Psalidognathus onorei Quentin and Villiers, 1983

Santos-Silva, Antonio & Komiya, Ziro, 2012, Contribution towards the knowledge of Psalidognathus Gray, 1831 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae), Insecta Mundi 2012 (247), pp. 1-28 : 9-10

Psalidognathus onorei Quentin and Villiers, 1983

( Fig. 11-13 )

Psalidognathus onorei Quentin and Villiers, 1983: 444 ; Monné and Giesbert 1994: 16; Monné 1995: 59 (cat.); Komiya 2003: fig. 14 (male); Monné and Hovore 2005: 21 (checklist); 2006: 20 (checklist); Monné 2006: 90 (cat.); Jeniš 2010: 20 (female of right side), 83 (?).

Redescription. Male ( Fig. 11, 12 ). Integument brown; head and legs dark brown partly blackish; mandibles, maxillary and labial palpi blackish; elytra reddish brown; antennomere gradually becoming lighter towards apex.

Dorsal surface of head rugosely confluently punctate, glabrous; cephalic carinae sparsely punctate, in dorsal view, starting from inner edge of antennal tubercle, slightly convergent to posterior line of eyes, then divergent posteriad, acutely pointed upward at about posterior third of head and then suddenly ending; carinae, in lateral view, strongly elevated, triangular, with gentle anterior slope and steep posterior slope; in front view, looking like horns of a goat; apices open in V-form. Area between carinae longitudinally concave but not clearly sulcate. Area behind eyes smoother than vertex. Eyes not strongly bulging, slightly convex from lateral margin of head, about twice as wide as long in dorsal view; distance between upper ocular lobes about as wide as lobe. Antennal tubercles coarsely confluently punctate. Clypeus finely sparsely punctate; pilosity short and sparse. Labrum smooth but partly rugose, strongly lowered at apical half; pilosity short and sparse. Head with distinct lateral conical tubercles, roughly granulate on dorsal side and rather finely so on ventral and lateral sides. Genal apex not elongate, pointed apically. Hypostomal sclerite finely punctate; pilosity rather long and sparse. Jugular process rather short and small but acutely pointed apically.

Mandible about 1.1 times as long as head, moderately curved downward and inward, thick and broad at base, steeply narrowed at basal fourth and then gradually becoming flatter and thinner apicad; external side rounded and internal side vertically flat in basal half and steeply edged along internal margin in apical half: coarsely and confluently punctate on basal half, gradually becoming more finely and sparsely towards apices except laterally and internal side smooth and shiny; each mandible with two teeth (distinct pointed in right mandible and obtuse in left one), an obtuse one very close to the base and another one beyond middle.

Antennae about as long as body; apico-internal end of each antennomere not acutely angled in dorsal view but triangularly projected in dorso-lateral view on antennomeres V-X; scape attaining middle of head, slightly enlarged towards apex, with coarse and dense punctures, especially large and confluent on inner lateral surface; antennomere II punctate; III-VII punctate, rather densely at basal third, and gradually becoming sparser apicad; antennomere III twice as long as scape; antennomeres III-XI with longitudinal sulci, one placed ventrally on antennomeres III-XI, one running on dorso-internal side from apical fourth of antennomeres V-XI, one slender and irregularly running on dorsal side from antennomere VII- XI and last one running external side from apical half of antennomere VI-XI; margins of sulci edged; punctate parts of antennae sub-shiny, and sulcate parts dull throughout without punctures.

Pronotum rugose throughout, subglabrous but with sparse short hairs laterally; posterior and anterior margin well elevated and fringed with erect abundant hairs; lateral margins with three large wide teeth; anterior tooth distinctly projected forward beyond anterior margin of pronotum; posterior angle slightly projected and obtuse. Prosternal process convex at middle, with a keel extending from base. Scutellum semicircular, about twice as wide as long, with sparse short hairs, central part convex and densely punctate, surrounded with less punctate, dark colored area. Elytra somewhat shiny, deeply, densely and confluently punctate at basal fifth; punctures gradually becoming finer from base to apices and from apical third to apices becoming irregular and partly interspersed with granules; with short acute spine on humeri; sutural apex shortly steeply angled but without spine. Metasternum finely punctate. Ventrites I-IV glabrous and very finely punctate. Ventrite V finely punctate and pilose, with hairs short and sparse basally and very long and thick apically. Profemora densely and coarsely punctategranulate on dorsal side; ventral side of pro-femora, meso- and metafemora finely and sparsely punctate. Protibiae gradually enlarged, forming distinct swelling between basal third and apical fifth, suddenly narrowed and constricted at about apical fifth and then enlarged again apicad; very sparsely punctate; thickly pilose on the swelling and pilosity gradually becoming sparser both basad and apicad. Apices of metatarsomeres I-III distinctly spinose.

Female ( Fig. 13 ). Body broad. Distance between upper ocular lobes about 0.9 times length of scape. Cephalic carinae as in males, but with more distance between them. Antennae almost reach the apical fourth of the elytra; scape just surpasses the posterior edge of eyes; antennomere III almost twice the length of scape. Mandibles shorter than head. Pronotum as in males, but laterally more expanded. Elytral lateral margins slightly divergent from base to middle, strongly convergent from middle to apex; apex rounded; sutural angle without spine; sculpture as in males. Fore tibiae not expanded on inner margin of apical half, distinctly enlarged near apex. Metatarsomere I slightly longer than II-III together; metatarsomeres II and III distinctly spinose at apices; metatarsomere V (without claws) shorter than I- III together.

Dimensions in mm (male). Total length (including mandibles), 75.0-79.0; length of prothorax, 8.0-9.0; width of prothorax between the apices of the anterior angles, 19.0-20.0; width of prothorax between the apices of the posterior angles, 14.0-16.0; humeral width, 22.0-24.0; elytral length, 41.0-45.0.

Geographical distribution. Described and known only from Ecuador (San Domingo de los Colorados). We add Colombia as new country record.

Material examined. ECUADOR, B&, VI.1982, Marachal col. ( ZKCO). COLOMBIA, Choco: B&, I.2003, local collector ( ZKCO).

Remarks. In their key to the species of Psalidognathus, Quentin and Villiers (1983) wrote in couplet 2 (translation):

“Antennae narrowed, bicolor, with articles III-V not depressed…………………3

Antennae extended, totally dark, with articles III-V from flattened to depressed…5”

In their description of P. onorei, Quentin and Villiers (1983) did not record the antennal color. However, the holotype male ( Fig. 11 ) and the paratype female (allotype) deposited at MNHN, show distinctly bicolored antennae. In the holotype, the scape is dark-brown (blackish in some areas), antennomeres III-VI gradually becoming lighter in color, and VII-XI uniformly light. In the female allotype the antennae are uniformly darker colored from scape to antennomere VII, and VIII-XI similarly light colored, but darker than the same parts in males. In Quentin and Villiers (1983) key, P. onorei keys out under 5 (antennae totally dark), and therefore cannot be identified using the key.

We examined a female that we believe belongs to this species, although the posterior angles of prothorax are distinctly less acute, and the elytra are narrower towards the apex than shown in Fig. 13 , which was used for this description.

Figures

Figure 8-13. Dorsal habitus. 8) Psalidognathus erythrocerus, neotype male. 9) P. erythrocerus, male from MNHN. 10) P. erythrocerus, female. 11) P. onorei, holotype male. 12) P.onorei, male. 13) P. onorei, female. Photos 8 and 9 from Eugenio Nearns. Photo 12 by Ivo Jeniš.