Bryanites graeffii, Liebherr, 2017

Liebherr, James K., 2017, Bryanites graeffii sp. n. (Coleoptera, Carabidae): museum rediscovery of a relict species from Samoa, Zoosystematics and Evolution 93 (1), pp. 1-11 : 4-5

Bryanites graeffii sp. n. Figs 1 , 2 , 4

Diagnosis.

Besides the very large size of this beetle-standardized body length 16.2 mm-the elytral and pronotal setation are diagnostic. The elytra lack the parascutellar seta and any dorsal elytral setae, though both subapical and apical setae are present in the seventh stria near the rounded sutural apex. The pronotum has only the basal seta present, with this seta’s position 0.14 × the median pronotal length anterad a transverse line drawn across the median pronotal base. The pronotal lateral marginal depression is broad and upraised to a smooth, unbeaded margin. The prosternal process is flat between the procoxae, with four to five setae each side approaching the process apex. Cuticular microsculpture is particularly well developed, with the frons and clypeus bearing distinct, upraised isodiametric sculpticells, and the vertex covered with more transverse, though equally well-developed sculpticells. The pronotal and elytral discs are covered with very small transverse sculpticells, the sculpticells’ small size giving the surface a velvety or velour-like reflection.

Description.

Head broad, robust, ocular ratio 1.61; antennae elongate, as long as distance from antennal socket to elytral midlength; scape stout, maximal breadth 0.5 × distance from basal constriction to apex; antennomeres 2-3 apparently glabrous, but sparsely covered with very short microsetae, an apical ring of setae on antennomere 3; antennomere 4 apparently glabrous in basal ¼ of length, though also with very short microsetae, remainder of antennomere and antennomeres 5-11 pilose with darker brunneous, glabrous longitudinal ridge on each anterior and posterior surface; frontal grooves very shallow, ending posteriorly anterad the anterior supraorbital seta; posterior supraorbital setal position behind posterior margin of eye and 3 × as far from eye margin as anterior seta; frons and clypeus not demarked by suture, surfaces convex, continuous, only three very shallow transverse wrinkles medially at position of frontoclypeal suture; labral anterior margin straight, only slightly incurved medially; mentum tooth broad, apex flattened medially, mentum setae positioned posterad curved mentum margin each side of midline; submentum with two setae each side. Pronotum broad, maximal width 1.08 × median length; lateral margins only slightly incurved anterad rounded hind angles; broadly longitudinal laterobasal depressions joined by well-defined transverse depression anterad basal convexity; median longitudinal impression very finely incised, absent on basal convexity, continuous to beaded front margin; front angles projected anteriorly, their apex tightly rounded; lateral marginal depression of equal breadth from midlength to front angles, about twice as broad in basal half of pronotum; proepisternum smooth, proepimeron very narrow. Elytra flattened overall, sutural intervals upraised at suture in apical half of length; elytral apex evenly rounded; elytral striae finely incised, completely smooth, the intervening intervals nearly flat; humeri narrowed, with elytral basal groove meeting lateral depression at obtuse-angulate juncture, i.e., the humerus; seventh stria with two setae near strial apex; eighth striae with 33-37 lateral elytral setae more or less continuously distributed along elytral length, but with greater intersetal distances near midlength. Legs gracile, elongate; profemur with eight setae along anteroventral margin; mesofemur with 8-11 setae along posteroventral margin; metacoxa bisetose, two lateral setae present anteriorly and posteriorly, median seta absent; metafemur with eight setae along posteroventral margin, three setae on anterodorsal surface near apex from 0.7-0.8 × femoral length; metatarsomeres 1-3 convex dorsally, without evident inner or outer dorsal sulci; metatarsomere 4 lobate apically, length of outer apical lobe 0.4 × median tarsomere length, length of inner lobe 0.25 × median length; tarsomeres 14 with two parallel longitudinal rows of elongate ventrolateral setae each side of a central space, the setae of inner rows each side about half as long as setae of outer rows; metatarsomere 5 apparently with eight ventrolateral setae, equal in length to tarsomere depth, set in two longitudinal rows (several setae broken off). The pronotum and elytra of the type specimen are covered with a varnish-like substance that can be scraped off with diffi culty (Fig. 1 ). The head, ventral surface, legs, and elytral lateral marginal depression are not so covered, suggesting that this coating is associated with the specimen in life, not an artifact of preservation.

Male genitalia.

Aedeagal median lobe elongate, evenly narrowed from midlength to apex extended 4.0 × its dorsoventral breadth beyond the apex of the ostial opening (Fig. 4 ); aedeagal tip slightly expanded, apical surface of tip tightly rounded; right paramere slightly shorter and narrower than left; aedeagal internal sac fusiform (flattened under cover slip), with a field of more heavily sclerotized spicules distributed apically near gonopore.

Type.

Holotype male ( MNHN): Dr Graffe / Samoa // 8284 // MUSEUM PARIS / Samoa / Collection Léon Fairmaire / 1906 // HOLOTYPE / Bryanites / graeffii / J.K. Liebherr 2016 (black-margined red label). The type locality is designated as the mountains near Apia, Upolu island , based on Graeffe (1917); his autobiography notes his residing at Apia during his tenure in Samoa. He visited other islands in the Fijian and Tongan archipelagos, but did not mention any visits within Samoa to the islands of Savaiʽi or Tutuila. Moreover, the following passage for the year 1869, after he had published his popular book describing a trip to Viti Levu ( Graeffe 1868), suggests the time period during which he could have collected the specimen here described as Bryanites graeffii : "Es wurde nun wieder tüchtig geforscht und zog ich fast täglich mit meinem Gewehr in die Waldungen des Apiaberges, Vögel und grosse Fledermäuse, Pteropus samoaensis Peale erlegend, Insekten und Landschnecken, sowie Pflanzen sammelnd ( Graeffe 1917: 31) [It was now again time for me to diligently conduct research, going almost daily with my rifle into the woods of the Apia mountains to gather birds and big bats, Pteropus samoaensis Peale, insects and snails, as well as plants]." A collection made in 1869 would have had to wait only a year before Graeffe left Samoa to return to Hamburg, allowing safe preservation of a specimen held in the humid tropical Pacific. In an ironic coincidence, Apia is also the type locality of the extinct flying fox, Pteropus allenorum Helgen, Helgen and Wilson, 2009 ( Mammalia: Chiroptera), known from a unique holotype collected in 1856 that was recently rediscovered in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ( Helgen et al. 2009) .

Etymology.

The species epithet honors Dr. Eduard Graeffe, zoologist and naturalist from Zurich, Switzerland who collected the type specimen while working in Samoa from 1862-1870 (Clunie & Snow 1986). The species epithet is formed from Gräffe converted to Latin iconography, and without the terminal letter. This formation is consistent with several other honorific epithets for Eduard Gräffe; e.g. Epeira graeffii Keyserling ( Arachnida: Araneidae ), now combined with Phonographa Simon, 1894, Lamellidoris graeffii Bergh ( Nudibranchia: Dorididae ), and Pachycephala pectoralis graeffii Hartlaub ( Aves: Pachycephalidae ).

Figures

Figure 1. Male holotype, Bryanites graeffii, dorsal view.

Figure 2. Specimen labels associated with holotype specimen of Bryanites graeffii.

Figure 4. Male aedeagus, internal sac everted, of Bryanites graeffii male holotype, right lateral view. Abbreviations include: ae, aedeagal median lobe; is, internal sac; lp, left paramere; rp, right paramere.