Mylabris (Mylabris) mediorientalis Pan & Bologna

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 : 32-34

Mylabris (Mylabris) mediorientalis Pan & Bologna sp. n.

Figs. 1 P, 19A–G

Mylabris husseini, Bologna, 1988: 30 ; 1991a: 226 (nec Redtenbacher, 1850).

Mylabris (Mylabris) parumpicta, Bologna, 2008: 397 (pars)(nec Heyden, 1883).

Type locality. “ Israel (Jerusalem) Mishor Adummim”.

Type specimens. Holotype male ( MAB), 10 males and 9 females paratypes ( MAB; 1 male and 1 female MZUR), labelled: “ Israel (Jerusalem) Mishor Adummim, m. 200, 27.III/03.IV-1989, leg. Baiocchi & Zerunian” (white, printed); “ Holotypus (and Paratypus respectively) Mylabris (Myl.) mediorientalis n.sp. Z. Pan and M. Bologna det.” (red, printed and handwritten).

Other material examined. Lebanon. 10 exx. Chtaura and env. ( NMPC). Israel-Palestine: 4 exx. Kurnuba ( MUH); 2 exx. Maalah Haraumim, ( MUH); 1 ex. Aloon, m 150, 31°49.308’N–35°21.195’E (MABa); 1 ex. Yericho ( MUH); 11 exx. Mizpe Yeriho 900 m (CA); 1 ex. Tel Jerusalem (CP); 6 exx. Jerusalem ( MAB; MNHN; MUH; NMPC); 1 ex. Lehavim ( MUH); 1 ex. Nihal Yelim ( MUH); 5 exx. Lahav (MABa); 3 exx. North Negev, Dvira (CA); 2 exx. Arad ( MUH); 2 exx. Sede Boqer ( MUH); 1 ex. Yerucham Lake ( MUH). Jordan: 1 ex. Jarash, Burma env., Al Huma ( MAB); 3 exx. Zarqa vall., Gharisa ( MAB); 3 exx. Irbid, Zarqa Riv. valley (CC); 1 ex. Wadi Zarqa, Ataruz ( MAB); 1 ex. Balqa, Al Karamah ( MSNG); 2 exx. Balqa, Wadi i-Kafrain ( CSC); 1 ex. 18 km N Suwailih ( MAB); 1 ex. Wadi Kafrein, 5 km SW Wair ( MAB); 3 Wadi El Mujib ( NMPC); 1 ex. Wadi Shueib ( MAB); 1 ex. Es Salt 19 km NW of Nablus ( MAB); 1 ex. 5 km E Gisr ‘Abdullah ( CSC); 4 exx. Jordan Mt. Nebo, 31°45N, 35°44E, 668 m (CA; CSE). Iraq: 7 exx. Mosul ( MAB; ZMHB); 2 exx. Assur ( ZMHB). Iran: 1 ex. Mehran ( HMIM); 3 exx. Mehran, Javi ( HMIM, MAB); 1 ex. Mazandaran, Amol, Ramsar, Bheshahr ( MAB).

Description. Male: body uniformly black, elytra yellow-brown with the following black pattern ( Fig. 19 B): two subround oblique spots on basal third, one middle transverse incomplete and sinuate fascia, and one wide apical fascia sinuate on fore margin, not widely extended anteriorly. Setation uniformly black, but clypeus, ventral side of foretibiae and foretarsi with golden setae, forming a small pad under the pro- and mesotarsomeres; setation slightly longer on venter than dorsally; setae denser on head and pronotum, sparser on elytra. Body length: 11.5–19.8 mm.

Head evidently longer than wide at temple level, slightly wider at eyes than at temple; punctures relatively wide, shallow and dense, surface among punctures shiny on vertex, slightly wrinkled on frons; head capsule subrectangular, temple widely curved posteriorly, slightly shorter than the longitudinal length of eye; frons almost flat, on center with one subtriangular red spot; clypeus transverse, convex, with slightly rounded anterior and lateral margins, anteriorly depressed and shiny, fronto-clypeal suture clearly visible; labrum only slightly shorter and narrower than clypeus, anterior margin almost straight, with a middle depression at base; mandibles robust, almost straight at basal half, turned suddenly anteriorly in dorsal view, slightly longer than clypeus and labrum together; maxillary palpomere II with long setae on the posterior side, last maxillary palpomere apically thickened and truncate at apex; antennae ( Fig. 19 A) uniformly black, relatively long, extending over the posterior margin of pronotum, antennomere I approximately twice as long as II, which is semi-globular; antennomere III elongate, ca. 1.5 times as long as IV, IV and V similar in length and width, VI slightly shorter than IV and V, but widened apically, VIII–X similar in length but progressively more widened apically, X subcylindrical, last antennomere elongate and narrowed in the last half, almost straight on one side, slightly more than twice as long as wide.

Pronotum almost as long as wide, narrowed anteriad with maximal width anteriorly, convex and only with a shallow transverse basal depression, fore depression vanishing; posterior margin almost straight; punctures wide, denser than on head, almost confluent on anterior third, surface among punctures shiny; elytral pattern as in Fig. 19 B, two subround spots obliquely disposed on basal third, one middle transverse incomplete and sinuate fascia, and one wide apical fascia sinuate on fore margin; elytral setation shorter and sparser than on head and pronotum, erect on humeri and near the scutellum, recumbent and slightly shorter on the remaining surface; mesosternum longitudinally elevated in the middle, with a clearly modified anterior section (“scutum”), with a slightly depressed triangular area with dense and slightly elongate setae ( Fig. 19 C), the apex of mesosternum and “scutum” less sclerotized and almost brown, except of setated area, which is black; mesepisterna depressed along the anterior margin, which consequently appears to be raised; legs black, rarely dark reddish, pro- and mesotibial spurs similar in shape and pointed, both metatibial spurs stick-like; femora with mixed short and long setae, setae robust and more elongate on tibiae and tarsi; foretibiae ventrally with mixed golden and black short and dense setae; pro- and mesotarsomeres with ventral golden setae forming tarsal pads, those of mesotarsomeres smaller.

Posterior margin of sternite VIII deeply emarginated in the middle. Male genitalia as in Figs. 19 D–G: in lateral view ( Fig. 19 E) the basal part of gonoforceps slender, apical lobe of gonoforceps short, evidently less than half the total length of gonoforceps; in ventral view, gonoforceps ( Fig. 19 D) fused in basal two-fifths; aedeagus ( Fig. 19 F) with two dorsal hooks, both positioned very close to apex with the same inclination, distal hook small, the proximal one longer and more curved; endophallic hook large and almost right inclined. The apodeme of the spiculum gastrale slender, with relatively wide lateral arms ( Fig. 19 G).

Female. Similar to male, but with slightly shorter antennae, setation on external side of protibiae and protarsomeres I–IV with mixed short and long setae, much longer than on the inner side, and posterior margin of sternite VIII almost straight.

Etymology. The name of this new species refers to its area of distribution (in Latin “ mediorientalis ” = from the Middle East).

Taxonomic remarks. This species was repeatedtly confused in the literature with M. variabilis and M. quadripunctata . Bologna (1988, 1991a) named it as M. husseini , or identified it in some collections as M. parumpicta (also in Bologna, 2008).

Records of M. parumpicta from western Iran ( Sumakov, 1930) probably refer to M. mediorientalis .

Distribution. Lebanon, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, W Iran.

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 19. Mylabris (M.) mediorientalis Pan & Bologna sp. n.: 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.