Calligrapha pavimentata, Gómez-Zurita, Jesús, 2016

Gómez-Zurita, Jesús, 2016, Systematic revision of Calligrapha Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) with pale spots on dark elytra and description of two new species, Zootaxa 4072 (1), pp. 61-89 : 85-87

Calligrapha pavimentata sp. nov.

( Figs 1 d, 2i, 2j)

In my visits to the NHM beetle collection (London, U.K.), I isolated one specimen originally part of Joseph S. Baly collection, which approached in several respects to the lax concept for Calligrapha , but was well differentiated from any other species I had seen so far. This specimen shares some traits with a group of species with striped elytra and currently in Calligrapha , including C. curvilinea Stål, 1859 and C. percheroni (Guérin-Méneville, 1830) , most remarkably the lack of hypomeral suture, the elongated apical palpomere, or the narrow apex of penis. Yet, I chose to present it here because of the conspicuous pattern of pale spots contrasting with the dark background of elytra. Unfortunately, the specimen is unique and it lacks any data as to where it may come from, which may advise against it being formally described. However, among the thousands of specimens in many collections examined so far I have not found any other representative of this species, yet the specimen is so distinct from any other species that its description here may grant its recognition by other entomologists in collections or in the field, thus increasing the chance to establish its origin.

Holotype: Baly Coll. / Calligrapha pavimentata HOLOTYPE J. Gómez-Zurita det. 2010 (NHM). The specimen lacks left antenna except for basal antennomere, four apical antennomeres of right antenna, two apical palpomeres of left maxillary palp, right hind leg, two apical tarsomeres of right protarsus and all other onychia. The penis is dissected.

Habitus ( Fig. 1 d). Length: 5.53 mm, width: 3.38 mm. Body oblong, parallel-sided and moderately convex.

Head, base of mandibles, pronotum, ventral surfaces, femora, tibiae basally and disc of abdominal ventrites black with greenish metallic reflections; apex of clypeus, labrum, apex of mandibles, five basal antennomeres and base of trochanters pale reddish brown; apical antennomeres, apex of trochanters, knees, tibiae apically, apical half of epipleura, broad lateral margins of abdominal ventrites, broad lateral and apical margin of last abdominal ventrite and tarsi dark reddish brown; dark parts of elytra and scutellum and basal half of epipleura very dark brown with greenish, bluish and purplish feeble metallic iridescence; pale spots on elytra creamy yellow.

Head broad, deeply inserted into prothorax; surface microreticulate, sparsely moderately punctured on frons, with oblique convergent impressions medially on vertex, deeper larger punctures behind unpunctured antennal calli; punctures near eyes with short erect whitish translucent setae; margin above eyes deeply impressed with furrow reaching upper eye border; frons very finely impressed longitudinally, anteriorly connected to broadly Ushaped clypeal suture. Clypeus long, not depressed basally, regularly following frontal curvature, nearly devoid of punctures except for imprecise impressions posteriorly at sides, and few setigerous punctures on pale area parallel to anterior border. Labrum transverse (W/L=2.20); sides regularly curved and apex weakly emarginate; surface glossy, with 5–6 punctures transversally on disc. Genae very short. Mandibles strong, moderately protruding by less than half their length beyond labrum; sides subparallel, strongly punctured, with preapical curvature broadly rounded almost at straight angle. Maxillary palpi long, slender; last palpomere longer than broad, dilated and broadest at truncated, slightly convex apex, with sides feebly curved, gradually narrowing to base; previous palpomere elongated, with apex broader than base of last segment, gradually asymmetrically narrowing to basal, relatively long cylindrical pedicel; first palpomere long, club-shaped, weakly curved. Scape elongated, thickened, broadest postmedially and gradually narrowing towards apex, anteriorly convex and posteriorly flat; second antennomere longer than wide, similar in shape to first antennomere, but proportionally 2/3 smaller; third antennomere slender, weakly expanded to apex; fourth antennomere elongated, longer than second, sides feebly sinuous, convex at apical half, obliquely cut at apex; fifth and remaining antennomeres with progressively shorter cylindrical pedicel, enlarged towards apex, longer than wide; all antennomeres glossy, with few translucent whitish hairs up to fifth antennomere, sparse hairs on sixth and denser on seventh. Pronotum transverse (W/L=1.79), sides weakly but regularly convex, finely margined with margin completely visible from above; posterior angles obtuse, margined, with large setigerous pore at angle; posterior border convex, unmargined; anterior angles moderately protruding, broadly rounded at acute, slightly callous angle; anterior border nearly straight, very finely margined except at protruding angles; surface conspicuously microreticulate, relatively densely punctured with double, small and minute punctures on disc, and dense strong, deep, fossette-like punctures at sides, nearly reaching premarginal unpunctured area; sides of disc postmedially with two large roundish depressions. Hypomera triangular, convex, glossy, unpunctured on disc, basally concave with transverse scratches; hypomeral suture erased, with broad outer margin of hypomera flat, with many short furrows perpendicular to hypomeral border. Prosternum anteriorly concave, finely margined; anterior half nearly unpunctured, surface shiny but densely covered by longitudinal scratches; posterior half rugose-punctate, with sparse, fine, posteriorly recumbent whitish setae; prosternal process convex anteriorly, glossy, unpunctured, narrow, with few strong punctures between coxae, feebly enlarged apically towards broadly round apex, clearly surpassing posterior border of procoxae. Mesoventrite short, trapezoidal, more or less at level with prosternal process, concave at sides, with median longitudinal elevation. Disc of metaventrite flat, raised above mesoventrite, very finely impressed longitudinally at middle without reaching process, with very fine transverse impressions and few slightly transverse punctures; intercoxal process strongly margined, sides depressed below margins, with many perpendicular scratches; sides and angles microreticulate, punctured, sparsely finely punctured near mesocoxae. Mesepimera and mesanepisterna conspicuously microreticulate, unpunctured. Anterior border of metanepisterna slightly raised, unpunctured; disc microreticulate, uniformly covered by large punctures nearly arranged longitudinally. Scutellum longer than wide at base (W/L=0.80), as isosceles triangle with broadly round apex, very finely microsculptured, unpunctured. Elytra long, parallel-sided to middle, regularly round towards sutural angle, border delicately margined from humeral angle until suture at apical declivity; humeri round, with feebly protruding, smooth, unpunctured calli; surface delicately shagreened, densely and uniformly covered by unordered punctation, relatively strong, deep and scattered on dark areas, shallow, dot-like, sparser on pale areas; punctures partially aligned along suture, with partly confused scutellar row of tight punctures; premarginal row of punctures slightly confused and lacking at humeral area; pale markings imperfectly surrounded by strong punctures on dark margin. Epipleura gradually narrowing towards apex; distal border of epipleura finely margined; surface delicately impressed with transverse scratches, unpunctured. Elytra with ten irregular, large pale markings: (i) large basal bilobed spot, basally confluent with dark basal margin of elytron, bounded internally by scutellar row of punctures and externally by internal humeral declivity; lobes twice as long as scutellum, inner lobe nearly 1.5x as wide as outer, subrectangular lobe; (ii) large irregular spot at humeral angle, surrounding humerus at base, widest at middle and gradually narrowing posteriorly, reaching 1/3 of elytron; (iii) longitudinal arrangement of five irregular premarginal spots in lateral declivity of elytron, more or less regularly spaced, separated by two puncture intervals, from slightly before end of subhumeral marking to sutural angle; all spots bound externally by premarginal row of punctures; basalmost spot largest, transverse; apical spot second to largest, occupying most of apical angle of elytron; (iv) longitudinal arrangement of three irregular transverse spots on disc of elytron; basal spot behind maximum width of subhumeral spot, median before apical declivity of elytron, closer to apical spot, on apical declivity, slightly closer in turn to spot at sutural angle and slightly before and narrowly connected to penultimate spot of premarginal series. Femora spindle-shaped, slightly enlarged apically, with shallow ventral furrow, uniformly but sparsely punctured. Tibiae straight, slender, gradually narrowing to half-length, transversally subquadrate and externally canaliculated at apical half; surface with strong, relatively large longitudinal sparse punctures and sparse short, semierect yellowish setae, denser ventrally and towards apex. Abdominal ventrites short, markedly transverse, glossy, finely punctured on disc, coarsely leathery at paler sides; first ventrite with sparse fine hairs near metacoxae; last visible ventrite bisinuous and finely margined at apex. Penis ( Fig. 2 i, 2j) narrow, slender, parallel-sided in ventral view, regularly curved on apex and more or less regularly curved in lateral view; apex prolonged as short subpentagonal expansion, conspicuously narrower than penis width, as wide as apically concave dorsal flap before ostium, apical border at wide obtuse and blunt angle, angles projecting very weak lateral denticles.

Derivatio nominis. Adjective (fem.) derived from Latin verb pavimento, -are, to cover with pavement, after the pattern of pale maculae on elytra reminiscent of a mosaic of paving stones.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Dorsal and lateral views of (a) the lectotype of Calligrapha multiguttata Stål, (b) the neotype of C. barda (Say), (c) the holotype of C. zapoteca sp. nov., and (d) the holotype of C. pavimentata sp. nov. Scale bar = 2.0 mm.

FIGURE 2. Ventral and lateral views and detailed dorsal view of distal end of penis of Calligrapha panzoensis Bechyné (a, b), C. vigintimaculata (Chevrolat) (c, d), C. barda (Say) (e, f), C. multiguttata Stål (g, h), and C. pavimentata sp. nov. (i, j). Scale bars = 0.5 mm.