Priscibrumus Kovář

POORANI, J., 2023, An illustrated guide to the lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part II. Tribe Chilocorini, Zootaxa 5378 (1), pp. 1-108 : 80

Genus Priscibrumus Kovář

Priscibrumus Kovář, 1997: 114 . Type species: Exochomus puniceipennis Semenow, 1900 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Form elongate oval to elliptical, moderately to weakly convex, with dense, short, fine silvery white pubescence. Antenna with 10 antennomeres. Posterior margin of pronotum completely bordered. Bases of pronotum and elytra contiguous throughout their length. Abdominal postcoxal line almost complete, semicircular. Elytral epipleura entire, without grooves for reception of femoral apices at rest. Coxites elongate triangular. Infundibulum present.

Distribution. Indian Subcontinent ( India; Pakistan; Nepal; Bhutan). China.

Included species. Kovář (1997) erected Priscibrumus to accommodate some species from this region, that were earlier placed in the genus Exochomus Redtenbacher. Seven species are known at present from the Palaearctic and Oriental regions of which six are distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Among these, Priscibrumus lituratus and P. uropygialis belong to a complex of very similar species. Based on cytological studies on populations from India (Dalhousie) and Pakistan (Rawalpindi), Smith (1965) supposed that “the group lituratus , certainly, and the group uropygialis , probably, might together embrace at least five cytogenetically different (?sibling) species, some of them differing, other than cytologically, only in subtle physiological properties expressed in somewhat different ecological suitabilities”. Kovář (1997) did not treat the problematic P. uropygialis and P. lituratus complex, due to the lack of sufficient material for study and he also mentioned that Smith’s study material of Priscibrumus spp. was irretrievably lost.

Biology. Two Indian species, P. lituratus and P. uropygialis , have been known to feed on adelgids. They have been extensively studied as part of the surveys made by the erstwhile Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control-Indian Station, Bangalore, on the natural enemies of various forest pests, including balsam woolly aphids ( Adelges spp. and Pineus laevis Maskell ) ( Nagarkatti & Ghani 1972). Both were introduced in the US and Canada, where none became established ( Sankaran 1976).