Cerocoma (Meloides) malatyensis Kaszab, 1951

Turco, Federica & Bologna, Marco A., 2011, Systematic revision of the genus Cerocoma Geoffroy, 1762 (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Cerocomini) 2853, Zootaxa 2853 (1), pp. 1-71 : 35-36

Cerocoma (Meloides) malatyensis Kaszab, 1951

Figs 2G , 3G , 4G , 6G

Cerocoma muehlfeldi ab. malatyensis Kaszab, 1941: 679 (invalid description).

Cerocoma (Cerocoma) malatyensis Kaszab, 1951: 262 , 266, 271.

Cerocoma (Meloides) malatyensis, Dvořák, 1990: 2 , 9.

Type locality. “ Klein-Asien: Malatya, Sultansuju Hara” ( Kaszab 1941).

Type specimens. Type specimens of this species are dated 1941 when Kaszab first described it as an aberration of C. muehlfeldi ; types are still valid but the name has to be attributed to Kaszab 1951 who elevated it to species. Holotype, allotype, and 1 paratype have been examined:

Holotype ♂: Sultansuyu, Hara, / Malatya, VI.–VII. (white, printed) // leg. / dr. Vasvári (white, printed) // Holotypus 1941 / Cerocoma Mühlfeldi / ab. malatyensis / ♂ Kaszab (white with red frame, printed and handwritten) // Cerocoma ♂ / malatiensis Kasz. / det. dr. Kaszab (white, printed and handwritten) ( HNHM).

Allotype ♀: Sultansuyu, Hara, / Malatya, VI.–VII. (white, printed) // leg. / dr. Vasvári (white, printed) // Allotypus 1941 ♀ / Cerocoma Mühlfeldi / ab. malatyensis / Kaszab (white with red frame, printed and handwritten) // Cerocoma ♀ / malatiensis Kasz. / det. dr. Kaszab (white, printed and handwritten) ( HNHM).

1 paratype ♂: Sultansuyu, Hara, / Malatya, VI.–VII. (white, printed) // leg. / dr. Vasvári (white, printed) // Paratypus 1941 ♂ / Cerocoma Mühlfeldi / ab. malatyensis / Kaszab (white with red frame, printed and handwritten) // Cerocoma ♂ / malatiensis Kasz. / det. dr. Kaszab (white, printed and handwritten) ( HNHM).

Description. Male. Body metallic dark green, except for the abdomen orange, with a dense yellowish pubescence; frons with sides and a wide medial strip orange; legs, antennae and mouthparts, including maxillary palpi, orange. Body colour can be variable (see taxonomic remarks).

Head transverse with slightly protruding eyes. Maxillary palpi ( Fig. 3G ) modified with palpomere II wide, flattened and slightly curved; III swollen, long and weakly rounded on the external side; IV long, slender and parallelsided (about 4x as long as wide). Antennae very modified with antennomere I bearing a long, narrow and bent expansion on the external side and dorsal keel wide, high and apically curved; III–VI very modified and ventrally expanded; V with short setae on distal face of ventral laminar expansion; VI with a dense tuft of long and erect setae and a very long, narrow and curved expansion on ventral side; IX transverse, ventrally swollen, dorsally slightly flattened and dorsal edge bilobate ( Fig. 2G ).

Protibial keel short and only weakly rounded at apex in lateral view ( Fig. 4G ). Protarsomeres slightly dorsoventrally flattened; II with an obvious dorsal bulge; protarsomere III about as long as V, excluding claws.

Gonostyli, in lateral view, slightly curved, with apical lobes dorsally directed; apical lobes, in dorsal view, swollen and diverging. Apex of aedeagus pointed; aedeagal hooks equal in size. Sclerotised hooks of endophallus equal in size, both pointing outwards ( Fig. 6G ).

Female. Not distinctly modified. Refer to key for diagnostic characters.

Taxonomy. Cerocoma malatyensis is known from only few localities and specimens. It seems extremely close (and possibly an intraspecific form of) to C. barthelemyi from which it differs seemingly only in abdominal colour. On the other hand, the scarce available specimens of C. malatyensis are rather variable in colour, making this character possibly unreliable. Moreover, the study of type material of both species raised doubts over some diagnostic characters which have been proposed ( Kaszab 1951). Herein, we consider these species as distinct, waiting for new material to be collected.

Distribution. E Turkey. Recorded also from Caucasus area, with no detailed locality information.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Male right antenna, lateral view: A, C. schreberi; B, C. martae; C, C. ephesica; D, C. prevezaensis; E, C. festiva; F, C. graeca; G, C. malatyensis; H, C. albopilosa; I, C. longiseta; J, C. barthelemyi; K, C. vahli; L, C. scovitzi; M, C. latreillei; N, C. adamovichiana; O, C. confusa; P, C. azurea; Q, C. turcica; R, C. muehlfeldi; S, C. schaefferi; T, C. prochaskana; U, C. dahli; V,C. bernhaueri; W, C. simplicicornis; X, C. gloriosa; Y, C. rapillyi; Z, C. marginiventris; AA, C. macedonica; AB, C. kunzei; AC, C. bodemeyeri. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 3. Male right maxillary palp, dorsal view: for lettering refer to caption to Fig. 1. Scale bars = 1 mm (1: C–E, G–J, L– R, Y, AA–AC; 2: B, F, K, S–T, X, Z; 3: A, U–W).

FIGURE 4. Male right protibia, lateral view: for lettering refer to caption to Fig. 1. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 6. Male external genitalia (from left to right: tegmen, dorsal and lateral views; aedeagus, lateral view): for lettering refer to caption to Fig. 1. Scale bars = 1 mm (1: A–E, H, L–M, R; 2: F–G, I–K, N–P, S–T, X–Y, AA–AC; 3: Q, U–W, Z).