Luciola cerata Olivier, 1911

Fu, Xin Hua & Ballantyne, Lesley, 2008, Taxonomy and behaviour of lucioline fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae) with redefinition and new species of Pygoluciola Wittmer from mainland China and review of Luciola LaPorte, Zootaxa 1733, pp. 1-44 : 13-15

Luciola cerata Olivier, 1911

Figs 12 , 14, 16 , 19, 20

Luciola cerata Olivier, 1911: 147 . McDermott, 1966:101; Jeng, Yang & Lai, 2003b:260; Chen, 2003:166; Hua, 2002:70; Ohba & Yang, 2003:1.

Lectotype male. Labels: 1. ‘Is. Formosa, Polisha III 908 (1908) Hans Sauter’ (‘Is. Formosa’ and ‘Hans Sauter’ printed, Polisha and date HW in black ink). 2. HW ink ‘ cerata E. Oliv. 3. red printed label ‘Typus’. CMG.

Remarks. Dr Roberto Poggi, Curator and Director of the Civic Museum in Genoa, confirmed that there were only two syntype specimens (one male and one female) of Luciola cerata in the Museum collection and suggested that one should be designated as a lectotype. This conforms the requirements of Article 74 (74.1 – 74.3) of the ICZN.

Diagnosis. Orange yellow pronotum, no dark markings or underlying pink colour; very dark elytra; posterior margin of T8 not inclining and posterior corners not pointed; aedeagal sheath sternite widening evenly posteriorly and shorter than sheath tergite, posterior margin of the latter deeply emarginate; sheath sternite terminated along its posterior margin by short barely emarginate median hairy process; aedeagus with ML slightly shorter than LL; LL broad apically when viewed from beneath, and bearing on their inner margins cylindrical hairy processes; basal piece moderately sclerotised but not in two asymmetrical halves.

Male. 8.7 mm long (excluding head). Colour. Pronotum, MN and MS orange yellow; semitransparent anterior and posterior margins devoid of fat body ( Fig. 14). Elytra black. Head, including labrum very dark reddish brown; apical segment maxillary palpi paler brown, of labial palpi very pale brown; antennae with scape and pedicel as dark as head and very shiny, rest of segments dull and slightly paler. Ventral aspect of thorax and all coxae, trochanters and femora except for tips, yellow. Remainder of all legs brown. Abdomen with white LO occupying almost all of V 6 and 7 except for a very narrow clear band along the sides; basal ventrites dark brown; T7 and 8 pale yellowish semi transparent, remainder of tergites dark brown; dorsally reflexed margins of V 7 white; remaining ventrites brown. Pronotum ( Fig. 14): 1.3 mm long; 2.3 mm wide; width/length 1.7; almost 1/7 as long as whole body length; wider across posterior margin than elsewhere; width across posterior margin slightly less than width across elytral humeri; median anterior margin rounded and projecting beyond rounded obtuse anterolateral corners; lateral margins diverging along their length and not indented near or at posterolateral corner; posterolateral corners rounded, angle obtuse, angle subtended obliquely with median line of pronotum, and projecting beyond posterior margin and delimited by a shallow emargination; hypomeron flattened only in posterior half; dorsal surface mainly smooth, gently convex, with median sulcus moderately depressed along its length; short ridges extending obliquely from posterolateral area to median area of disc; convexity over posterior margin of eye not obvious; dorsal surface of median posterior area not strongly flattened; posterolateral area lacking irregular small low tubercles; punctation small not dense, separated 1–2 times their width in all areas of surface. Elytra: 7.4 mm long; punctation not conspicuously larger than pronotal punctation, not linear; apex not deflexed; interstitial lines not well defined; lacking a strongly defined humeral carina; epipleuron and sutural ridge extending to but not around rounded apex, neither thickened apically; subparallel-sided for approximately 6/7 of their length with some convergence of lateral margins in posterior 1/7; closed elytra contiguous along almost all their length; when viewed from beneath epipleuron concealing elytral humerus; when viewed from above epipleuron first visible at the sides of the elytra anterior to the posterior margin of MS. Head: considerably exposed, not capable of much retraction into the prothoracic cavity; moderately deeply depressed between eyes; lacking posterolateral eye excavation; GHW 2.1 mm; SIW 0.3 mm; labrum wider than long and reaching to inner edges of mandibular bases; ASD <ASW; frons vertex junction not defined; eyes moderately separated beneath, just behind mouthpart complex. Mouthparts well developed and assumed functional; apical segment of labial palpi laterally flattened, of the form of a wide isosceles triangle, with longer inner edge bearing slender fingerlike projections (4 slender on left palp with apical 2 very close; 4 slender with a broad basal projection on right palp); apical segment of maxillary palp ovoid, longer than wide and as long as apical segment of labial palpi, apex rounded. Antennal length assumed subequal to 2 × GHW (L antenna incomplete), FS1 1.5 × as long as FS 2, remaining FS subequal in length and apical FS slightly narrower than remainder; FS not produced laterally or flattened. Legs: femora and tibiae straight, neither swollen or curved; all basitarsi simple, without excavation on inner margins and not swollen. Metafemoral comb absent. Abdomen ( Fig. 12 ): with 6 ventrites representing segments 2–7; posterior margins of V3 and V4 not recurved. LO occupying all V6–7 except for a narrow margin extending along sides of V7; MPP barely defined, very short, no PLP; V7 lacking any projections or processes along the uniformly rounded posterior margin; ventral face of V7 lacking a median longitudinal groove, median carina, or dimple. T7: wider than long, not strongly sclerotised, anterolateral corners and posterior margins not produced; lateral areas depressed. T8: reasonably well sclerotised, visible portion a little wider than long, lateral margins subparallel sided in anterior (visible) half then converging posteriorly in posterior half; posterior margin truncate, about half as wide as width across most anterior visible portion; anterior margin of T8 bifurcated into two elongate narrow apically rounded projections being longer than the posterior entire portion and wider in dorsoventral plane; ventral surface of T8 lacking median longitudinal groove, lateral ridges, depressed troughs, flanges, or asymmetrical projections; posterior margin of T8 gently truncate, with posterolateral corners rounded, not narrowly pointed or slightly inclined ventrally, nor in this pinned specimen with a very narrow portion of the posterior margin of T8 inclining ventrally. Aedeagal sheath ( Fig. 19): about 2.5 times as long as wide, sternite narrow anteriorly with a rounded anterior margin, and expanding evenly posteriorly, posterior area about 4 × as wide as anterior narrow section; median dorsal surface of sternite lacks ridge; sternite shorter than tergite, with the wider posterior margin bearing a short hairy medially emarginate projection; tergite of sheath projecting at sides beyond lateral margins of sternite, with short lateral well sclerotised arms at the sides of the sternite until about its mid point; posterior margin of sheath tergite broadly and deeply emarginate, anterior margin evenly emarginate; a transverse cuticular strip (in two pieces) associated with the anterior margin of the tergite attached by membrane to the sides of the sheath and not dislodged on dissection and subsequent clearing of the specimen. Aedeagus ( Fig. 20 ): Length/width 2; width across LL/ML at base 3/1; LL subparallelsided along their outer margins and aedeagus thus not conspicuously narrower across its posterior 1/3; essentially symmetrical; BP not well sclerotised and not in two halves; base of LL slightly asymmetrical; ML narrower at its bluntly rounded apex and twice as wide in basal half as apical half; ML almost as long as LL, with a truncate base and articulating with the inner surface of the bases of the LL (A in Fig 20 ); LL visible to either side of the ML from below, fused along most of their length dorsally, and widely separate in apical 1/6; area LL joining ML along mid-dorsal line wide and well sclerotised (B in Fig. 20 ); junction of B and the oblique ridges (junction is C, oblique ridges D in Fig. 20 ) being part of inner posterior margin of the LL and projecting a little; from the side these being strong bluntly pointed areas (arrow in figure); area D delimited by the oblique ridges on the ventral surface of each LL an elongate wide subtriangular area, fleshier than the rest of the base, and bearing inside the inner margins of the LL paired, hairy, apically rounded cylindrical lobes.

Remarks. Macropterous females and larvae similar in morphology to P. q i n g y u are associated with this species ( Ohba & Yang 2003; Chen 2003). In a new species of Pygoluciola from the Philippines ( Ballantyne 2008), the aedeagal sheath tergite has a narrow well sclerotised transverse plate which appears loosely attached at its sides to the lateral margins of the sheath; its precise origin is not known but it may be an anterior portion of the sheath tergite that has separated slightly. Its appearance is very similar to that seen in L. cerata .

Figures

FIGURE 12. Adult male: abdomen and elytra ventral (anterior end to left).

FIGURE 15, 16. Adult male: ventral aspect tergite 8.

FIGURES 18, 20. Adult male: aedeagus from left to right dorsal, ventral, and left lateral.