Diplocheila (Diplocheila) laevigotoides Jedlicka , 1936

Allegro, Gianni & Giachino, Pier Mauro, 2021, The genus Diplocheila Brulle, 1834 in Cambodia, with descriptions of two new species (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Licinini), ZooKeys 1044, pp. 427-448 : 427

Diplocheila (Diplocheila) laevigotoides Jedlicka, 1936 Figures 3 , 7 , 13

Diplochila laevigotoides Jedlička 1936: 92

Diplocheila laevigatoides Jedlička, 1936: Ball 1959: 36

Diplocheila laevigotoides Jedlička, 1936: Lorenz 2005a: 342

Diplocheila laevigotoides Jedlička, 1936: Lorenz 2005b: 571

Diplocheila laevigatoides Jedlička, 1936: Lafer and Kataev 2008: 682

Type locality.

The Philippines: Manila.

Material examined.

Philippine Islands, ♀ HT, Manila, 4.II.1914, Coll. Bottcher (BMNH) (Fig. 3 ) .

Diagnosis.

Diplocheila laevigotoides may be distinguished by the combination of the following characters. ABL = 14 mm; head with 1 supraorbital setiferous pore on each side; labrum with 6 setae (4 medial + 2 lateral), symmetrical and deeply emarginate (LR = 0.80) (Fig. 13 ); anterior margin of clypeus markedly concave (Fig. 13 ); pronotum transverse (PW/PL = 1.31), with sides markedly sinuate backwards (Fig. 7 ); elytral striae nearly impunctate.

Remarks.

Diplocheila laevigotoides has often been confused in the past with D. laevigata ; for this reason, although the species is probably not present in Cambodia, we decided to examine and illustrate the habitus of the HT specimen (Fig. 3 ) deposited at BMNH, in order to examine some aspects of its morphology and clarify possible misunderstandings. For this reason, the species is also included in the identification key to the species of Cambodia (see below). Unfortunately, the HT is a female specimen (and the unique PT specimen found by Jiří Hájek in Jedlička Collection at NMPC is also a female). Nevertheless, its habitus and the particular shape of the pronotum and labrum allow for D. laevigata and D. laevigotoides to be reliably distinguished. The opinion of Lafer and Kataev (2008) that the records of D. laevigata from Indonesia could refer to D. laevigotoides is not confirmed by our examination of a male specimen from the same area (see Remarks under D. laevigata ). We have nothing at present to add about the records from Japan (Habu 1959) and the Philippines ( Ball 1959), which are also suspected to belong to D. laevigotoides .

It is curious that this species was described by Jedlička (1936) as D. laevigotoides (probably a printing error), although the label of the HT reports " Diplocheila laevigatoides " (Fig. 3 ).

Figures

Figure 3. Diplocheila laevigotoides Jedlicka, 1936: habitus of holotype.

Figures 6 - 11. Pronotum of Diplocheila species 6 D. laevigata HT 7 D. laevigotoides HT 8 D. laevigata from Cambodia 9 Diplocheila sp. from Thailand 10 D. walterrossii sp. nov. HT 11 D. erwini sp. nov. HT.

Figures 12 - 17. Labrum of Diplocheila species 12 D. laevigata HT 13 D. laevigotoides HT 14 D. laevigata from Cambodia 15 Diplocheila sp. from Thailand 16 D. walterrossii sp. nov. HT 17 D. erwini sp. nov. HT.