Prosopocoilus similis Schenk, 2009

Zhong, Fang, Bai, Ming, Ge, Yang & Wan, Xia, 2014, Taxonomic revision of Prosopocoilus gracilis (Saunders, 1854) and its allied species from China (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), Zoological Systematics 39 (1), pp. 136-148 : 147-148

Prosopocoilus similis Schenk, 2009 (Figs 39–42, 49–51)

Prosopocoilus similis Schenk, 2009 . Beetles World, 3: 2.

Length 23.0–57.0 mm. Width 8.5–15.6 mm. Color. Reddish to dark brown (Figs 39–42). Head. Almost trapezoidal, 1.7 times wider than long. Anterior margin at middle strongly concaved, with forming a large, deep, triangularly frontal depression in males. Vertex strongly raised, almost V-shaped. Male mandibles. Relatively long, about 1.1–1.4 times as long as the total length of head and pronotum in large and medium-sized males. Mandibles of large males curved inwards. The apex sharp with a marked sub-apical tooth. An internally large triangular tooth situated anteriorly (about at 1/3 position on each mandible); at the front of this tooth, 3–5 denticles sparsely ranged to the sub-apical one; behind it, 4–7 denticles regularly serrated to the mandibular base. Mentum. Almost trapezoidal, front angles quite rounded, scattered with small punctures. Pronotum. 2.0 times wider than long, almost as wide as that of head. Front angles acute. Lateral margins slightly curved, little divergent on anterior 2/3, then convergent on posterior 1/3. Hind angles obtusely rounded. Elytra. 1.2–1.4 times longer than wide, almost as wide as that of pronotum. Disc dim and reddish. Punctures presented densely along the elytra suture. Legs. Front tibiae slender, laterally serrated with 5–7 small teeth in males. Middle and hind tibiae simply with a small spine. Aedeagus ( Figs 49–51 ). Stout, the ventrally triangular teeth of PA presented near the apex, quite large, long (about 1.5 mm from the point angle to outer margin of PA) and sharply-curved. PES about 2.3 times the length of Tegmen. BP about 1.5 times the length of PA. Female genitalia. Unknown, no female specimen examined.

Material examined. China, Guangxi, Baise , 21 July 2010, 8♂, Ying-Bin Li leg. (in MAHU) .

Distribution. China (Yunnan, Guangxi).

Remarks. This species is similar to P. gracilis , but there are differences between them. Remarkably, males of P. gracilis slender and narrower in body shape; sub-apical tooth absent or like a very small knob; the ventrally triangular tooth of PA small, short and blunt. On the contrary, male body relatively stout and broad in P. similis , sub-apical tooth very marked and the tooth of PA large, long and sharply. Also, aedeagus of P. similis is similar to that of P. piceipennis , especially the tooth of PA. But they can be differed with frontal depression, male mandibles and pronotum as figures showed ( Figs 18–21 , 39–42).

Funding This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31071954, 31201745) and the Research Fund for Young Scholars, Ministry of Education of China (20103401120006).

Acknowledgements We are grateful to Dr. Stéphane Boucher (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France), Mr. Max Barclay, Mr. Malcolm Kerley (Natural History Museum, London, UK), Mr. Darren Mann and Mr. James Hogan (Oxford University Museum of Natural History, UK) for their help during the corresponding author visited these museums; to Dr. Luca Bartolozzi (Zoological Museum ‘La Specola’, University of Florence, Firenze, Italy), Mr. Michele Zilioli (Milan Natural History Museum, Milan, Italy) for their help during the corresponding author studied in Italy; to Dr. Klaus-Dirk Schenk (Wehretal, Germany) for examining his beautiful private collection. Many thanks are also to: Mr. Jian Yao, Ms. Hong Liu, Dr. Mei-Ying Lin and Dr. Hong-Bin Liang (The National Zoological Museum of China, Beijing) for loaning some specimens.

Figures

Figs 43–60. Aedeagus in ventral view, dorsal view and lateral view. 43–48. Prosopocoilus gracilis (Saunders). 43–45. Specimen from Fujian. 46–48. Specimen from Yunnan. 49–51. Prosopocoilus similis. 52–54. Prosopocoilus piceipennis. 55–57. Prosopocoilus crenulidens. 58–60. Prosopocoilus denticulatus. Scale bars = 1mm.

Figs 18–21. Prosopocoilus piceipennis. Figs 22–30. Prosopocoilus crenulidens. 18–29. ♂ 30. ♀ 22–25. Specimens from Guangxi, Wuming. 26–30. Specimens from Hainan. 18–19, 22, 26. Large. 20–21, 23–24, 27–28. Medium-sized. 25, 29. Small. Scale bars = 10mm.