Bohumiljania lafoa, Reid & Beatson, 2011

Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2011, Revision of the New Caledonian endemic genus Bohumiljania Monrós (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Spilopyrinae), Zootaxa 3000, pp. 1-43 : 11-14

Bohumiljania lafoa sp. nov.

( Figs 7, 15, 28–32, 37–38, 41, 49, 57–61, 69, 73, 77–79, 86, 89–91, 98, 102–104, 111–113, 121–123, 131, 138–140, 147, 149–152, 154)

Bohumiljania caledonica sensu auctt., nec Jolivet 1957; Jolivet, Verma & Mille 2003; Jolivet, Verma & Mille 2005; Verma & Jolivet 2004; Gomez-Zurita et al. 2005; Verma & Jolivet 2006; Gomez-Zurita et al. 2007; Jolivet & Verma 2008b; Jolivet & Verma 2009.

Material examined

Types: Holotype: male/ Nouvelle-Caledonie, La Foa SRFP , Lat. S 21.73205 Long. E 165.89936, alt. 32m / collecté sur Syzygium cumini par battage, le 14.ii.2007, par J. Brnon ( LELF); Paratypes (7): male, female, mature larva/ [printed label] New Caledonia, Pocquereuse [sic], Lou Fou [sic], xii.2001, P. Jolivet / [handwritten] Nlle Caledonie Pocquereux La Foa, xii.2001 P. Jolivet / ( FCAG); male, female, same data but without handwritten label ( FCAG); female/ Sarramea N. Caledonie, Reserve du Col d’Amieu le 17.iii.2007 par T . Samson, amp. vap. mercure ( LELF); male/ La Foa, Sarramea GPS 21: 40.201 S; 165: 48.548 E & 21: 40.203S 165: 48.512E &, on Syzygium cumini , 24 & 30m, xi.2009, G. Kergoat ( AMS) .

Non-type: female/ 1km SW Mandjella, 20:24S 164:32E, 750m, mv light rainforest, 11904, 5.i.2005, G. Monteith ( QMB).

Description

Length: male 14–15.5mm, female 17–20mm; body elongate parallel-sided, length male 2.6x width, female 2.5–2.8x width, length 2.8–3.3x height, elevated towards elytral base in profile with slightly convex pronotum. Body and appendages yellow to orange, but most of dorsal surface lime-green or green including: head posterior to antennae (except margins of eyes), pronotum (except apical margin in some specimens) and pronotal hypomeron (at least laterally), elytra except epipleura and internal edge of suture, apical third of femora, external faces of tibiae, sides of metaventrite, metepisternum, sides of abdominal ventrites I–IV, ventrite V; antennomeres 1–6 reddishorange with black or blackish anterior edges, 7–11 dull red; edges of tarsomeres 1–3 blackish; apices of mandibles, edge of buccal cavity at antennal sockets, and extreme apices of femora and tibiae black. Head punctures each armed with recumbent short white setae, long and dense on genae. Pronotal punctures mostly setose but setae minute, apparently glabrous on disc. Vertex and frontoclypeus microreticulate, at least at sides, pronotum and elytra shining, without microreticulation.

Head: distinctly pubescent, short recumbent setae denser at sides; puncturation dense (intervals about equal to diameters) and moderately fine throughout or coarser and sparser at middle; midline of head shallowly depressed and sides of frontoclypeal suture deeply grooved; eyes large and laterally prominent, with small internal canthus, separated by c. 4x eye widths (male) or c. 4.5x eye width (female); temples short, c. 0.2x length eye, not posteriorly truncate; gena short, 0.3x eye length (male) or 0.25x eye length (female), genal lobe ratio 1.5–2; antennae situated at anterior of head, in laterally directed sockets, 4.5–5.0x socket diameter apart, c. 0.65x body length (male) or 0.6x body length (female); all antennomeres elongate: 2 shortest (c. 0.5x first), <3=6, <1=4, <5, <8, <10, <7=9, <11 (male), or 2, <3, <1=6, <4, (or <1, <4=6), <5, <8, <7=9=10, (or <10, <7=9), <11 (female); antennomere 7 comparatively slightly expanded; labrum not densely setose, with 1 pair of prominent setae on disc and 2–3 pairs at sides; apical maxillary palpomere elongate, with narrow tip in both sexes, preapical as long as apical, or slightly shorter; mentum strongly transverse, width 3x median length, with prominent anterior angles; gula smooth, with distinct transverse ridges.

Thorax: pronotum almost glabrous, but minute sparse recumbent setae present, longer and more evident at sides; pronotal hypomeron with dense pubesence on inner half; pronotum almost parallel-sided, slightly narrowed anteriorly, anterior truncate or slightly convex, base broadly convex at middle; pronotal width 1.15–1.3x length; anterior angles strongly laterally produced, c. 45–70°, posterior angles not or slightly produced, 80–90°; anterior not margined except near angles, sides and base margined; sides of disc longitudinally shallowly depressed in basal half, with a slight swelling (variable) between depression and lateral margin; pronotal punctures variable in size and density, from fine and sparse to coarse and coalescent, generally more closely and strongly punctured in lateral depressions, at sides and anterior, but always absent from a smooth oval or circular area on anterior of midline; anterior corner of hypomeron strongly punctured; prosternum punctured and densely pubescent at sides, process smooth, almost impunctate and glabrous; prosternal process elevated from base, flat, elongate, slightly concave sides expanded to strongly bilobed apex, angle between lobes U- or V-shaped, 75–110°; scutellum impunctate, almost quadrate with rounded apex, to semi-oval, flat or medially depressed; elytron apparently glabrous (with minute setae at extreme apex); slight elongate depression between humerus and epipleuron; elytral sculpture variable, coarsening towards apex from smoother basal half closely and usually strongly punctured, generally with shallow grooves between punctures, to at least apical sixth (usually apical third) strigose-rugose with punctures more or less obliterated; upper margin epipleuron reaching angle of humerus at base but absent in apical tenth; mesoventrite median process abruptly elevated to strongly bilobed apex, angle between lobes U- to Vshaped, 80–90° (less than apex of prosternal process in 4 of 5 specimens); wing fully developed, with uncoloured medial fleck; metaventrite shining and glabrous medially, densely pubescent and finely punctured at sides, apical lobe with or without lateral margination and flat or shallowly depressed; metepisternum densely finely punctured and pubescent; 1 short spur on protibia, 2 on remainder; tarsi broad, length first metatarsomere 1.5x with (male), 1.3–1.4x width (female); length second metatarsomere 1.1x width (male), = width (female).

Abdomen: ventrites I and II entirely fused; ventrites shallowly microreticulate, mostly smooth and shining, especially at middle, but generally with sparse recumbent setae and punctures, sides of I with denser patch of fine punctures and V with longer more erect setae; ventrite 1 almost entirely laterally keeled, II keeled for basal 2/3–3/ 4, III with (1m, 2f) or without (2m, 1f) partial lateral keel, IV with (2f) or without (3m, 1f) partial lateral keel, V without lateral keel; apex ventrite V with broad shallow excision in male, evenly rounded in female.

Genitalia: spiculum relictum transversely rectangular, with shallowly concave apical margin; tegmen with prominent symmetrical keel in basal half; penis long and narrow, apex rounded in dorsal view, acute and straight in lateral view; membrane in ostium of penis with pair of darker struts at edge; endophallic sclerite well-developed, c. 0.5 length of penis, flagellar but not exerted in repose; apex female sternite VIII narrowly and shallowly concave, basal apodeme small and triangular with narrow truncate apex, or elongate with slightly expanded apex; gonostylus ovate, flattened, almost fused to gonocoxite; spermatheca falcate, with slight median swelling, duct short and thick, strongly twisted before insertion of gland; rectal kotpresse with denser transverse bands of spinules, band elongately lobed on venter, narrow on dorsum.

Notes

Etymology: named from the most frequently used place name in association with the type locality, La Foa, a noun in apposition.

At the time of writing (2010), no material had been lodged in Paris Museum although this was said to have happened in 2002 ( Jolivet et al. 2003). Fortunately we have borrowed from other collections some of the original material collected by Jolivet and colleagues, plus specimens collected later at the same locality. The published and labelled material appears to have been collected at several different localities, using the following names: Col d’Amieu, La Foa south-east of Bourail ( Jolivet et al. 2003:5), Sarramea (label data on specimens borrowed), Pocquereux ( Jolivet et al. 2009, plates 38–40). We are advised that the first three localities refer to the same cluster of trees: “all the specimens (including those collected by C. Mille, P. Jolivet or D. Paulaud) have been collected in the same locality (it is a large field with a great number of Syzygium ).... in Sarramea (near La Foa)” (G. Kergoat, in litt. July 2010). Pocquereux is the location of the agronomic laboratory where the specimens were reared and photographed; there are no Syzygium trees and thus no B. lafoa in this locality.

Bohumiljania lafoa has been treated as B. caledonica by earlier authors, but the redescription of B. caledonica by Jolivet et al. (2003) differs considerably from its original description ( Monrós, 1958; see above under B. caledonica ). In particular, the two descriptions differ in: body and appendage colour, shape and surface sculpture of pronotum and elytra. If the unique specimen of B. caledonica was a female, as its rounded sternite VII indicates ( Fig. 2), the two species also differ in size. Furthermore, Jolivet (1957), described a coloured medial fleck ( Fig. 4) which is absent from the material from Sarramea at our disposal ( Fig. 73). Clearly two different species have been confused under B. caledonica , with the species collected by Jolivet and others being undescribed. However, we also note that the description provided by Jolivet et al. (2003), based on exactly the same material we have examined, erroneously describes the antennae as “shining black, practically glabrous”, also elytra “practically smooth”, tarsi “generally black”, “anterior side of the pronotum black”, “upper side of... pronotum glabrous”, “front coxae globular”. There are further discrepancies in the drawing provided ( Jolivet et al. 2003, Plate 1, Figure 1): all antennal segments of similar width, anterior pronotal angles smoothly rounded, elytra striate, posterior tarsi with short segments. Several of these observations are clearly at variance with the photograph of a specimen provided in the same paper ( Jolivet et al. 2003, Plate 6, Figure 2).

The description above includes the single female listed in ‘non-types’ from Mandjelia, c. 150km north of Sarramea, which was collected at 750m altitude. Compared with Sarramea material, this specimen is small, 17mm in contrast to the 18–20mm females from Sarramea, with slightly less densely punctate head and slightly smoother elytra (wrinkles shallow and confined to elytral apex), parallel-sided prosternal process ( Fig. 61) and almost entirely lime-green elytra (epipleuron narrowly yellowish-green). The spermatheca is identical to that of Sarramea material ( Fig. 140). Other character states are more or less identical (compare Figs 28–32, 77–79, 111–113, 121–123). The variability shown by five specimens from the type locality suggests that the characters distinguishing this specimen are weak. Therefore we are reluctant to identify the Mandjelia specimen as belonging to a new taxon. A large male specimen (17mm) collected at the same locality is discussed under B. xanthogramma (q.v.).

Bohumiljania lafoa is the only lowland and only western species of the genus. However the single locality is a plot of introduced Syzigium cumini , an invasive weed native to the Indian subcontinent ( Morton 1987; Swarbrick 1997). This suggests (i) B. lafoa could be widespread in New Caledonia, wherever this weedy tree occurs, and/or (ii) B. lafoa was accidentally introduced to the La Foa region from another part of the island; (iii) the original host is a native species of Syzygium , of which more than 90 occur on New Caledonia, mostly in the same species group as S. cumini ( Craven & Biffin 2010; L. Craven pers. com., October 2010).

The following notes on biology of this species are from Jolivet et al. (2003). Eggs are laid on leaf lamina in groups of 4 under a cap of mixed faecal and glandular material. The first-instar larva bores into the host stem but later instars feed openly on leaves. The morphology of the mature larva is briefly described above, under the generic description. Larvae are pale yellow with dark brown head, abdominal stripes and anal plate. Pupation is thought to be in soil. Adults are abundant in December, but specimen data indicate this species is also present in November and February. One of the type specimens was collected at mv light, in common with other species of the genus.

The adult specimens collected by Jolivet and co-authors are damaged, missing apices of tarsi and antennae, which suggests they were kept in confinement together before being killed. This aggressive behaviour between conspecifics is common in other Chrysomelidae , especially Chrysomelinae, Cryptocephalinae and Eumolpinae (CAMR, pers. obs.).

Partial molecular sequences have been published for B. lafoa under the name B. caledonica ( Gomez-Zurita et al. 2005; Gomez-Zurita et al. 2007).