Echinovelleda Breuning, 1936

Bi, Wen-Xuan, Mu, Chen & Lin, Mei-Ying, 2024, Taxonomic studies on the genera Echinovelleda Breuning, 1936 and Propedicellus Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Lamiini), Zootaxa 5399 (1), pp. 65-78 : 66-68

Echinovelleda Breuning, 1936

Echinovelleda Breuning, 1936: 284 .

Type species: Echinovelleda chinensis Breuning, 1936 , by original designation.

Propedicellus Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020: 518 . Type species: Propedicellus guoliangi Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020 , by original designation. Syn. nov.

Redescription. Body elongate, medium sized (ca. 12.0–21.0 mm long). Head subequal to the pronotal width basally; vertex moderately concave. Eyes coarsely faceted, deeply emarginate; lower lobes vertical. Frons wider than long. Antennal tubercles moderately prominent and separated. Antennae variable in length, AL/BL = 1.5–3.1 in male, 1.3–1.9 in female; at least basal three antennomeres sparsely fringed beneath; scape moderately long, with apical cicatrix developed; pedicel usually projecting on inner side apically; antennomere III the longest. Maxillary and labial palpi with terminal palpomeres fusiform in both sexes.

Pronotum with an inverted trapezoidal shape, subequal to or slightly longer than width basally; with two indistinct transverse grooves at the anterior and posterior margins; anterior middle of each side with a moderately long lateral spine, usually thickened at base and acute apically; disk rough, moderately convex, with three main prominent calli arranged in an inverted triangle. Scutellum moderately long or short, broadly rounded posteriorly.

Elytra longer than twice of pronotal length (relatively longer in female); humeri distinctly broader than pronotal basal width, prominent, broadly rounded or reduced; apices variable in shape. Each elytron conspicuously with series of rounded to conical, irregularly sized tubercles arranged in three longitudinal rows, or partially forming prominent carinae, usually asymmetrical along the suture; disk covered with three types of pubescence forming maculae or patterns, of which one is appressed and usually predominant, another two are inclined (or suberect) and sparse, either dark brown to blackish or yellowish to pale colored, forming small maculae or spots subapically or along the lateral margin. Hind wings normally developed or highly reduced.

Prosternal process narrow, lower than coxae; procoxal cavities closed posteriorly. Mesoventral process variable from distinctly tuberculate to weakly carinate or completely flattened ( Figs. 16–18 ); mesocoxal cavities open externally to mesepimera. Metaventrite moderately long or shortened; metacoxae transverse. Abdominal ventrite I subequal to subsequent three together. Legs long and slender; mesotibiae with a subapical oblique groove externally; first hind tarsal segment slightly shorter than the two succeeding combined; tarsi four segmented; tarsal claws divaricate.

Endophallus of male genitalia in everted condition ( Figs. 21–27 ) S-shaped, moderately long and slender, longer than double length of median lobe; BPH, MPH and APH well defined; crescent-shaped sclerites present. MPH usually subdivided into MT, CT and PB by constrictions, seldom MT and CT merged; MT cylindrical, roughly straight; CT more or less swollen lateroventrally in distal part, with one or two ltc at each side, curved mesially of varying degrees ( Figs. 21b, 23b, 24b, 26b ); PB moderately long, with developed anterior bulb. APH subdivided into ab and bb; ab conical or truncated conical-shaped; bb highly reduced ( Fig. 21a ), weakly developed ( Fig. 23a ) or elongated with developed distal bubble ( Fig. 25a ). Apical furrow with internal membrane complete, elongated conical-shaped. Ejaculatory ducts paired, gn situated at extreme apex or dorsal side of bb.

Distribution ( Map 1 ). China, Vietnam.

Remarks. The genus Echinovelleda was originally established based on a flightless species with sharply armed elytra. Huang et al. (2020) described a morphologically similar genus Propedicellus , designated a flying species with obtusely tuberculate elytra as its type species and proposed to distinguish their new genus from Echinovelleda by “the antennae longer, apex of pedicel processed towards inner side; middle setal band on pronotum short, not extending to apex; elytra covered with a pair of irregular black setal spots at apical 1/3; elytra longer, marginated at apical 1/3 and rounded apically, not covered with large sharp tubercles and the hind wings developed”.

However, as mentioned in Bi & Chen (2021), the shape of antennal pedicel of the two genera is identical and these elytral subapical “black setal spots” also present in both genera. And some other characters employed by Huang et al. (2020) such as the length of antennae or elytra (associated with the development of hindwings), or the sharpness of elytral apical margin can be frequently observed to be interspecific morphologically variable within a certain genus, e. g. Pseudoechthistatus Pic, 1917 , Parechthistatus Breuning, 1942 , Morimopsis Thomson, 1857 and Morimospasma Ganglbauer, 1890 ( Bi & Lin 2016; Takakuwa et al. 2020; Bi 2020, 2021), and the shape of the pronotal “setal band” even found to be strongly intraspecific variable (e. g. in E. vitalisi ), therefore can hardly be applied to generic definition.

Moreover, the discoveries of Echinovelleda inermis (a flightless species with similar structure of the elytral subapical marginations as those present in Propedicellus spp. ), E. yanziae (simultaneously with elongate elytra, developed hindwings and large sharp elytral tubercles) in Bi & Chen (2021) and two new species with similar transitional situations described below, further make the status of Propedicellus unstable.

Finally, the investigation and comparison of male endophallus of above-mentioned species (except for E. yanziae ) undertaken in this study indicate that all these studied taxa are closely allied. Thereinto, one flightless species ( E. mumuae ) is found closest to a flying species ( E. guoliangi ) regarding the considerable similarities of their endophallic structures, and similar situations also appears between E. chinensis and E. protochinensis . And no combination of above-mentioned characters can be proposed to separate these involved species into two groups. Therefore, Propedicellus Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020 is herein synonymized with Echinovelleda Breuning, 1936 .

Echinovelleda is similar to the Asian genus Morimospasma Ganglbauer, 1889 , which also have remarkably elytral tubercles partially arranged in rows or forming carinae, and some taxa of it also have pedicels projecting on inner side apically. These features indicate a close relationship between these two genera. Echinovelleda can be distinguished from Morimospasma mainly by the elytra with inclined (or suberect) light-colored pubescence forming small maculae or pattern near apices or along the lateral margins, instead of absent, endophallus with PB not extremely elongated and ab conical, not constricted at base, instead of broadened distally or at least cylindrical.

Figures

MAP 1. Distribution of Echinovelleda.

FIGURES 13–18. Details of structures of Echinovelleda spp. 13–16, E. vitalisi (Pic, 1925); 17, E. guoliangi (Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020); 18, E. qiului (Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020). 13–15, pronotum in dorsal view, show the intraspecific variation of discal maculae; 16–18, mesoventral process in laterofrontal view.

FIGURES 21–27. Endophallus of Echinovelleda spp. in inflated and everted condition. 21, E. c. chinensis Breuning, 1936; 22, E. c. dichromata Bi, 2018; 23, E. mumuae Bi & Mu, sp. nov.; 24, E. guoliangi (Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020); 25, E. protochinensis Bi & Lin, sp. nov.; 26, E. vitalisi (Pic, 1925); 27, E. qiului (Huang, Huang & Liu, 2020). a, enlargement of apical portion; b apical portion in dorsolateral view. 21, from Bi (2018); 22, from Bi & Chen (2021).