevation; posterolateral eye excavation not strongly developed, not visible in resting head position; antennal sockets on head between eyes, not contiguous, always separated by <ASW or subequal to ASW; clypeolabral suture present, flexible, not in front of anterior eye margin when head viewed with labrum horizontal; outer edges of labrum reach inner edges of closed mandibles or beyond. Mouthparts: functional; apical labial palpomere flattened, shaped like a broad triangle with inner edge dentate with two teeth in Aquil. costata , irregularly dentate in both Aquil. messoria comb. nov. and Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov., and at least half as long as apical maxillary palpomere. Antennae 11 segmented; length>GHW up to twice GHW; FS1 subequal in length to, or longer than, pedicel; FS 7−9 not conspicuously shorter than rest; no FS expanded or laterally produced; all FS including FS 1 longer than wide.

Legs: with inner tarsal claw entire; without MFC; no leg segments swollen, curved or emarginated.

Abdomen: without cuticular remnants in association with aedeagal sheath (131, 132); no ventrites with curved posterior margins, nor extending anteriorly into emarginated posterior margin of anterior segment (106–108). V6 with LO present, occupying almost all the ventrite surface. V7 with LO entire, occupying more than half the surface of ventrite, and reaching to sides, and into MPP in Aquil. costata only; MPP as long as wide (L=W) in Aquil. costata , short or wider than long (W>L) in remainder; no PLP. T8 well sclerotised, symmetrical, visible posterior area either widest across median area (W>L) or W=L; median posterior margin not emarginate; T8 not engulfing posterior margin of V7 nor MPP (133, 134), without well-defined median longitudinal trough; concealed anterolateral arms of T8 very short in Aquil. costata , not as long as entire posterior portion in rest; not laterally emarginated before their origins, dorsoventral expansions absent, expanded only in horizontal plane, narrowly in Aquil. costata , widely in Aquil. messoria comb. nov. and Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov.; without bifurcation of inner margin and ventrally directed pieces (217); lateral margins of T8 not enfolding sides of V7 (190); T7 without prolonged anterolateral corners.

Aedeagal sheath: asymmetrical; sheath sternite evenly emarginated on its right side from the point of attachment of the tergite; anterior half of sternite broad, apically rounded; tergite without lateral arms extending anteriorly at sides of sheath sternite; tergite without projecting pieces along posterior margin of T9, anterior margin without separate transverse band but Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov. has a darker band across the anterior margin of the sheath tergite ( Ballantyne & Lambkin 2009 figs 199, 200).

Aedeagus: L/W 3/1 or greater (<3/ 1 in Aquil. costata ), symmetrical with apices of LL visible from beneath at sides of ML, LL/ML moderate; LL of equal length, a little longer than ML, separated along inner dorsal margins but not divergent in basal half; with apices narrower than ML; preapical inner margin of LL obliquely truncate, with no obvious tooth; dorsal base of LL produced apically acute and medially entire except for Aquil. costata where it is neither produced nor emarginated; ML symmetrical; BP not strongly sclerotised, not hooded, not strongly emarginated along anterior margin.

Female. Macropterous and probably capable of flight. Pronotum: subparallel sided (A=C) in Aquil. costata , wider across posterior area (C> A, B) in Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov. Pronotal width/humeral width subequal in Aquil. costata ,> in remainder.

Larva. Not associated by breeding in Aquil. costata and association assumed only because of geographical location. Tergal margins laterally explanate with tergal margins not thickened; punctures in anterior half of tergites 2–10 no larger than remaining punctures in Aquil. costata .

Remarks. The most recent phylogenetic analyses incorporating some molecular data indicated a close relationship between Magnalata limbata , one species of Aquilonia , and two species of Gilvainsula , and was found in all analyses. In following these results Gilvainsula is synonymised with Aquilonia , while Magnalata is retained for one species. It was consequently necessary to redescribe Aquilonia . Although the three species included now in Aquilonia were grouped by phylogenetic analyses ( Jusoh et al. 2018) there is little obvious commonality between them if colour is considered (none of these species had molecular data determined and the analysis was based on morphology only). One species is pale brown dorsally, one orange with black elytral apices, one pale brown with brown elytral apices. Their commonality lies however in their occurrence in a fairly restricted area of the Australopacific region. Aquilonia costata is known only from northern Australia with one possible record from islands in the Torres Strait. Aquilonia messoria comb. nov. and Aquil. similismessoria comb. nov. are both known from a few records along the eastern coast of the island of New Guinea near Buna Bay and also off shore islands. The generic description above indicates considerable morphological differences between Aquil. costata and the other species, especially in the outline of the pronotum.

Figures

FIGURES 64–69. Key to genera characters 10. 64 Aquilonia costata; 65, 66 Aq. similismessoria comb. nov.; 67 Magnalata limbata; 68 Atyphella flammans; 69 Aty. aphrogeneia.