Lampyroidea maculata Geisthardt & Day, 2004

Geisthardt, Michael & Day, John C., 2004, Lampyroidea maculata (Coleoptera: Lampyridae): A new species of lampyrid from Iran, Zootaxa 427 (1), pp. 1-6 : 2-5

Lampyroidea maculata Geisthardt & Day , sp. nov.

Male ( Figs. 1–11 ). Length: 7.5–8.0 mm, width: 2.1–2.2 mm.

Description

Colour: Head and eyes black; pronotum predominantly dark brown with yellow brown sides and the middle of the basis reddish brown; maxillary palpi and antennae brown; scutellum yellow brown; thorax yellow; abdomen brown; legs predominantly yellow.

Head ( Fig. 1 ). Base of antennae nearly contiguous. Vertex and frons polished and punctate. Vertex in the middle of the posterior half with defined but very narrow groove. Mouthparts with the exception of the palpi paler; tip of mandible dark, last segment of maxillary palpus enlarged ( Fig. 2 ) with the underside, for the most part, paler. Antennae long, reaching the first third of the elytra ( Fig. 3 ), all antennomeres slender; brownish, the first two antennomeres paler. First antennomere twice as long as second, third nearly as long as first, the remaining antennomeres decreasing in length with the tenth and eleventh nearly equal in length with the eleventh only fractionally longer than the tenth (eleventh antennomere lacking in holotype, present in one paratype; the absence of the eleventh antennomere is indicated in Fig. 3 by a dotted line).

Pronotum ( Fig. 4 ). Width much greater than length, nearly twice as wide as long (5.2:3); dark brown with the sides relatively broad and yellow brown, middle of posterior margin reddish brown. Slightly deepened between three­quarters and halfway to posterior margin, with very thin ridge in last third. Sides straight and slightly narrowed or straight towards posterior margin; posterior margin nearly straight, middle of margin slightly pronounced posteriorly, hind angles only a little pronounced, broadly rounded; anterior border depressed, rounded in middle and straighter towards the anterior angles that are rounded. Disk well and deeply punctate ( Fig. 5 ), punctures somewhat enlarged near the middle of the posterior margin. Hairs relatively compact, short, thick, protruding and yellow brown.

Scutellum ( Fig. 4 ). Smooth and triangular with sides in second half nearly straight, tip broadly rounded. Scutellum yellow brown in colour.

Elytra ( Fig. 6 ). Elongate, parallel, last third broadening slightly; at humeri slightly broader than posterior margin of pronotum; brown, with lateral margins and suture very small and yellow respectively paler. Posterior eighth of elytra distinctly reddish brown and somewhat reflective. Anterior half of the elytra irregularly punctate but punctures small and shallow; posterior half increasingly rough but not polished except for posterior eighth. Elytra with four very plain ridges, n.b. hard to visualise. All ridges do not reach either anterior margin or apex. Hairs thin, yellow brown and relatively sparse.

Thorax and Abdomen ( Figs. 7–8 ). Abdomen contains irregular pale regions on first two sternites. Light organs on last two sternites, well developed adult lanterns filling most of sternite. Pygidium and last abdominal sternite as in Figs. 7 & 8 . Pygidium white­yellow, margin in the middle brownish, but brownish part covered by penultimate tergite.

Legs ( Fig. 9 ). Slender, coxae and femora yellow, tibiae slightly brown, tarsi paler brown. First tarsomere of hind tarsus twice as long as second, third shorter than second and longer than fourth, last tarsomere shorter than first.

Aedaeagus see Figs. 10–11 .

Female unknown.

Specimens examined and deposition

Holotype male. Northern Iran, Prov. Mazandaran, Amol forest (36°28’N, 52°21’E), ca. 500m asl; July­August 2003 (In the collection of the first author; to be transferred to the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, Germany) ; Paratypes: 2 male, same locality as holotype; in the collection of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, CEH Oxford, UK (to be transferred to the Hope Entomological Collections , Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford, UK). Antennae of Paratypes partially missing.

Etymology

This species is named after the paler and more shining apices of the elytra (patched = maculata).

Discussion

Lampyroidea maculata sp. nov. is the third Iranian species of this genus. Compared with two other species recorded from Iran, L. antennalis Geisthardt and L. persica Olivier , Lampyroidea maculata sp. nov. is much greater in size, has slender antennae, and the apex of the elytra is paler and somewhat reflective. The most important differences are given in table 1.

Figures

FIGURES 1–11. Lampyroidea maculata sp. nov. male. 1) head (dorsal/frontal view), 2) Maxillary palpus, 3) antenna, 4) Pronotum, 5) punctures on the pronotum, 6) right elytron and posterior margin of pronotum, 7) dorsal view of last two abdominal segments, 8) ventral view of last two abdominal segments, 9) hind tarsus, 10) Aedeagus, lateral view, 11) Paramere, inside view.