Miccolamia (Miccolamia) arunachalensis Sreedevi & Ghate, 2020

Sreedevi, Kolla, Agossadou, Anette Houefa, Kumar, Umesh & Ghate, Hemant V., 2020, A new species of Miccolamia Bates, 1884 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae) from northeast India, with comments on related species, Zootaxa 4868 (2), pp. 295-300 : 296-299

Miccolamia (Miccolamia) arunachalensis Sreedevi & Ghate sp. nov.

( Figs. 1–4 )

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3B1579C7-D2BC-4100-B105-F74E2C0AB1D4

Material examined: HOLOTYPE ♀, “ INDIA: Arunachal Pradesh, Pasighat , CAU campus, 152 m MSL, 28 o 4’N 95 o 20’E, 11. xi. 2014, MV Lamp, leg. Umesh Kumar /ICAR-NBAIR-CER 1”.

Description. Female (n = 1). Body length from vertex to elytral apex 4.05 mm, humeral width 1.03 mm.

General body coloration with a mixture of reddish brown and black; body surface dorsally shining, ventrally partly dull under head and thorax, abdomen shining. Body covered with sparse setae, which can be short or long, gray, yellow, brown or black, and erect or recumbent.

Head red brown, sparsely covered with erect setae; area between antennal tubercles interspersed with short black setae and long brown setae; clypeus with recumbent gray and brown long setae; ventral side of head red brown, frons brown, clypeus dark brown. Head deflexed, slightly narrower than pronotum ( Fig.1 ), frons convex, integument between eyes finely punctate; vertex smooth, glabrous, median longitudinal sulcus distinct; eyes entire, coarsely facetted, reniform with lower eye lobe larger, about 1.40 times as long as gena and connected to upper lobe by four rows of ommatidia ( Figs. 3 – 4 ); space between antennal tubercles slightly concave.

Antennae red-brown, underside fringed with relatively dense, brown, and long setae; antennomeres III–XI dark brown in distal half. Antennae slightly surpassing elytral apex, about 1.06 times as long as body; scape clavate, antennomeres II – X cylindrical, antennomere XI spindle-shaped; antennomere III longest. Ratio of length of antennomeres: 0.83: 0.36: 1.00: 0.89: 0.66: 0.60: 0.57: 0.55: 0.51: 0.49: 0.55.

Thorax. Pronotum red-brown, sparsely covered with long brown, erect setae, lower lateral sides with scattered short setae, interspersed with few long, brown setae; ante-apical and ante-basal area red-brown; disc, edges of lateral tubercles, anterior and posterior margins dark brown; prosternum red brown, meso- and metaventrites dark brown; prosternum and mesoventrite moderately covered with recumbent yellow setae, metaventrite sparsely covered with short gray setae ( Fig. 2 ). Pronotum subquadrate, distinctly longer than wide, narrower than humeral width, constricted in front and behind lateral tubercles and with disc distinctly elevated; lateral pronotal tubercles prominent, triangular, with broad base. Prosternum smooth, prosternal process short, reaching middle of procoxae. Scutellum red-brown, small and triangular.

Elytra red-brown in basal third, distal two third black, subbasal elytral tubercles black; elytral disc sparsely covered with long, black, sub-erect setae, denser in apical region, interspersed with yellow setae; lateral side of elytral disc, at its posterior half, with a few thick, gray setae, most of them visible in lateral view ( Fig. 3 ); remaining integument smooth and glossy. Elytra 0.70 times as long as body, 2.53 times as long as pronotum and 2.19 times as long as humeral width; humeral prominence rounded; elytral disc flat at its basal third, distinctly convex at its middle, and sloping towards apex from its apical third ( Fig. 3 ); behind scutellum, adorned with well-developed subbasal, triangular tubercle on either side of sutural margin, sparsely punctate, with a row of punctures next to sutural margin; apex rounded; elytra broader at its base, slightly constricted post-basally, widest premedially, and narrowed apically.

Legs red brown, swollen part of femora dark brown to blackish on outer face; tibiae dark brown at base; basal narrow area of femora with elongate, white setae, sparsely interspersed with short gray setae; tibiae and tarsi more densely setose with a few long and short white and yellow setae. All legs with strongly clavate femora, fore tibiae weakly curved distally; mid and hind tibiae deeply excised distally, densely fringed with white setae in apical onethird of their outer edge ( Figs. 2 – 3 ). Tarsal segments subequal in length; claws divaricate and appendiculate.

Abdomen with ventrites I–IV black, ventrite V black on basal two third and red-brown on apical third; ventrites I–V scattered with short setae laterally on each side, interspersed with a few long, thick, gray setae; posterior margin of ventrite V densely covered with short, white setae ( Figs. 3 – 4 ). Ventrite I the longest, ventrites II–IV short, ventrite V subequal to combined length of ventrites II–IV; apex of ventrite V broadly rounded ( Fig. 2 ).

Differential diagnosis and discussion: By the bicolored elytra, Miccolamia arunachalensis sp. nov. resembles two other Indian species, M. (M.) relucens Holzschuh, 2003 (type locality Nepal), and M. (M.) rugosula Holzschuh, 2003 (type locality Darjeeling, West Bengal) but differs from those two by the absence of transverse, white pubescent band on each side of elytra. Miccolamia arunachalensis sp. nov. also differs from M. (M.) relucens by the presence of distinct, triangular subbasal tubercles on each side of the elytral disc (these being rather flat in M. relucens ) and the scape stouter (scape comparatively slender and elongate in M. relucens ).

Miccolamia arunachalensis sp. nov. differs from M. rugosula by the frons and pronotum smooth (frons and pronotum roughly wrinkled, with punctate frons in M. rugosula ), the subbasal tubercle sparsely setose (subbasal tubercle densely covered with black hairs in M. rugosula ), and the elytra with sparsely distributed coarse punctures (elytra with many coarse punctures in M. rugosula ).

Miccolamia (M.) ferruginea Hiremath, 2019 (type locality Vellayani, Kerala), a third and recently described species from India, differs from the new species by possessing elytral characters such as weakly developed subbasal tubercles, six rows of punctures on elytral disc, two weakly developed carinae and unicolorous surface (in M. arunachalensis sp. nov. the subbasal tubercles are prominent, the elytra are bicolorous, and the elytral disc lacks the fine carinae and six rows of punctures). Thus, based on the above discussed characters, M. arunachalensis sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from the other three species so far known from India.

There are some other Miccolamia s. str. species with bicolored elytra, which are described from the adjacent countries and therefore likely to be present in India. These can also be differentiated from the new species, M. arunachalensis sp. nov., as discussed below.

Miccolamia arunachalensis sp. nov. is also similar to M. (M.) bicristata Pesarini & Sabbadini, 1997 (type locality China) in having bicolored elytra, and a very convex pronotum forming a dorsal hump (Pesarini & Sabbadini 1997) but M. arunachalensis sp. nov. does not have transverse silvery-white band of pubescence at the base of pronotum or near the middle of elytra (both characters present in M. bicristata ); in addition, the elytra are narrower in apical region in M arunachalensis sp. nov. Miccolamia savioi Gressitt, 1940 (type locality China) is another similar species with bicolored elytra, with somewhat similar coarse and fine punctures and with long setae on elytra, but the presence of the following characters in it allow separation of both species: transverse band of long white pubescence at the base of pronotum and near the middle of elytra (separating the red and black areas); uniformly pale reddish antennae; and a slightly shorter prothorax with comparatively shallow constriction in front of lateral spiny tubercle.

Additionally, five species, all described by Holzschuh (2010) and with bicolored elytra, have short or broad transverse band of white pubescence on elytra, a character that separates all these species from M. arunachalensis sp. nov.. These species include M. (M.) scintillans (type locality Thailand), M. (M.) horridula (type locality Thailand), M. (M.) tonsilis (type locality China), M. (M.) coenosa (type locality China) and M. (M.) scortina (type locality Laos). Of these, M. scintillans has very evenly rounded elytra in apical third while in M. arunachalensis sp. nov. it is much narrowed in apical third; M. horridula has different elytral coloration, body with longer hairs, as the name of the species suggests, and has different shape of prothorax with rather short lateral tubercle (such hairs are very sparse and not as long and pronotal lateral tubercles are prominent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov.); M. tonsilis has very small lateral pronotal tubercles and five rows of strong punctures on elytra in basal half while both these characters are absent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov.; M. coenosa is entirely different species from M. arunachalensis sp. nov. due to the presence of characters such as: a black body, lateral margins of pronotum subparallel without prominent constrictions, with a very small lateral pronotal tubercles and five rows of punctures in basal half of elytra (the transverse constrictions as well as the lateral tubercles of pronotum are distinct, while distinct rows of punctures are absent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov.). Miccolamia scortina is a larger species (> 6mm) with four rows of moderate punctures on elytra (such rows are absent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov.) and has lateral margins of pronotum strongly rounded and provided with a thin spine like tubercle which is placed slightly behind middle and more evenly rounded elytra in apical region, while, in M. arunachalensis sp. nov., the lateral margins of pronotum are not similarly rounded but are provided with distinct conical tubercle on each side and elytra are distinctly narrowed apically. Excellent dorsal views (habitus) of all these species, provided with the original descriptions by Holzschuh (2010), further afford clear distinction of all these species from each other and the new species described here.

There are a few more species presently under the subgenus Miccolamia which, although significantly different from the new species described here, deserve mention.

Miccolamia (M.) castaneoverrucosa Hayashi, 1974 (type locality Taiwan) is different by characters such as: uniformly red-brown body, shorter prothorax with short lateral tubercle and elytra with many prominent, rounded tubercles, all these characters are absent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov. As mentioned in the original description given by Gressitt (1951), M. (M.) albosetosa Gressitt, 1951 (type locality Taiwan) is entirely pitchy brown with a thin cover of short, pale pubescence, with suberect white hairs on lateral side of body and brown hairs all over dorsally, besides, the pronotal lateral tubercles are very short and elytra have fine punctures arranged in one or two incomplete rows on disc (all these characters are absent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov.). Breuning (1975) also briefly redescribed M. (M.) binodosa Pic, 1935 (type locality China) and M. (M.) dracuncula Gressitt, 1942 (type locality China), both of them have two tubercles on the disc of the pronotum, a character which is absent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov. Breuning (1947) described M. tuberculipennis Breuning, 1947 and later ( Breuning, 1975) placed it under the subgenus Isomiccolamia ; currently it is treated under subgenus Miccolamia in Titan Database ( Tavakilian & Chevillotte 2020) as well as in the catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera ( Löbl & Smetana 2010) . Besides the different coloration, M. tuberculipennis has many small tubercles on elytra, as the specific name suggests, while in M. arunachalensis sp. nov. elytra are smooth except for subbasal tubercles.

Miccolamia (M.) cleroides , the type species of the subgenus (type locality Japan), has seven rows of punctures [the original description by Bates (1884) just states elytra ‘punctate-striate’] and a broad black transverse band on elytra, as stated by Hasegawa & N. Ohbayashi (2001); both these characters are absent in M. arunachalensis sp. nov.. The original drawing made by Bates (1884) and the photographs provided by Hasegawa & N. Ohbayashi (2001) confirms that M. arunachalensis sp. nov. is an altogether different species M. cleroides .

Thus, apart from the color of the integument (especially the absence of transverse white band on elytra), M. arunachalensis sp. nov. has many distinguishing characters from all the other species of the subgenus, with either bicolored or unicolorous elytra.

The study of the original descriptions or photographs of the various species described above suggests that the original description of the subgenus Miccolamia needs to be modified after factual comparison of the various recent species that have been described after the initial definition of this subgenus. It is necessary as the characters such as antennal length in comparison with body length, presence of fine or coarse punctures on elytra, presence of one or more fine carinae or rows of punctures on elytra are variable and may be good characters to distinguish species.

Finally, the occurrence of another species of the subgenus Miccolamia in the northeast India adds a fourth species to the Indian fauna. Since many insect species described from the neighboring countries regularly occur in India, a thorough comparison with the other species was essential and hence it is attempted here. We feel that an exhaustive survey in other nearby unexplored regions of northeast India may uncover more species of Miccolamia , either known or new.

Etymology. The species name is derived from the type locality, Arunachal Pradesh ( India).

Distribution: Presently known only from the type locality (Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh, India).

Known distribution of Miccolamia : Russia, China, Japan, Taiwan, India (S. India, E India, northeast India), Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam ( Roguet 2020)

Distribution of other Indian species of Miccolamia :

M. (M.) relucens Holzschuh, 2003 — Uttarakhand: Nainital, Bhimtal; Dehra Dun, Kempty ( Holzschuh, 2003)

M. (M.) rugosula Holzschuh, 2003 —West Bengal: Darjeeling, Kalimpong; Sikkim, Nalok, elsewhere, Nepal ( Holzschuh, 2003).

M. (M.) ferruginea Hiremath, 2019 — Kerala: Thiruvananthapuram, Vellayani; Idukki, Pampadumpara; Mallapuram, Tirurangadi; Karnataka: Uttara Kannada ( Hiremath, 2019)

Figures

FIGURES 1–4. Miccolamia arunachalensis sp. nov. 1, Dorsal habitus; 2, Ventral habitus; 3, Lateral habitus; 4, Details of anterior half in dorso-lateral view; note hump-like pronotum and prominent subbasal elytral tubercles.