Coccinella (Coccinella) hodeki, Kovář, 2005

Kovář, Ivo, 2005, Revision of the Palaearctic species of the Coccinella transversoguttata species group with notes on some other species of the genus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 45, pp. 129-164 : 37-42

Coccinella (Coccinella) hodeki sp. nov.

( Figs. 21-33 , 77, 86 )

Coccinella marussii: FÜRSCH (1981) : 81 (misidentification).

Type material. HOLOTYPE, J: TURKEY: ERZURUM province, 15 km SW Erzurum, Palandöken Dağları [Mts.], Tekederesi village env., 39°48.8´N, 041°09.0´E – 39°47.6´N, 041°09.7´E, steppes and pasture near spring, tunnels of gopher, 1965-2230 m a.s.l., 26.-28.vi.2004, J. Hájek & J. Růžička lgt. Antenna, abdomen, male genitalia and tarsal claw of hind leg dissected.

Description. Body robust, shortly oval, in male 1.28 times as long as wide, rather strongly convex. Upper surfaces not much shiny, finely and densely punctate, rudimentary pubescent, setae shorter than diameters of punctures.

Head black, eye canthus and large rhombo-pentagonal frontal spot white-yellow. Mouthparts black, mandible with outer portion of base whitish translucent, apex pale brown; tips of apical maxillary and labial palpomeres brown. Antenna paler, brown, scape and apical antennomere strongly infuscate. Pronotum black, antero-lateral corners each with large trapezoidal white-yellow spot; spots interconnected by narrow white-yellow anterior border suddenly interrupted in middle. Elytra orange-red, with large elongate rhomboid black scutellar spot gradually narrowed towards midlength of elytra and extended as narrow black sutural line in posterior half of elytra; anterior half of elytra with compound black pattern as if composed of three confluent spots 1+2+3 on each elytron and widely interconnected with sutural black marks to form a tricuspidate pattern. Apical half of elytron with large oval transverse black spot, much closer to lateral margin (though not touching it) than to suture. White-yellow subtriangular mark present at base of elytra close to scutellum. Underside black, except for rather small whitish area at antero-lateral corners of propleura, orange-red elytral epipleura, white mesepimera and white-ochraceous metepimera. Legs black, anterior face of fore coxae in male with white-ochraceous spot. Ventral face of fore femora with pale stripe in male. Most of tarsomeres 3 brown, tarsal claws red-brown.

Head roundly pentagonal, more than 1.33 times as wide as long, 0.51 times as wide as pronotum. Apex of clypeal margin truncate, straight in middle, antero-lateral angle asymmetrical, sharply triangular, moderately produced forward and only slightly depressed, lateral sides parallel. Clypeus rather strongly transversely convex, frontoclypeal sulcus distinctly marked, widely V-shaped. Frons 0.60 times as wide as head, slightly transverse and convex. Eyes small, subcircular. Inner orbits slightly and regularly arcuate, subparallel. Long portion of temples behind eyes straight, parallel, then nearly semicircularly narrowing towards occipital aperture. Surface granulate-reticulate with irregularly dispersed double punctures and covered with rather sparse grey-white pubescence. Puncture diameters 0.9-1.2 times (smaller punctures) or 1.5-1.8 times (larger punctures) as large those of eye facets. Smaller punctures separated usually at most by their diameter, present at middle of frontoclypeus and becoming distinctly sparser laterally, intermingled with larger ones along clypeal margins, orbits and on vertex. Setae in middle of front rudimentary or missing, along orbits as long as 3-5 diameters and on clypeal margins as 6-7 diameters of eye facet. Antenna as in Fig. 24 .

Pronotum pentagonally oval, 1.81 times as wide as long, strongly transverse and convex. Anterior margin of pronotum deeply and rather narrowly emarginate, emargination trapezoidal, moderately convex in middle. Anterior corners prominent, their inner margin flatly and irregularly S-shaped. Outer margin moderately arcuate, reaching inner one at rectangular, somewhat asymmetrical tip. Posterior corners slightly obtusangulate, not widely rounded, situated at posterior 0.4 of pronotal length. Distance between anterior and posterior corners equal to 0.75 of pronotal length. Lateral parts of pronotal surface as strongly convex as disc, gradually moderately flattened and slightly depressed towards anterior corners. Lateral margins widely, towards anterior corners somewhat more strongly arcuate, strongly converging anteriorly, somewhat obtusangulate, not reflexed, rather strongly bordered. Base widely and regularly arcuate, gradually straightened laterally, slightly emarginate before posterior corners. Surface finely subgranulate- to granulate-reticulate, finely densely punctate. Punctures 0.8-1.1 times as large as eye facets, somewhat irregularly spaced, more strongly impressed than on head, separated usually by their diameter and becoming gradually somewhat sparser anteriorly and laterally, separated by 1.5-2 diameters. Scutellum small, equilaterally triangular, at base as wide as 0.08 of pronotal width. Surface densely covered with small punctures.

Elytra widely oval, in male 1.05 times as long as wide, rather strongly convex. In lateral view 2.1 times as long as high, somewhat more strongly convex posteriorly than anteriorly. Base of elytron slightly incurved, humeral angle widely arcuate, subrectangular, not projecting anteriorly, its inner margin scarcely depressed. Humeral bulge small, rather slightly developed. Outline of disc including sides regularly semicircular (posterior view), sides under humeral bulge moderately depressed, with slight longitudinal furrow near lateral margin. Lateral margins widely regularly arcuate, more strongly so towards humeral angle and apex, not reflexed but strongly margined, margin gradually weaker from humerus to apex. Apex of elytra narrowly arcuate, not pointed. Surface finely obsoletely reticulate and finely densely punctate. Reticulation represented by dense micropunctures, punctures 1-1.2 times as large as eye facets, separated usually by 1.5-2 diameters and becoming slightly larger and denser laterally.

Ventral surface rather shiny, covered with greyish white, on distal part of tibiae pale brown pubescence. Setae in middle of metasternum as long as 2-5 diameters and on sides and on femora as 6-7 diameters of eye facet. Propleuron moderately longitudinally excavated in middle. Surface somewhat obsoletely reticulate, with fine dense oblique wrinkles along anterior part of its inner margin, punctures shallow, about as large as eye facets, not too dense. Epipleuron at most 1.75 times as wide as base of mesosternum, feebly sloping dorso-mesad, at broadened portion widely excavate, without narrow flattened or subhorizontal area along outer margin. Surface moderately rugose, with punctures as on propleura. Prosternum rather strongly convex in middle, with anterior margin deeply emarginate, emargination broadly Vshaped, arcuate, with medial portion narrowly straightened. Basisternal lobes moderately wide, at narrowest part hardly twice as wide as prosternal process. Prosternal process moderately narrow, not saddle-shaped, with roundly truncate apex. Prosternal carinae parallel, reaching anterior third of length of prosternum. Surface finely transversely wrinkled, irregularly covered with rather small and moderately dense punctures. Punctures along anterior margin smaller than eye facets, separated by 2 (1.5-3) diameters, becoming sparser posteriorly and indistinct laterally. Mesosternal process at base 1.31 times as wide as long at midline, strongly convex. Anterior margin strongly carinate with shallow median emargination. Surface coarsely and densely wrinkled and irregularly punctate. Wrinkles longitudinal, arranged radially. Punctures about 1.5 times as large as eye facets, sparse at anterior margin, becoming much denser posteriorly, frequently oval, nearly catenulate at base. Metasternum 3.75 times as long as mesosternal process, moderately convex, flattened postero-medially, medial longitudinal sulcus complete, well impressed. Precoxal bulges indistinct. Surface irregularly sparsely punctate, finely and densely transversely wrinkled, wrinkles distinctly deeper and somewhat coarser postero-laterally than antero-medially. Punctures transversely oval or round, 1.0-1.5 times as large as eye facets, separated by 1-4 (5) their diameteres along medial sulcus and becoming somewhat denser, separated by 0.5-2 diameters laterally. Abdominal ventrites slightly convex medially, flattened laterally. Ventrite 1 with median portion only feebly saddle-shaped, sur- face rather coarsely and deeply punctate, punctures 1.5-2 times larger than eye facets, irregularly arranged, smaller punctures very dense at anterolateral part of intercoxal process. Femoral line V-shaped, inner branch regularly arcuate, not fully reaching posterior margin of ventrite 1, nearly crossed by oblique line. Posterior margin of ventrite 5 in male widely and shallowly emarginate. Ventrite 6 with shallow postero-median subtrapezoidal impression and distinctly bisinuate posterior margin. Legs moderately slender, distal end of middle and hind femora reaching outer margin of epipleura. Hind tibia 6.67 times as long as wide, inner margin apart from basal portion straight, outer one slightly but regularly arcuate. Tarsomere 3 slightly surpassing midlength of free part of tarsomere 2. Tarsal claw moderately slender, obtusangulately curved in middle, with rather large subquadrangular tooth reaching midlength of claw.

Male genitalia: Tegmen robust. Median lobe of aedeagus in ventral view with basal half subquadrangular, shorter than wide, apical hastate half narrowly pear-shaped with sides irregularly sinuate, with parallel-sided terminal portion extended well over apices of parameres. In lateral view, dorsal margin distinctly sinuate, apex slightly curved dorsally. Paramere thick, finger-shaped, only slightly curved at basal 0.4. Trabes simple but robust, slightly curved dorsally, as long as basal piece and paramere combined. Sipho comparatively short. Siphonal capsule large, inner hook-shaped branch rather short, roundly pointed and moderately curved dorsally at apex; dorsal rib well developed, asymmetrically semicircular. Siphonal tube rather short, widely obtusangulately rounded at basal 0.4, then straight; preapical supporting sclerites gradually dilated ventrally but not laterally, bearing two rather large membranose swellings on each side, terminal ampulla moderate, triangular. Anterior pair of swellings moderate, posterior ones strikingly magnified and for most part free.

Female genitalia. FÜRSCH (1981), giving no illustration, compared them with those of true C. marussii and regarded them as identical with those figured by KAPUR (1973).

Length. Holotype: 5.71 mm; width: 4.46 mm.

Differential diagnosis. FÜRSCH (1981) studied a series of both sexes from Turkey (‘Bielefeld, gelang am 4.8.1965 in der Umgebung von Bitlis (Nahe Van-See, Ostanatolien)’, deposited in ‘Zoolog. Staatssamlung München und der Sammlung Fürsch’, number of specimens not given). The presence of tricuspidate pattern of elytra and the similarity of spermathecae lead him to the conclusion that the material was identical with C. marussii . However, the schematic illustrations of the aedeagus ( Fig. 1 ), median lobe of aedeagus ( Fig. 2 ) and the apex of sipho ( Fig. 3 ) given by FÜRSCH (1981) undoubtledly show that it is a separate species. Its peculiar coloration of the elytra which are strongly convex, and broadly oval at the apex and the tips of hind femora concealed from above somewhat resemble C. magnifica L. Redtenbacher, 1843 . In the latter species, the apical portion of median lobe is quite narrow. On the other hand, C. hodeki sp. nov. belongs to the C. transversoguttata species group and shares a similar colour pattern with dark forms of C marussii . The hastate portion of the median lobe is also similar with that of C. magnopunctata , and the subterminal swellings of the sipho exhibit some similarity with C. transversoguttata . The phylogenetic relationship of C. hodeki sp. nov. thus remains unclear and detailed study of other related species is necessary.

Etymology. The species in named after Ivo Hodek (Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budě- jovice), an outstanding specialist in the biology of ladybirds.

Distribution. Known hitherto only from east Anatolia in Turkey (provinces Bitlis and Erzurum). The material quoted by FÜRSCH (1981) is not included in the type material.

Figures

Figs. 1-11. Coccinella marussii Kapur, 1973. 1 – form of body, dorsal view; 2 – ibidem, lateral view; 3 – head; 4 – antenna; 5 – pronotum; 6 – prosternum; 7 – abdominal ventrite 1; 8 – abdominal ventrites 5-6 of male; 9 – abdominal ventrites 5-6 of female; 10 – hind tibia and tarsus; 11 – tarsal claw.

Figs. 12-17. Coccinella marussi Kapur, 1973. 12 – tegmen, ventral view; 13 – ibidem, lateral view 14 – ibidem, dorsal view; 15 – sipho; 16 – apex of sipho, lateral view; 17 – idem, ventral view; 18 – genital plate; 19 – spermatheca; 20 – infundibulum.

Figs. 21-26. Coccinella hodeki sp. nov. 21 – form of body, dorsal view; 22 – ibidem, lateral view; 23 – head; 24 – antenna; 25 – pronotum; 26 – prosternum; 27 – abdominal ventrite 1; 28 – abdominal ventrites 5-6 of male; 29 – hind tibia and tarsus; 30 – tarsal claw.

Figs. 31-36. Coccinella hodeki sp. nov. 31 – tegmen, venteral view; 32 – ibidem, lateral view, 33 – ibidem, dorsal view; 34 – sipho; 35 – apex of sipho, lateral view; 36 – ibidem, ventral view.

Figs. 75-96. 75-82 – colour pattern of pronotum. 75-76 – Coccinella marussii Kapur, 1973. 75 – male; 76 – female. 77 – C. hodeki sp. nov., male. 78-79 – C. magnopunctata Rybakow, 1889. 78 – male; 79 – female. 80-82 – C. t. transversoguttata Faldermann, 1835. 80-81 – male; 82 – female. 83-92 – colour pattern of elytra. 83-85 – C. marussii; 86 – C. hodeki sp. nov.; 87-88 – C. magnopunctata; 89-92 – C. t. transversoguttata. 93-96 – outline of median lobe of aedeagus and paramere. 93 – C. marussii; 94 – C. hodeki sp. nov.; 95 – C. magnopunctata; 96 – C. t. transversoguttata. Scale lines = 0.5 mm.