Mylabris (Mylabris) tricincta Chevrolat, 1840

Pan, Zhao & Bologna, Marco A., 2014, Taxonomy, Bionomics and Faunistics of the Nominate Subgenus of Mylabris Fabricius, 1775, with the description of five new species (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Mylabrini), Zootaxa 3806 (1), pp. 1-78 : 43-44

Mylabris (Mylabris) tricincta Chevrolat, 1840

Figs. 1 X, 27A–G

Mylabris tricincta Chevrolat, 1840: 270 ; Reiche, 1866: 635; Kocher, 1956: 54.

Mylabris variabilis var. tricincta, Marseul, 1870: 69 ; 1872: 132; Gemminger & Harold, 1870: 2145; Baudi di Selve, 1878a: 363; 1878b: 1161; Beauregard, 1890: 539; Borchmann, 1917: 57.

Zonabris variabilis var. tricincta, Escalera, 1914: 398 .

Zonabris tricincta, Escherich, 1899: 92 ; Escalera, 1909: 245.

Zonabris nigrosuturata Escalera, 1914: 397 .

Mylabris quadripunctata tricincta, Sumakov, 1915: 24 ; 1930: 39; Mader, 1927: 858.

Mylabris variabilis ab. nigrosuturata, Mader, 1927: 857 .

Zonabris brevevittata Pic, 1935a: 159 ; 1935b: 4.

Mylabris (Mylabris) tricincta, Pardo Alcaide, 1950: 74 ; 1954b: 76; Bologna, 2008: 397.

Mylabris (Mylabris) tricincta nigrosuturata, Pardo Alcaide, 1954b: 77 .

Mylabris tricincta var. nigrosuturata, Kocher, 1956: 55 .

Type locality. “... environs de Tanger, d’Oran et d’Alger ...” ( Chevrolat, 1840).

Type material. Types of this species, like others described by Chevrolat (1840) (see above), are missing at MNHN.

Description. Body length: 8–21 mm; setae black, but mixed golden and black on legs; antennomeres uniformly black, III evidently more than 1.5 times as long as IV, XI less than twice as long as wide ( Fig. 27 A); pronotum with a shallow but visible fore transverse depression, pronotal punctures wide, deep, very contiguous or confluent, especially on the fore third; elytral black pattern variable ( Fig. 27 B), usually with one fascia on basal third, one on the middle and an apical fascia wide; mesosternal suture more or less visible on its entire length ( Fig. 27 C); male gonoforceps slender in lateral view ( Fig. 27 E), fused ventrally in basal two-fifths ( Fig. 27 D); distal hook of aedeagus relatively far from apex and with same inclination of the proximal one, oblique to the aedeagal axis ( Fig. 27 F).

Taxonomic remarks. We discussed above (see M. guerini ) the difficulty in identifying this species, the types being missing. For this reason we have adopted the Pardo Alcaide (1950, 1954b) definition of M. tricincta .

The Moroccan mountain populations of M. tricincta have smaller body length, slightly blue metallic reflexions, and sparser punctures on head and protonum. Pardo Alcaide (1954b) considered this morphotype as a subspecies: Mylabris tricincta nigrosuturata , described by Esclaera (1914) as a distinct species. Actually, we did not find discontinuity in character variation among the hundreds of examined Moroccan specimens, while in mountain populations we found mixed specimens with blue or regularly black integuments. Our preliminary molecular phylogenetic studies (Pan et al., unpublished) on specimens from throughout Morocco, including some of its mountain areas, produced no evidence of distinct clades. Consequently, we consider these morphotypes as a variation of M. tricincta .

Distribution. S Spain (?), Morocco, N Algeria.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Habitus of the Mylabris (Mylabris) spp., dorsal view: A. M. alpicola, ♂; B. M. amorii, ♀; C. M. apiceguttata, ♂; D. M. apicenigra, ♂; E. M. barezensis, ♂; F. M. batnensis, ♂; G. M. cernyi, ♂; H. M. ciliciensis, ♂; I. M. concolor, ♂; J. M. desertica, ♀; K. M. emiliae, ♂; L. M. guerini, ♂; M. M. kodymi, ♂; N. M. madani, ♂; O. M. madoni, ♂; P. M. mediorientalis, ♂; Q. M. olivieri, ♂; R. M. parumpicta, ♀; S. M. poggii, ♂; T. M. pseudoemiliae, ♂; U. M. quadripunctata, ♂; V. M. schreibersi, ♂; W. M. tauricola, ♂; X. M. tricincta, ♂; Y. M. variabilis, ♂. Scale bar = 5 mm.

FIGURE 27. Mylabris (M.) tricincta Chevrolat: A. antenna; B. elytral pattern; C. mesosternum; D. tegmen, ventral view; E. tegmen, lateral view; F. aedeagus, lateral view; G. spiculum gastrale, dorsal view. Scale bar = 1 mm.