Protaetia (Potosia) jelineki (Petrovitz, 1981)

Uliana, Marco, Vas’Ko, Bogdan & Polat, Alper, 2019, Protaetia (Potosia) jelineki (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae: Cetoniini): preimaginal stages, biology, intrapopulation variability and taxonomy, Zootaxa 4565 (1), pp. 89-107 : 100

3. Protaetia (Potosia) jelineki and P. (P.) spendidula :

differential diagnosis and identity of Cetonia floricola fausti

Current situation. As outlined with more detail in the introduction, nomenclature and taxonomy of Protaetia (Potosia) jelineki and of closely related names recently came into question, including the identity of P. fausti (originally Cetonia floricola fausti ), a name that had been used in place of P. jelineki .

Since, depending on the author, the only known syntype of Cetonia floricola fausti would be conspecific either to P. splendidula or P. jelineki , the identity of these two taxa also came into question (cf. Polat et al. 2017).

Discussion of diagnostic traits. Based on the sample available, we confirm that P. jelineki and P. splendidula , as currently intended, pose no doubt about reciprocal differentiation. Unfortunately, we could not study the type of P. splendidula as it is currently untraceable among Faldermann’s materials at Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences (A. Frolov, personal communication to MU, April 2018).

The differential diagnosis is primarily based on the much stronger sculpture of P. jelineki , in particular of elytra. Additional differences are in its evidently stouter shape, both in dorsal view (less elongate) and in lateral view (less flattened), on average color (tending more to green than to golden) and on its more developed hair apparatus, that is however assessable only on fresh specimens and that includes a band of raised hairs along the lateral margins of pronotum, absent or almost so in P. splendidula .

Due to the variability and the quantitative nature of diagnostic characters (including elytral sculpture, see Intrapopulational variability of adults section) the identity of single specimens may however be equivocal, and this was evidently the case for the syntype of Cetonia floricola fausti . Following its direct examination, however, we agree with the interpretation proposed by Ghrejyan & Kalashian (2017), as it perfectly matches small and heavily sculptured females of Protaetia splendidula that we could observe in the Buglan Geçidi population, occurring together with larger and smoother ones, and with intermediate forms thereof.

Reciprocal differentiation of P. jelineki and P. splendidula , and attribution of C. floricola fausti type to the latter, is also supported by a previously unrecognized diagnostic character, the different shape of anterior tibiae, which is perceived by visual comparison ( Figs. 38–46 ) and is confirmed by morphometric investigation, as discussed in the following paragraph.

Morphometric analysis of anterior tibia. Measurements of unworn female specimens (as the tibial shape is sexually dimorphic), indicate that the anterior tibia of P. jelineki female is comparatively broader than in P. splendidula , in particular at its apex ( Fig 48 ). The difference is particularly due to the external side of the tibia being more developed (internal and external sides defined as parted by the medial ridge) ( Figs. 49-50 ). Mean values of the morphometric ratios are reported in Table 2.

The separation between P. jelineki and P. splendidula on the basis of their fore tibia shape was also supported by PCoA method, in which the two taxa show data plots separately ( Fig. 51 ).

Both methods of analysis clearly place the syntype of Cetonia floricola fausti within the range of P. splendidula (cf. Figs. 48–51 ).

Figures

FIGURES 38–47. FIGURES 38–46. Comparison between shape of anterior tibia. 38–39, females of P. jelineki from Erzurum; 40–41 females of P. splendidula from Buglan Geçidi; 42, syntype of Cetonia fausti (= P. splendidula) (specular reflection of left tibia, as the right one is slightly damaged); 43–44, males of P. jelineki from Erzurum; 45–46, males of P. splendidula from Buglan Geçidi. FIGURE 47. Indication of measurements used for morphometric analysis (see Materials and methods).

FIGURES 48–51. Analysis of four morphological traits measured on anterior tibia of females (see Fig. 47). 48–50, scatterplot graphs with evaluation of relative width (48), of relative width of external side at apex compared to length (49) and to full apical width (50); 51, results of PcoA method.