Pentacomia (Mesochila) conformis ( Dejean, 1831 )

Moravec, Jiří, 2016, Taxonomic and nomenclatorial revision within the Neotropical genera of the subtribe Odontocheilina W. Horn in a new sense — 16. Pentacomia (Mesochila) procera (Chaudoir), P. (M.) conformis (Dejean), and P. (M.) proceroides sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), Zootaxa 4127 (2), pp. 276-300 : 278-285

Pentacomia (Mesochila) conformis ( Dejean, 1831)

Cicindela Conformis Dejean, 1831: 216 .

Type locality. Brazil, Rio de Janeiro.

Odontochila conformis: Fleutiaux, 1892: 124 .

Pentacomia (Mesochila) conformis: Rivalier 1969: 223 , fig. 17co (221, fig. 14co, 222, fig. 16co).

Type material. Holotype (by monotypy) ♀ in MNHN, labelled: “♀” [small green square label, handwritten] // “Muséum Paris / Coll. Chaudoir, 1874” [greenish, printed] // “Revision Jiří Moravec:2014: / Holotype (by monotypy) / Cicindela / conformis Dejean, 1825 ” [red, printed] // “ Pentacomia (Mesochila) / conformis Dejean, 1831 / det. Jiří Moravec 2014” [printed].

Other material examined. 1 ♂ in MNHN: “ conformis / Dej. / Brésil / 59 C. Dejean” // “1524 / Rivalier” // “Muséum Paris / Coll. Chaudoir, 1874”. 1 ♂ in MNHN: “Sommer” // “Muséum Paris / Coll. Chaudoir 1874”. 1 ♂ in MNHN, 1 ♂, 1 ♀ in SDEI: “Rio Janeiro” // “Coll. Ruge / Baden”. 1 ♀ in SDEI: “Rio Janeiro”. 1 ♀ in SDEI: “Pará” // “Coll. Baden / Ruge”. 1 ♀ in SDEI: “ Odontocheila / geniculata [sic!] / Germ. / Brasil / ex cab. / Baden”. 1 ♀ in SDEI: “ Brasil ”. 1 ♂ in MNHN: “ Brésil ”. 1 ♂ in MNHN: “Rio Jan.” // “Ex Musaeo / H. W. Bates / 1892” // “Muséum Paris, 1952 / Coll. R. Oberthür”. 1 ♂ in MFNB: “270“ // “ brasiliensis [sic!] / Dej. / Bras.[ilia]”. 1 ♀ in MFNB: “ conformis / Bras.[ilia]” // “Hist. Coll. ( Coleoptera ) / Nr. 45558 / Odontocheila conformis / Dej. / Brasilia, Coll. Schaum / Zool. Mus. Berlin”. 1 ♀ in BMNH: “Fry / Rio Jan.[eiro]” // “Fry Coll. / 1905–100”.

Differential diagnosis. P. (M.) conformis is immediately distinguished from externally similar P. (M.) procera and P. (M.). proceroides sp. nov. by the shape of its labrum ( Figs 8–13 ) which is in both sexes with rounded but flattened, never anteriad-prolonged anterolateral teeth, and the male labrum has truncate to subtruncate anterior margin of the median lobe ( Figs 9–12 ); moreover, the pronotum ( Figs 14–19 ) of P. (M.) conformis is notably wider with convex lateral margins. Males of P. (M.) conformis are immediately recognizable owing to the shape of their aedeagi which never have so distinctly hooked apex as in P. (M.) procera . The structure of the internal sac in P. (M.) conformis ( Figs 31–36 ) differs significantly from both P. (M.) procera and P. (M.). proceroides sp. nov. in having a conspicuous spike-like ventral sclerite which penetrates the dorsolateral orifice, usually protruding from it, often also in untreated aedeagi ( Figs 25, 27 ); other distinguishing sclerite characteristic of P. (M.) conformis and unique within the subgenus is a basal sclerite with forked apex.

P. (M.) brasiliensis (Dejean, 1825) , which is in collections sometimes confused with P. (M.) conformis for somewhat similar shape and coloration of its body, labrum and mandibles, is immediately distinguished by the shape of its elytral whitish humeral macula in form of an elongate lunule, and distinct, transverse protrusion of whitish lateromedian macula.

Note. The schematic illustration of the labrum for P. (M.) conformis by Rivalier (1969, fig. 16co) is misleading as showing inappropriate shape of raised anterolateral teeth—as the figure does not refer to any exact specimen on which Rivalier based his line drawing, it is possible that it was taken from a male of P. (M.). proceroides sp. nov. (see under the new species below), which was previously commonly confused with either P. (M.) conformis or P. (M.) procera .

Redescription. Body ( Fig. 1–5 ) medium-sized, length 9.80–11.80 (HT 11.7) mm, width 2.85–3.35 (HT 3.30) mm, females usually larger than males; dorsally metallic cupreous, matt shiny often with green lustre on head and lateral areas of pronotum and elytra, but often the green coloration prevailing, rarely whole body deep green-blue.

Head ( Figs 6–7 ) conspicuously large with wide, pronounced eyes, almost as wide as the body, width 2.80–3.30 mm, green or cupreous or reddish-cupreous with green lustre laterally; all head portions glabrous.

Frons rather convex in middle, more distinctly so in female, triangular in shape when sloping towards clypeus which is thus clearly separated by triangular suture in middle; confluent with vertex over widely rounded fronsvertex fold, dark copper to bright reddish-cupreous with strong greenish lustre, usually on lateral areas, or almost entirely metallic green; surface indistinctly finely longitudinally parallel-striate, median convex area almost smooth, but with transverse-wavy to irregularly vermicular rugae passing over the rounded median fold onto vertex; supraantennal plates irregularly triangular, smooth and shiny green with blue, rarely cupreous lustre, their apices forming indistinct frons-vertex lateral edges.

Vertex black-copper, usually with faint reddish-cupreous lustre on lateral areas and more intense green lustre in middle and on occipital areas; two shallow anterior-sublateral impressions converging in middle, forming there a shallow median impression on otherwise flat median area; surface sculpture rather distinct, anteromedian area irregularly transverse-wavy striate to vermicular-rugulose, usually forming an ornament in middle, coarser longitudinally parallel rugae on sublateral areas diverging posteriad, running towards temples; large juxtaorbital areas rather coarsely longitudinally parallel-striate; occipital area moderately convex, finely irregularly rugulose, rugae mostly transverse-wavy or vermicular.

Genae black-blue with faint green, rarely cuprous lustre, almost smooth or with only few, very shallow and indistinct striae.

Clypeus predominantly metallic-green, sometimes with cupreous lustre in middle.

Labrum primarily 4-setose, usually one or two lateral setae absent (either broken or rarely not developed), sexually dimorphic in shape; male labrum ( Figs 9–12 ) ochraceous to ochre-testaceous with black-brown darkened basal, rarely also basolateral areas, usually with brown patches, rarely almost entirely brown to dark reddishbrown, rather long, length 0.90–1.10 mm width 1.20–1.35 mm, lateral margins rounded to moderately arcuate with indistinctly indicated or entirely effaced basolateral teeth; anterolateral teeth right-angled, blunt and flattened, not anteriad-prolonged; anterior lobe only moderately prolonged anteriad with right-angled, rounded lateral margins (indicating blunt teeth), its anterior margin truncate or rarely shallowly emarginate, more often very slightly anteriad-prolonged (indistinctly indicating rounded median tooth); female labrum ( Figs 8, 13 ) almost as long as wide, length 1.30–1.50 mm, width 1.40–1.50 mm, similarly shaped as in male, but median lobe with projecting, nipple-like or cylindric median tooth with blunt apex; coloration variable, usually brownish-testaceous.

Mandibles ( Figs 6–8 ) normally shaped with arcuate lateral margins, subsymmetrical, each mandible in both sexes with four teeth and basal molar (the fourth tooth in right mandible in Fig. 7 broken), third tooth smaller than second one, the fourth tooth usually very small (variably in left or right mandible); coloration ivory to ochre with brown-darkened teeth, female mandibles darker, teeth brownish-testaceous to reddish-brown.

Palpi ( Figs 6–8 ). Maxillary palpi normally shaped with elongate, only gradually dilated terminal palpomeres, in both sexes ivory-ochraceous with gradually brown to black-brown darkened terminal palpomeres, sometimes also the apex of penultimate palpomere somewhat darkened; labial palpi ochraceous with black-brown darkened terminal palpomeres; penultimate (longest) palpomere of labial palpi in both sexes elongate-cylindric, only moderately enlarged towards apex.

Antennae rather short, in male slightly surpassing elytral quarter, in female even much shorter; scape elongatecylindric, with only one apical seta, black-brown with green, blue or reddish-mahogany lustre, pedicel in male mostly somewhat paler, glabrous; antennomeres 3–4 variably black-brown with ochre-testaceous subapical areas, or almost ochre-testaceous, in female sometimes almost black with paler tinge on their apices, with very sparse and indistinct setae, antennomeres 5–11 brownish testaceous or greyish-brown, gradually smoky-blackened and with usual micropubescence; in female antennae usually darker, sometimes almost entirely black.

Thorax. Pronotum ( Figs. 14–19 ) glabrous, dark or vividly metallic-green, usually with reddish-cupreous median area, rarely entirely dark green, slightly longer than wide, length 1.80–2.20 mm, width 1.75–2.05 mm, sulci well pronounced; anterior lobe only slightly wider than posterior lobe, but mostly notably narrower than disc, its anterior margin usually prolonged anteriad; surface of anterior lobe coarsely and very irregularly rugulose; disc with mostly distinctly convex lateral margins (including clearly visible proepisterna), notopleural sutures rather distinct, not convex but running subparallel, clearly visible from above; medial line distinct; discal surface finely but distinctly striate-rugulose, transverse-striate in middle, oblique-transverse striae converging towards the median line, sublateral areas covered with finer and much more irregular, wavy to vermicular rugae; lateral juxtanotopleural area covered with shorter and coarser, mostly transverse rugae (not surpassing the notopleural sutures); posterior lobe with distinct posterior rim, median area covered with irregularly transverse, or short, very irregular and coarse rugae, dorsolateral bulges moderately raised, usually iridescent-green and almost smooth; all ventral and lateral sterna glabrous and nearly smooth, proepisterna, mesepisterna and metepisterna metallic blackblue with green, gold-bronze or cupreous lustre, female mesepisternal coupling sulci indistinct, in form of a longitudinal furrow somewhat deeper than in male, only occasionally with shallow, central impression or pit with indistinctly defined margins, usually present in right mesepisternum only, or absent in both mesepisterna; mesepisternum; prosternum, mesosternum and metasternum metallic black-blue or black-green with gold-bronze to cupreous lustre on lateral areas, smooth and shiny.

Elytra elongate, length 6.00– 7.10 mm, with rounded humeri in male ( Figs 20–22 ), in female ( Figs 23–24 ) moderately to distinctly anteriad-protruding (“hunch-shouldered”); outer elytral margins moderately dilated in subhumeral area, then almost subparallel and slightly dilated posteriad; anteapical angles widely arcuate and running obliquely towards apices which are in male narrowly rounded and emarginated towards very small sutural spine, in female widely rounded; microserrulation fine but distinct, sometimes very irregular; elytral dorsal surface only moderately convex and almost even, with only rather distinct humeral impressions, while discal impression and basodiscal convexity are indistinct and anteapical-apical impressions shallow; elytral coloration metallic black-copper or brighter cupreous on elytral disc; wide lateral areas with distinct dark or brighter green lustre, rarely elytra almost entirely green (the chatoyant coloration changeable depending on angle of illumination), or deep blue-green; juxtaepipleural area dark chatoyant violaceous; whole elytral surface rather coarsely punctate, punctures isolated, larger on elytral base, some of them anastomosing in chains, rather large punctures also on lateral areas of anterior elytral half, becoming smaller but distinct on posterolateral elytral half including apices (the sculpture optically changeable depending on angle of illumination); elytral surface glabrous except for the usual, a few and often very indistinct hairlike sensory setae, rarely scattered on anterior area, more often at epipleura on subhumeral areas, and several short microsetae scattered along the margin of apices; whitish elytral maculation consisting of three maculae: rounded humeral macula which is in male partly, but clearly visible from above, while it is darker, indistinctly indicated, or entirely absent in female; sublateral-median macula always somewhat mesad-prolonged (never longitudinal), and elongate-triangular anteapical-apical macula distinctly distant from the apex.

Legs rather variably coloured; coxae metallic-green, often with strong, cupreous lustre, densely whitish setose; metacoxae with one central seta and densely clustered setae on lateral areas; trochanters ochre-testaceous to brownish; femora dorsally brownish-testaceous, brown or black-brown with chatoyant cupreous, green and mahogany lustre and ochre-testaceous basoventral basal third, also with ochre-testaceous subapical spot; femora in female generally darker and more unicoloured, often brown-mahogany; femoral surface covered with rather short, whitish to semierect setae which are sparser on profemora and very sparse and almost brownish on metafemora; tibiae in female concolorous with femora, in male sometimes testaceous with darkened apical area, covered with short, scattered, semierect, whitish to rusty setae which are longer and some of them almost thorn-like on metatibiae; apical-ventral area of protibiae and mesotibiae with dense, whitish to rusty setose pad; tarsi brown, usually with mahogany lustre; first three dilated protarsomeres in male with dense greyish-white pad; claws testaceous to brown.

Abdomen. Ventrites dark metallic black-blue or black-green-blue with gold-bronze or cupreous lustre laterally, except for ochre-testaceous apex of bilobed apical pleurite in male; surface of ventrites smooth and glabrous (except for usual, easily abraded, long hairlike sensory seta, placed on each side at posterior margin of last three ventrites).

Aedeagus ( Figs 25–30 ) elongate, length 2.80–2.90 mm, width 0.40–0.45 mm, almost straight, slightly dilated in middle, apical portion narrowed towards rounded and moderately ventrally directed apex, which is in ventral view blunt ( Figs 28, 30 ); internal sac ( Figs. 31–36 ) well developed, with conspicuous spike-like ventral sclerite which penetrates the dorsolateral orifice, usually projecting from it, often also in untreated aedeagi ( Figs 25, 27 ); other characteristic sclerites are: basal sclerite with forked apex, indistinct, thin dorsally placed arciform piece, ventral spike, characteristic thin U-shaped central-ventral sclerite, and voluminous, probably membranous upper tooth with finely sculptured surface.

Variability. Besides the variability in coloration treated in the redescription, the labrum in one male (SDEI) from Rio de Janeiro ( Fig. 10 ) has the anterolateral teeth slightly raised, but still different and easily recognizable from the prominent anteriad-prolonged anterolateral teeth in P. (M.) procera . The aedeagi are somewhat variable in shape of their apex which is either simply rounded, or dorsally emarginated, but the differences are obviously caused by the state of the membrane of the dorsoapical orifice, which is usually collapsed and may change the shape. As all other characters including the structures of internal sacs of such males correspond with those of other males, the differences are at present considered here to be within usual variability which also occurs in all other species of the subgenus. Nevertheless, an undescribed, closely related species may be recognized in future, but providing that more adults, particularly syntopic males from exact localities, are found.

Distribution, ecology and biology. Known only from the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All of the examined specimens of P. (M.) conformis are historical ones, without any exact locality, no recent specimen was found within the present revision in relevant collections. Horn (1905, 1910, 1926), as well as Cassola & Pearson (2001), Naviaux (2002) and Erwin & Pearson (2008), also mentioned merely “Rio de Janeiro”—non of these authors mentioned any exact locality, nor a data of recently caught adults. P. (M.) conformis , as some others species of Mesochila , obviously inhabits forested areas, and as the Atlantic Rainforest ( Mata Atlantica) in the state of Rio de Janeiro are now only partly preserved, the occurrence of this species appears to be very rare.

The female (SDEI) with “Pará” on its label was obviously mislabelled.

Nothing is known about the biology of adults and larvae, but they supposedly have the same habitat as those of P. (M.) procera treated below.

Remarks. Dejean (1831), in the original description of Cicindela conformis , mentioned female only. Dejean never labelled type specimens of his taxa by a “ type ”, but he usually attached to a type specimen a very small, square green label, as in the case of the female holotype of this species.

The examined specimen (SDEI) labelled “ Odontocheila / geniculata / Germ.” was wrongly identified (probably by Germar). The unavailable species-name which was listed by Dejean (1825) without any description, thus a nomen nudum, refers to a very different tiger beetle, Odontocheila marginata (Fischer, 1821) , as previously mentioned by Fleutiaux (1892), Horn (1905,1910) and Wiesner (1992).

Figures

FIGURES 6 – 16. P. (M.) conformis (Dejean). 6 – 7 — head: 6 — ♂, Rio de Janeiro (MNHN); 7 — ♂, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 8 — labrum and palpi, ♀, Rio de Janeiro, HT (MNHN); 9 – 15 — labrum: 9 — ♂, “ Brésil ” (MNHN); 10 — ♂, Rio de Janeiro (SDEI); 11 — ♂, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 12 — ♂, Rio de Janeiro (MNHN); 13 — ♀, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 14 – 16 — pronotum: 14 — ♂, Rio de Janeiro (MNHN); 15 — ♂, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 16 — ♂, “ Brésil ” (MNHN). Bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 25 – 36. P. (M.) conformis (Dejean). 25 – 30 — aedeagus or its apex: 25 — “ 1524, Brésil ” (MNHN); 26 — “ Brasilia ” (MFBB); 27 — Rio de Janeiro (MNHN); 28 — ditto, apex in ventral view; 29 — Rio de Janeiro (SDEI); 30 — ditto, apex in ventral view; 31 – 36 — internal sac: 31 — “ Brasilia ” (MFBB); 32 — ditto, dorsal wiew, 33 — ditto, ventral voew; 34 — ditto, right lateral view; 35 — Rio de Janeiro (SDEI); 36 — ditto, right lateral view. Bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 1 – 5. Habitus of Pentacomia (Mesochila) conformis (Dejean). 1 — ♂, 10.9 mm, Rio de Janeiro (MNHN); 2 — ♂, 10 mm, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 3 — ♂, 9.8 mm, “ Brésil ” (MNHN); 4 — ♀, 11.6 mm, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 5 — ♀, 11.7 mm, Rio de Janeiro, HT (MNHN).

FIGURES 17 – 24. P. (M.) conformis (Dejean). 17 – 19 — pronotum: 17 — ♂, Rio de Janeiro (SDEI); 18 — ♀, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 19 — ♀, Rio de Janeiro, HT (MNHN); 20 – 24 — elytron: 20 — ♂, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB); 21 — ♂, “ Brésil ” (MNHN); 22 — Rio de Janeiro (SDEI); 23 — ♀, Rio de Janeiro, HT (MNHN); 24 — ♀, “ Brasilia ” (MFNB). Bars = 1 mm.