23. Therates confluens Wiesner

(Fig. 169)

Therates kraatzi confluens Wiesner 1988: 17, 18, f. 69.

Therates kraatzi confluens . Wiesner 1992: 90.

Therates confluens . Wiesner 1996: 505, 506, f. 1, 6; Cassola 2004: 25.

Type depository. Holotype female in SDEI.

Type status. Holotype female! Type labels: “ MALAY PENIN., KEDAH PEAK, 3500 ft., 29th March 1928 ” [printed and handwritten]; “HOLOTYPUS” [printed, red]; “kraatzi confluens Wiesner, det. Wiesner 86” [printed] .

Nomenclatural note. Therates confluens originally was described as a subspecies of Th. kraatzi, but subsequently elevated by Wiesner (1996: 505) to species rank.

Diagnosis. Distinguished by the combination of missing dark wedge shaped recession between humeral lunule and central dot in combination with the black color of the ventrites.

Re-description. Size: Total length (without labrum) 6.8 mm- 7.5 mm, (mean= 7.1 mm, n=3). Head: Shining greenish black. Mandibles yellowish, brownish distally in females, teeth brownish marginally. Labrum (male Fig. 175, female Fig. 176) as wide as long, yellowish, with six or seven apical teeth and one lateral tooth. Labial and maxillary palpi yellowish. Antennae extended posteriorally to elytral shoulders in female and somewhat longer in male, scape with a single apical bristle, antennomeres 2 to 5 glabrous, antennomeres 6 to 11 finely and evenly pubescent; scape yellowish above, black on underside, all the other antennal segments brownish. Clypeus glabrous. Frons smooth with a transverse furrow in the posterior part of the orbital plates, followed by several longitudinal striae. Thorax: Pronotum shining greenish black, as long as wide, slightly more constricted in front than at back, transverse furrows strong, middle line and lateral lines nearly obsolete, middle line with several transverse short branches. Elytra: Shining brownish black, with basal and apical humps, distinctly punctate in front, shallower in the apical third (Fig. 170). Elytral apex with angular lateral corner and sutural tooth, recurved between. Elytral maculations composed of a large brownish yellow humeral lunula, connected to a brownish yellow basal dot, leaving open a blackish dot at the lateral margin of the basal humps, and narrow blackish band at the suture connected with a brownish yellow slanting central dot (Figs. 171-173). The central dot is loosely connected at the middle suture with the light yellow coloration of the apex, which reaches the apical humps. Ventral aspect: Venter black, ventrites generally black, occasionally with small brownish lateral margin. Legs yellowish. Aedeagus: (Fig. 174) curved, with knob shaped tip, total length 1.9 mm.

Distribution. Malaysia (Kedah). Vietnam (Lam Dong).

Localities. VIETNAM, Lam Dong, Bao Loc, v./ vi.1994 (JWCG), Lam Dong, Da Lat, 21.iv.1998 (JWCG) .

Remarks. Specimens from Vietnam are tentatively assigned to this species, unless male specimens from Malaysia (Kedah) become available for genitalia study and contradict this interpretation of the species.