Chrysodema (Gelaeus) foraminifera Lansberge, 1879

Frank, David & Sekerka, Lukáš, 2016, Revision of the subgenusGelaeus of Chrysodema (Coleoptera: Buprestidae: Chrysochroinae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 56 (2), pp. 671-719 : 694-696

Chrysodema (Gelaeus) foraminifera Lansberge, 1879

( Figs 9–11 , 57 )

Chrysodema foraminifera Lansberge, 1879 : cxlviii (original description). LANSBERGE (1880): cxxxii (comparative note); KERREMANS (1903): 76 (catalogue); OBENBERGER (1926): 131 (catalogue).

Chalcophora foraminifera: KERREMANS (1885) : 126 (catalogue).

Chrysodema (Chrysodema) foraminifera: KERREMANS (1909) : 514 (key), 527 (redescription).

Gelaeus foraminifera: THÉRY (1935) : 247 (key), 248 (catalogue).

Chrysodema (Gelaeus) foraminifera: LANDER (2003) : 70 (noted), Figs 150–151 (colour photo); BELLAMY (2008): 531 (catalogue).

Type locality. Indonesia, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Flores Island (see Remarks).

Type material examined. LECTOTYPE (present designation): ♀, ‘v Lansb. / Flores [w, h] // Chrysodema / Foraminifera / Flores Lansb [w, h] // Type [r, p]’ ( RMNH). Specimen provided with an additional red printed label: ‘ LECTOTYPE ♀ / Chrysodema (Gelaeus) / foraminifera / LANSBERGE, 1879 / David Frank & / Lukáš Sekerka des. 2016 [year handwritten]’.

Additional material examined. INDONESIA: EAST NUSA TENGGARA PROV.: Timor Island, 1 ♂ 1 ♀, Macklot lgt. ( RMNH), 1♂ 2♀♀ ( MNHN), 3♀♀ ( MHNG), 1♀ ( DFPC), viii. 1935, 1 ♀ ( MHNG); Timor Island, Buraen env., 60 km SE of Kupang, 350 m, 10.–21.ii.2006, 2 ♀♀, St. Jákl lgt. ( DFPC) ; Semau Island ? (see Remarks), 1 ♀ ( RMNH).

Redescription of lectotype. Well preserved ♀ specimen missing only mid last tarsomeres with claws and slightly open elytra with exposed wings. Length 25.25 mm, width 9.50 mm, length/width ratio: 2.66.

Body generally metallic green. Pronotum slightly lighter green and somewhat shinier than elytra, basal and principal impressions golden with slight traces of copper. Elytra including elevated ribs uniformly dark green, lateral impressions slightly paler and with slight copper reflections ( Fig. 9 ). Ventral parts bright metallic green with golden reflections ( Fig. 10 ). Legs bright metallic green, tarsi brown, last tarsomere including claws metallic green.

Pronotum laterally densely and coarsely punctate, centrally sparsely punctate. Punctures on lateral sides foveolate, more deeply impressed. Medial line well defined, impunctate but not elevated. Medial impressions hardly impressed, basically on same level as medial line and visible as stripes of moderately coarse punctures, more densely arranged in basal half. Principal impressions round, moderately deep, more or less distinctly separated from disc, densely punctate. Surface between medial and principal impressions with sparsely dispersed punctures basally with larger impunctate areas. Lateral impressions moderate with several large punctures. Basal impressions moderate, oval.

Elytra distinctly punctate-striate, puncture rows posteriorly irregularly double or triple. Intervals basally slightly elevated, ca. 4× wider than puncture rows, impunctate; apically partly obscured due to punctation. Punctation of elytra overall moderate and dense (except on intervals), distance between punctures mostly larger than diameter of the punctures. Puncture rows V–VIII in mid third of elytra arranged in small groups of 2–4 separated by impunctate spaces not forming elevated reticulations. Each elytron with two oval lateral impressions situated between weakly visible 6th and 8th intervals in basal third and two thirds respectively ( Fig. 11 ).

Mid femora in central part strongly shiny, sparsely punctate, punctures large; on sides with densely arranged small punctures.

Ventral side of body ( Fig. 10 ) overall coarsely and very densely punctate, only central parts of thoracic and abdominal ventrites sparsely punctate. Whole lateral side of abdominal ventrite I densely and coarsely punctate. Ventrites II–V gradually less punctate apically with small and dense punctation restricted to basal half.

Variation. Body ♂ (n = 2) length: 25.00– 26.25 mm, width: 9.00– 9.50 mm, length/width ratio: 2.76–2.78; ♀♀ (n = 12): length: (23.00)25.00– 31.75 mm, width: (8.50) 9.25–12.25 mm, length/width ratio: 2.55–2.77. Body colouration always basically green, in some specimens with strong copper or turquoise sheen on most of the body. Medial pronotal impressions in some specimens shallowly impressed, principal impressions from round to oval and variably deeply impressed, lateral impressions punctate to impunctate, basal impression oval to triangular. Lateral impressions on elytra present in all examined specimens and of rather constant size. Two specimens have posterior lateral impressions enlarged, occupying width between 4th and 8th interval, round and more or less divided into two impressions. One specimen has similarly enlarged posterior lateral impressions and additional oval impressions internally next to it and two small round impressions in centre of elytron in basal third length. Tarsi laterally with metallic spots in four specimens. Aedeagus ( Fig. 57 ) (n = 2) length: 6.68–6.94 mm, width 1.43 mm, length/width ratio: 4.67–4.85. Apices of parameres rounded. Penis elongate, subparallel-sided.

Differential diagnosis. This species can be separated from similar C. (G.) florensis by pale colouration of tarsi (all tarsomeres green in the latter species) and by lateral portion of abdominal ventrites II–III variously punctate with large impunctate areas ( Fig. 4 ) while C. (G.) foraminifera has lateral portions of respective ventrites densely and uniformly punctate without impunctate areas ( Fig. 5 ). The curious uniformly green specimen of C. (G.) cyanicollis differs by the green tarsi and coarser sculpture of elytra. Some specimens of C. (G.) foraminifera with apparently differently coloured pronotum and elytra are quite similar to C. (G.) cupriventris , which differs in the elytra always lacking lateral impressions (with two impressions in C. (G.) foraminifera ), red underside (predominantly green in C. (G.) foraminifera ) and in lateral portions of abdominal ventrites II–IV with band of denser but yet sparse punctures along anterior margin while the rest is nearly impunctate (very densely punctate basally and sparsely apically in C. (G.) foraminifera ).

Distribution. Indonesia: East Nusa Tenggara Prov.: Flores Is., Timor Is. and Semau Is. The species possibly also occurs in East Timor.

Remarks. LANSBERGE (1879) did not state how many specimens he had at his disposal when describing Chrysodema foraminifera nor mentioned any depository. However, he gave a range of lengths: ‘Long. 25–30 millim.’ thus he must have had at least two specimens. The collection of Lansberge was purchased by René Oberthür (nowadays in MNHN) and some duplicate specimens are also deposited in IRSN, collection of J. Neervoort van de Poll (purchased by A. Théry and nowadays in MNHN), and Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria, Genova ( HORN & KAHLE 1935, 1936). We have searched above mentioned museums as well as other collections and found only a single specimen labelled as type in RMNH. The specimen came from Lansbergeʼs collection, bears handwritten label, but not by Lansberge (H. Huijbregts, pers. comm.), with name and additional small red label ‘Type’. The specimen agrees with the primary description and thus we assume it is a part of the type series. Since there is possibility of existence of additional type specimens we designate the RMNH specimen the lectotype in order to fix the identity of this species. The lectotype is the only specimen of this species known to us from Flores. We have examined additional eleven specimens morphologically identical to the lectotype but these were collected on Timor. This is quite strange as collectors collected extensively in the past on both, Flores and Timor, but there is no other specimen of C. (G.) foraminifera from Flores. Therefore we assume that the type locality might be erroneous and the species is in fact restricted to Timor but this need to be verified by recent material from Flores.

One specimen bears locality data as ‘Macklot / Poeloe / Samoe’, however, we think it is very unlikely that the specimen was collected in Samoa as H. C. Macklot never visited Samoa but collected in New Guinea, Timor and surrounding islands ( EFFERT 2008: 132). Poeloe is an old transcription of pulau which means island(s). Samoe in our opinion is most likely misspelled Semau Island situated at southwest end of Timor Island. Since we do not have actual proof whether the specimen was collected on the latter island or not we list Semau Island with a question mark and the record has to be verified by additional specimens.

LANDER (2003: 70) briefly mentioned C. (G.) foraminifera and noted that it appears to be a variety of C. (G.) walkeri with white spots but did not propose any synonymy.

Figures

Figs 6–11. 6–8 – Chrysodema (Gelaeus) florensis Lansberge, 1880 (lectotype ♂, 25.75 mm). 9–11 – C. (G.) foraminifera Lansberge, 1879 (lectotype ♀, 25.25 mm). 6, 9 – dorsal view; 7, 10 – ventral view; 8, 11 – lateral view.

Figs 56–71. Parameres and penis. 56 – Chrysodema (Gelaeus) florensis Lansberge, 1880 (lectotype); 57 – C. (G.) foraminifera Lansberge, 1879 (Timor Is., RMNH); 58 – C. (G.) iris iris (Kerremans, 1898) (lectotype); 59 – C. (G.) iris moluensis Novak, 2010 (topotype); 60 – C. (G.) oborili oborili sp. nov.(holotype); 61 – C. (G.) oborili laratensis subsp. nov. (holotype); 62 – C. (G.) walkeri walkeri (Waterhouse, 1892) (Damar Is.); 63 – C. (G.) walkeri horaki subsp. nov. (holotype); 64 – C. (G.) walkeri rejzeki subsp. nov. (paratype); 65 – C. (G.) walkeri nigriventris subsp. nov.(holotype); 66 – C. (G.) walkeri bilyi subsp.nov.(holotype); 67 – C. (G.) walkeri kubani subsp. nov. (holotype); 68 – C. (G.) sara sp. nov. (holotype); 69 – C. (G.) cupriventris (Kerremans, 1898) (Wetar Is., DFPC); 70 – C. (G.) katka sp. nov. (holotype); 71 – C. (G.) wetteriana (Théry, 1935) (lectotype).

Figs 1–5. Morphological details of the subgenus Gelaeus Waterhouse, 1905. 1–2 – dorsal and lateral aspects of pronotum of Chrysodema (G.) walkeri bilyi subsp. nov. (holotype); a – basal impression, b – principal impression, c – medial impression, d – lateral impression. 3–5 – abdominal ventrites II–III. 3 – C. (G.) cupriventris (Kerremans, 1898), 4 – C. (G.) walkeri nigriventris subsp. nov., 5 – C. (G.) florensis Lansberge, 1880.