Prothyma Hope, 1838

Wiesner, Jürgen & Anichtchenko, Alexander, 2023, The Philippines species of the genus Prothyma Hope, 1838 (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) Part 1: Subgenera Prothyma Hope, 1838, Genoprothyma Rivalier, 1964 and Parasymplecthyma subgen. nov., Zootaxa 5315 (1), pp. 1-36 : 2-3

Genus Prothyma Hope, 1838

Prothyma Hope, 1838: 27

Type species. Cicindela quadripunctata Fabricius, 1801

Prothyma: Horn 1923: 361 , 362; Rivalier 1964: 129; Wiesner 1992: 56; Putchkov and Matalin 2003: 115; Moravec 2010: 43; Dheurle 2012: 41; Cabras, Cabigas and Wiesner 2016: 192; Wiesner 2020: 135.

Remarks. Emile Rivalier (1964: 129) divided the genus Prothyma into four subgenera based on the architecture of the inner sac of the aedeagus. He assigned species with filiform flagellum in a crook or spiral shape, enclosed in a membranous disc that lies against the ventral wall of the inner sac to the subgenus Prothyma ; species with voluminous flagellum with weak basilar tabs and ear-like membranous folds around the inner sac to the subgenus Paraprothyma Rivalier, 1964 ; species with short tubular flagellum, simply sinuous, with truncated base were allocated to the subgenus Genoprothyma Rivalier, 1964 ; and species with filiform flagellum with truncated base, forming a complex convolution to the subgenus Symplecthyma Rivalier, 1964 .

We here describe a sixth subgenus, Parasymplethyma subgen. nov., in which the architecture of the inner sac of the aedeagus differs substantially from the others in having a long filiform flagellum forming a helical spiral of six coils ( Fig. 18d–e ). The Prothyma species known from the Philippines belong to four of these subgenera ( Paraprothyma Rivalier, 1964 species are known from Southeast Asia and Pseudodistypsidera W. Horn, 1934 , with a single species, is known from Samoa). In addition to the morphology of the aedeagus inner sac, members of these subgenera can also be separated by the external characters given in the following key.

Figures

FIGURE 18. Prothyma (Parasymplethyma) johnsoni sp. nov. (a) Holotype, male. Dorsal habitus. (b–c) Left elytron, female. Scale = 5 mm. (d–e) Aedeagus, left and right lateral view. (f) Labrum of male; (g) Labrum of female. Scale = 1 mm. Scale = 1 mm.