Coleolissus perlucens ( Bates, 1878 )

Kataev, Boris M., 2022, Notes on carabid beetles of the genera Coleolissus and Siopelus (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Harpalini), with description of four new species with unusual aedeagi from India and China, Zootaxa 5168 (3), pp. 285-305 : 286-289

Coleolissus perlucens ( Bates, 1878)

( Figs. 1–8 )

Hypolithus perlucens Bates, 1878: 715 .

Type material. Holotype: female, “Jhelum Vall., Cashmere”, “ Hypolithus perlucens Bates ” [Bates’ handwriting], “ Ex Musaeo H.W. Bates, 1892” ( MNHN).

Additional material examined. Pakistan. 1 male, 2 females, Islamabad, The National Forest Park, 12.VII.2003, S. Ovchinnikov leg. ( ZIN); 1 female, Kaghan Valley , Balakot, ~ 1000 m, 21/ 24.VII.2003, W. Heinz leg. ( SMNS) . India. Uttarakhand: 1 female, India bor., Uttar Pradesh bor., env. Karnaprayas , 20.VII.1994 (cFCCH) .

Re-description (1 male and 5 females measured). Body medium-sized for the genus, length 8.6–9.1 mm, width 3.7–3.9 mm. Habitus as in Figs. 1, 2 .

Body dark brown to black, shiny and iridescent, with labrum externally, mandibles basally and very narrow lateral margins of pronotum reddish brown; abdominal sternites reddish black; palps, antennae and legs yellowish brown; femora slightly paler than tibiae and tarsi; coxae blackish brown or blackish yellow.

Head medium-sized (HWmax/PWmax 0.61–0.64, HWmin/PWmax 0.50–0.52), impunctate. Eyes large, moderately convex (HWmax/HWmin 1.20–1.27), almost touching ventrally margins of buccal fissure. Genae glabrous. Tempora moderately long, slightly convex, somewhat steeply sloping to neck. Labrum flat, with almost straight anterior margin. Clypeus very slightly convex, very shallowly emarginated along anterior margin, with one setigerous pore at each outer angle and with very fine and short longitudinal wrinkles adjacent medially to the pore. Fronto-clypeal suture very fine, superficial, almost straight. Frontal foveae oval, more or less deepened, without prolongation on clypeus. Fronto-ocular furrows fine and short, not reaching supraorbital furrows. Supraorbital furrows very narrow, touching upper margin of eyes. Supraorbital setigerous pores small, situated slightly before level of posterior margin of eyes and removed from supraorbital furrows by distance less than width of antennomere 2 basally. Mentum separated from submentum by complete transverse suture, with a prominent, rather wide median tooth; epilobes markedly widened apically; submentum with one pair of long lateral setae. Ligular sclerite moderately widened distally, almost truncate at apex, with one pair of ventroapical setae. Paraglossae glabrous, narrow, markedly projecting beyond ligular sclerite and separated from it apically. Basal labial palpomere not carinate; penultimate labial palpomere as long as apical one. Mandibles elongate, somewhat narrow, evenly curved apically, with very fine oblique wrinkles in apical half dorsally; left mandible acute, at most only slightly blunted at tip. Dorsal microsculpture distinct at anterior margin of clypeus, obliterated on remaining surface, consisting of mixture of isodiametric and slightly transverse meshes. Antennae slender, surpassing pronotal basal edge by approximately one and a half apical antennomeres (in female slightly shorter than in male), pubescent from middle of antennomere 3, with antennomeres 4–8 about 2.5 times as long as wide and basal antennomere about as long as antennomere 3.

Pronotum wider than long (PWmax/PL 1.38–1.45), widest just before the middle, slightly more strongly narrowed apically than basally (PWmax/PWmin-ap 1.49–1.53, PWmax/PWmin-bas 1.24–1.32), with one lateral seta inserted slightly before widest point. Sides evenly rounded along entire length; lateral bead complete, very narrow throughout. Apical margin markedly emarginated, almost straight medially, very narrowly bordered along entire length. Apical angles protruding anteriorly, narrowly rounded at apex. Basal margin almost straight or slightly concave in middle portion, slightly rounded laterally, bordered along entire length, slightly longer than apical margin (PWmin-bas/PWmin-ap 1.14–1.21) and slightly shorter than base of elytra between humeral angles; basal edge without fringe of short setae. Basal angles widely rounded. Disc convex. Lateral depressions beginning from apical angles as grooves; these depressions markedly widened from lateral setae and fused basally with basal foveae forming deep oblique laterobasal depressions isolated from each other by a convex area. Median line fine, superficial, not reaching apical margin and basal margins. Anterior transverse depression very shallow or indistinct. Disc densely punctate, more coarsely along margins and very finely in middle portion, with coarsest and confluent punctures in laterobasal depressions. Microsculpture not recognized under 56x magnification.

Elytra convex, oval (EL/EW 1.48–1.50, EL/PL 2.62–2.71, EW/PWmax 1.22–1.29), widest before the apical third; sides rounded apically and basally, almost straightly diverging before the middle; subapical sinuation very shallow, almost indistinct. Humerus angularly rounded, smooth or with indistinct denticle at apex recognizable from behind. Sutural angle slightly blunted at tip, not extended posteriorly. Basal edge markedly arched, forming an obtuse angle with lateral margin. Striae with granulate microsculpture on bottom, impressed along entire length, reaching anteriorly basal elytral edge and widened apically. Intervals glabrous, strongly narrowed apically, slightly convex on disc and rather strongly convex before apex; two or three lateral intervals finely punctate, more distinctly in apical half. Parascutellar (abbreviate) striole long, with a large setigerous pore basally isolated from basal elytral edge. Interval 3 with a series of 7–10 small discal setigerous pores adjoining stria 2 along its entire length; intervals 5 and 7 without discal pores. Marginal umbilicate series without distinct gap at middle, consisting of 20–23 setigerous pores. Lateral groove narrow and flat, slightly widened apically, with granulate meshes. Microsculpture on intervals highly obliterated, at most with indistinct transverse lines. Wings fully developed.

Pro- and metasternum with very fine and short setae. Metepisternum markedly longer than wide, strongly narrowed posteriorly.

Metacoxa with two obligatory setigerous pores, without additional pores and setae. Profemur with deep longitudinal excavation on inner side. Metafemur ventrally with two long setae at posterior margin and with several very short setae at anterior margin. Protibia with longitudinal sulcus on dorsal side, with one preapical spine on outer margin in male and with three such spines in females. Tarsi almost glabrous dorsally, with a few very short and fine, faintly visible setae on male pro- and mesotarsi. In male, protarsomeres 1–4 and mesotarsomeres 2–4 markedly widened, with biseriate adhesive scales ventrally; mesotarsomere 1 weakly widened, with scales only apically, shorter (in female longer) than mesotarsomeres 2 and 3 combined. Metatarsus slender, markedly longer than HWmax, with metatarsomeres 2–4 slightly widened distally; metatarsomere 1 elongate, about as long as metatarsomeres 2–3 combined. Tarsomere 5 with two (occasionally three) pairs of ventro-lateral setae.

Abdominal sternites finely pubescent; apex of last visible sternite ( VII) in both sexes rounded (in male more widely than in female, almost subtruncate), with two pairs of marginal setae; these setae not distant from margin.

Female genitalia ( Figs. 3, 4 ). Laterotergite symmetrical, longer than wide, with two thick setae apically. Gonosubcoxite shorter than laterotergite, markedly widened posteriorly, with one preapical spine on outer margin. Gonocoxite narrow, about 0.7 times as long as gonosubcoxite, moderately curved, with relatively narrow base and with a tiny spine (short thick seta) on both ventral and dorsal edges of outer margin.

Aedeagus ( Figs. 5–8 ) robust, with basal bulb and parameres comparatively large ( Figs. 7, 8 ). Median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view ( Fig. 5 ) arcuate on dorsal side, with ventral margin almost straight in middle portion and slightly convex in the apical quarter; oblique apical capitulum slightly hooked ventrally; in dorsal view median lobe ( Fig. 6 ) almost straight, with terminal lamella comparatively narrow, about as long as wide, rounded apically. Apical orifice in dorsal position, wide apically. Internal sac with three groups of small spines apically.

Comparison. Coleolissus perlucens , originally described as Hypolithus perlucens , the type species of Coleolissus , is recognizable by the following combination of characters: pronotal basal angles widely rounded, protibia sulcate on dorsal side, elytra clearly punctate on lateral intervals and at apex, and abdominal sternites finely pubescent. In general habitus with widely rounded basal angles of pronotum and oval elytra, this species is somewhat similar to C. nakajimai Ito, 2016 described from one female from the “Animalai” (= Anamalai) Hills in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, but the latter species, according to the original description ( Ito, 2016), is larger (body length 12.5 mm), with vestigial wings, elytra without distinct punctation on lateral intervals (only very sparsely and microscopically punctate on disc), protibia not sulcate and abdominal sternites not pubescent.

Distribution. This species has been described from one female collected in Jhelum Valley (Jammu and Kashmir state, India) and has been known for a long time only from this female holotype. According to recent data ( Kataev & Wrase, 2017; examined material listed above), this species also occurs in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and in Pakistan and seems to be endemic to the West Himalaya.

Figures

FIGURES 1, 2. Coleolissus perlucens (Bates, 1878), habitus (1, male, Islamabad; 2, female, holotype). Scale bar = 1.0 mm.

FIGURES 3–8. Coleolissus perlucens (Bates, 1878). 3, laterotergite, gonosubcoxite, and gonocoxite; 4, gonocoxite; 5, 6, median lobe of aedeagus; 7, left paramere; 8, right paramere. Ventral (3), left lateral (4, 5, 8), dorsal (6) and right lateral (7) views. Scale bar = 0.5 mm.