Zeugophora Kunze, 1818

Sekerka, Lukáš & Vives, Eduard, 2013, Review of Zeugophorinae of New Guinea, with description of Zeugophorella gen. nov. and new synonyms of Zeugophora (Coleoptera: Megalopodidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 53 (2), pp. 747-762 : 749-751

Zeugophora Kunze, 1818

Zeugophora Kunze, 1818: 71 (type species: Crioceris subspinosa Fabricius, 1781 , designated by WESTWOOD (1838)).

Auchenia Thunberg, 1792: 95 (type species: Crioceris subspinosa Fabricius, 1781 , designated by Duponchel & Chevrolat in D’ ORBIGNY (1842)); objective older synonym suppressed under ICZN Opinion No. 1382 ( ICZN 1986).

Taraxis LeConte, 1850: 237 (type species: Taraxis abnormis LeConte, 1850 by monotypy); LECONTE (1854) as synonym of Auchenia .

Pedrillia Westwood, 1864: 280 (type species: Pedrillia longicornis Westwood, 1864 by monotypy), syn. nov.

Macrozeugophora Achard, 1914: 288 (type species: Macrozeugophora ornata Achard, 1914 by monotypy); GRESSITT (1945) as synonym of Zeugophora .

Bruchomima Achard, 1916: 47 (type species: Bruchomima chloropelta Achard, 1916 by monotypy); MONRÓS (1959) as synonym of Pedrillia .

Pedrilliomorpha Pic, 1917: 9 (type species: Pedrilliomorpha atrosuturalis Pic, 1917 by monotypy), syn. nov.

Austrolema Oke, 1932: 164 (type species: Austrolema vitinea Oke, 1932 by monotypy); MONRÓS (1959) as synonym of Pedrillia .

Pedrillimorpha Papp, 1946: 25 (unavailable name, no type species designated).

Pedrinella Papp, 1946: 26 (unavailable name, no type species designated).

Pedrilonga Papp, 1946: 26 (unavailable name, no type species designated).

Papuleptura Gressitt, 1959: 81 (type species: Papuleptura alticola Gressitt, 1959 by original designation), syn. nov.

Pedrillia , a new synonym of Zeugophora . WESTWOOD (1864) proposed the genus Pedrillia for a single species P. longicornis Westwood, 1864 and compared the new genus to Temnaspis Lacordaire, 1845 (Megalopodinae) . Over time the genus was understood to be closely related to Zeugophora . JACOBY (1908) separated them by presence (in Pedrillia ) or absence (in Zeugophora ) of a transverse sulcus at the pronotal base, however, this proved to be a variable character. BRYANT (1943) synonymized Pedrillia with Zeugophora . Subsequent authors accepted the synonymy (i.e. GRESSITT 1945, CHÛJÔ 1952, REID 1998) or treated Pedrillia as a subgenus of Zeugophora (i.e. CROWSON 1946; GRESSITT & KIMOTO 1961; KIMOTO & GRESSITT 1979; SEENO & WILCOX 1982; REID 1989, 1992; SCHÖLLER 2009; SILFVERBERG 2010). CROWSON (1946) used the following characters to separate both subgenera: eyes less strongly emarginate in Zeugophora s. str. (eyes more strongly emarginate in Pedrillia ), frons with an impressed line between the eyes posterior to the fronto-clypeal suture in Zeugophora s. str. (frons without a transverse impressed line posterior to the fronto-clypeal suture in Pedrillia ), and the basal angles of the prothorax simple, without laterally projecting setae in Zeugophora s. str. (prothorax more or less tuberculate, bearing about three laterally projecting setae in Pedrillia ), Zeugophora s. str. being Holarctic and Pedrillia Oriental and Afrotropical. The emargination of the eye is a continuously variable character of low value for delimiting taxa of subgeneric rank. Many species from the Oriental Region have weakly emarginated eyes like the Holarctic species. Moreover some of them have the margin of the eye complete without any emargination. The same, concerning variability, is true for the structure of the frons and the vertex of the head. Therefore the only character of possible taxonomic value remains – the presence of 2–4 long stiff setae in the basal corners of the pronotum. These setae are quite variable in length and in some Pedrillia have a tendency to be partly to completely reduced. CHÛJÔ (1952) treated Pedrillia as a synonym of Zeugophora , however, mentioned that both differ in wing venation with Cu2 isolated in any case, forked into Cu2a and Cu2b in Zeugophora , but simple in Pedrillia . REID (1989, 1992) pointed out that both subgenera also differ in food plant preferences – Zeugophora s. str. associated with Salicaceae while Pedrillia with Sapindaceae and Celastraceae . However, Zeugophorinae have mining larvae and therefore they are quite likely not strictly associated with one host plant family as many taxa with mining larvae are known to have tendency to polyphagy on both species as well as host plant family level (i.e. CONNOR & TAVERNER 1997, SANTIAGO- BLAY 2005). This would also support the recent record of feeding association of Z. enduwakombukoensis Sekerka, 2007 with Asteraceae ( SEKERKA 2007) . Unfortunately very little is known about the biology of most species as of 105 only about ten have known host plants, most from the Holarctic Region. Most recently SCHÖLLER (2009) described two new Zeugophora species from New Caledonia and discussed the status of Pedrillia . He stated that characters used for separation of both subgenera (i.e. emargination of eye) are variable and not suitable, however, he retained Pedrillia as a valid subgenus and pointed out that further studies are required.

We had an opportunity to examine about 40 species from various parts of the Zeugophora distribution range (Europe, North America, SE Asia and New Guinea). Individual species have various combinations of characters used for separation of Pedrillia from Zeugophora as well as particular characters shown to be very variable. Therefore we consider Pedrillia as a junior subjective synonym of Zeugophora .

PAPP (1946) treated Pedrillia as a genus and divided it into four subgenera without any note on Zeugophora or previous synonymy. Because he did not designated type species for the newly described subgenera ( Pedrillimorpha Papp, 1946 , Pedrinella Papp, 1946 , Pedrilonga Papp, 1946 ) these are unavailable names according to articles 13.3 and 64.7.1 of the ICZN (1999).

Pedrilliomorpha , a new synonym of Zeugophora . PIC (1917) proposed the genus Pedrilliomorpha for a single species P. atrosuturalis Pic, 1917 from Sikkim ( India). He stated that the genus is intermediate between Pedrillia and Zeugophora , however, distinct at first glance by the structure of the prothorax and by its elongate form ( PIC 1917). The species remained rather a mystery as none of following authors studied the type specimen. GRESSITT (1945) stated that Pedrilliomorpha has the eye margin entire while Zeugophora has emarginated eyes. MONRÓS (1959) synonymized Pedrilliomorpha with Auchenia (= Zeugophora ) without any further comments, while the following authors treated the genus as separate from Zeugophora (i.e. GRESSITT & KIMOTO 1961, MEDVEDEV 1996, SILFVERBERG 2010). We have studied the holotype of P. atrosuturalis ( Figs 1–3 ) housed in the MNHN and could not find any particular character to separate it from other Oriental Zeugophora species. Its elongate body is moreover similar to several Chinese species. The entire eye margin without any emargination used as a differential character by GRESSITT& KIMOTO (1961) is erroneous as the holotype has distinctly emarginated eyes ( Fig. 2 ). Recently, MEDVEDEV (1996) described four new species from New Guinea and attributed them to the genus Pedrilliomorpha on the basis of strongly elongate body. However, these species are not congeneric with P. atrosuturalis and are placed here in a new genus Zeugophorella gen. nov. (see p. 753).

Papuleptura , a new synonym of Zeugophora . GRESSITT (1959) proposed the genus Papuleptura for two New Guinean species and placed it into the subfamily Lepturinae of longhorn beetles ( Cerambycidae ). He also mentioned: “This genus seems to have no close ally. It does not fit well into any of the defined tribes of Lepturinae .” We recently studied specimens of both species and with surprise revealed that they in fact belong to Zeugophorinae .

The type species, Papuleptura alticola , is clearly a member of Zeugophora and closely related to recently described Z. enduwakombugoensis from the same locality ( SEKERKA 2007). Therefore we propose here the synonymy of Papuleptura with Zeugophora .

The other species, Papuleptura elongata Gressitt, 1959 is related to elongate species described recently by MEDVEDEV (1996) in the genus Pedrilliomorpha on the basis of strongly elongate body and is transferred here to Zeugophorella gen. nov. (see p. 753).

The new synonymy of Zeugophora Kunze, 1818 with Papuleptura Gressitt, 1959 implies that the cerambycid fauna of Papua New Guinea lost the unique genus that was attributed to the subfamily Lepturinae in the Papuan subregion. This agrees with the fact that Lepturinae are absent from the Australian and Polynesian region, recently confirmed by the transfer of Blosyropus Redtenbacher, 1868 ( New Zealand) and Montrouzerina dentata (Fauvel, 1906) ( New Caledonia) to the subfamily Cerambycinae ( VIVES et al. 2011) . The closest representatives of the subfamily Lepturinae , two species of the diverse genus Elacomia Heller, 1916 ( E. subfasciata Gressit, 1940 from Ceram and E. misolensis Gressitt, 1959 from Myssol), occur in the Eastern part of the Indonesian Archipelago ( GRESSITT 1982).

Figures

Figs 1–3. Pedrilliomorpha atrosuturalis Pic, 1917 (holotype). 1 – dorsum, 2 – head, 3 – labels.