Pogonostoma (Pogonostoma) densisculptum Moravec, 2003

Moravec, Jiří & Vybíral, Jan, 2020, New or rare Madagascar tiger beetles- 18. Pogonostoma (Pogonostoma) ondravybirali sp. nov., elaborated redescriptions of P. (P.) atrorotundatum, P. (P.) densisculptum and P. (Microstenocera) fabiocassolai (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), Zootaxa 4881 (2), pp. 201-230 : 218-223

Pogonostoma (Pogonostoma) densisculptum Moravec, 2003

( Figs 67–82 , 106 )

Pogonostoma (Pogonostoma) gibbosum densisculptum Moravec, 2003: 12 , 19, figs 23–27.

Pogonostoma (Pogonostoma) densisculptum: Moravec 2007: 248 , figs 849–865, 1732.

Type locality. Madagascar, Central Highlands : Antananarivo prefecture Manankazo, evergreen (now degraded) forest of a forest station near Ankazobe, 130 km north-west of Antananarivo.

Type material. Holotype ♀ (by monotypy) in CCJM, labelled: “ Madagascar / Antananarivo prov. / Manankazo env / 9.– 12.12.1995, Ivo Jeniš lgt.” [printed] // “ Holotype, / Pogonostoma (s. str.) / gibbosum / densisculptum, / J. Moravec, 2002 det.” [red, printed]. // “ Pogonostoma (s. str.) / densisculptum Moravec, 2003 / det.Jiří Moravec 2007 ” [printed].

Other material examined. 1 ♁ in CCJM: “ Madagascar, Antananarivo pr. / Ankazobe Mts. / Ambohitantely Res., 1800 m., 2.–3.I.2013, I. Martinů leg.” .

Differential diagnosis. Pogonostoma (P.) densisculptum shares its conspicuously distinctly gibbose pronotal disc with Pogonostoma (P.) gibbosum Rivalier, 1970 , for which both were placed to a species-group of P. (P.) gibbosum (see Moravec 2007). Despite having the same principal diagnostic character, the distinctly gibbose pronotal disc in its lateral aspect, P. (P.) densisculptum is immediately distinguished by the following diagnostic characters. Elytra ( Figs 73–76 ) with markedly densely arranged, deep and often anastomosing punctures with narrow and sharp intervals which cover nearly whole elytral surface including posterior declivity, effaced only on narrow basal area (in contrast to conspicuously effaced and polished much wider basal and posterior elytral areas in P. (P.) gibbosum (as shown in Fig. 84 ); narrower elytral discal impression (in contrast to posteriad-expanded and glossy discal impression of P. (P.) gibbosum ); paler (blonde) elytral ornamental setae; blunter external angle (lacking a tooth) of elytral apex in female ( Figs 74, 76 ); entirely black legs (in contrast to testaceous apices of femora and bases of tibiae in P. (P.) gibbosum (as shown in Fig. 83 ); lateral areas of pronotal disc not effaced, but tuberculate also on almost whole posterior juxtanotopleural areas; narrow posterior dorsal area of the pronotal disc transverse striate (in contrast to large, effaced and polished posterolateral areas and almost effaced and shiny posterior half of the pronotal disc in P. (P.) gibbosum— for detailed description and illustrations of P. (P.) gibbosum see Moravec 2007). These characters and the shape of much more distinctly gibbose pronotal disc, as well as the distinctly hooked and narrow aedeagus apex ( Figs 77–78 ) clearly distinguish P. (P.) densisculptum from all taxa of the P. (P.) elegans speciesgroup and all other species of the nominotypical subgenus.

Redescription (female HT) and first description of male. Body ( Figs 67–68 ), length of male 10.3 mm, width 2.80 mm (female HT 10.7 mm long, 2.80 mm wide), pitchy-black, setal vesture blonde.

Head narrower than body, width 2.30–2.35 mm; temples rather short (2.2 times shorter than eyes).

Frons merging with clypeus in middle and not differentiated from vertex, slightly convex, rather densely scabrous-rugulose; supraantennal keels consisting of distinctly elevated anterior crest and blunter posterior one which merges with surface sculpture; vertex nearly flat, with moderate posterior impression (shallower in male), anterior area scabrous-rugulose, posterior and temporal areas irregularly lacunose-rugulose with admixed umbilicate tubercles; whole dorsal surface of head covered with long, dense or scattered, mostly erect, flexuous and interlaced, blonde hairlike setae.

Genae shallowly and very irregularly rugose, with scattered, long and flexuous hairlike setae which are denser in male.

Labrum black, dully shiny. Male labrum ( Fig. 71 ) 6-setose with 4 anterior setae (two of them broken) and 2 lateral, black-brown setae, rather short, 0.70 mm long, 1.25 mm wide; surface glabrous, with rather distinct and well-delineated and finely coriaceous-wrinkled basomedian convexity, while sublateral areas are rather coarsely and irregularly scabrous-rugulose; lateral margins irregularly rounded towards blunt anterolateral indentation, anterior margin subtruncate, irregularly dentate with five very small teeth between bluntly right-angled but distinct anterolateral teeth; female labrum ( Fig. 72 ) notably longer, length 0.95 mm, width 1.35 mm, with 3 anterior and two lateral setae (the lateral are now broken in the HT, only a setigerous pit is present in either side); surface almost gradually convex and coriaceous-wrinkled; lateral margins arcuate towards blunt lateral indentations, then oblique and widely rounded, indicating blunt anterolateral teeth and with slightly anteriad-prolonged, irregularly dentate anterior margin (consisting of five, irregularly sized, right-angled or subacute small teeth).

Maxillae. Lacinia ( Fig. 69 ) black with black-brown setae mixed with straw-yellow and thin whitish setae, base elongate, apical portion oblong, never spatulate-dilated, width 0.30 mm.

Palpi normally shaped (as in preceding species), black with black setae, anterior margin of terminal palpomeres indistinctly brownish-tinged.

Mandibles black with reddish-brown teeth; male mandibles ( Fig. 70 ) subsymmetrical, with long terminal teeth possessing moderately inward-bent apices, two inner teeth of almost equal size; female mandibles (firmly closed and therefore with barely recognizable shape from above) left terminal tooth markedly shorter than right one, inner teeth in left mandible almost equally sized, while second tooth of right mandible larger than third one; convex basolateral portions black with coriaceous surface and short, scattered whitish setae.

Antennae in male surpassing body ( Fig. 68 ), probably shorter in female (in HT incomplete) of usual shape and surface; scape pitchy black with coriaceous surface, long, whitish apical seta and several greyish microtrichia; antennomeres 2–4 pitchy black with scattered microtrichia; 5–11 dimly black due to usual greyish pubescence.

Thorax. Pronotum ( Figs. 80–81 ) elongate, notably shorter in male ( Fig. 80 ), length 2.50 mm, width 1.80 mm; more elongate in female ( Fig. 81 ), length 2.75 mm, width 1.65 mm; anterior lobe only slightly narrower but higher than posterior lobe, its surface densely irregularly scabrous and tuberculate, tubercles umbilicate with setigerous punctures with very long, flexuous, interlaced, whitish or pale yellowish hairlike setae; disc dorsally ellipsoid with lateral margins moderately constricted towards posterior sulcus; notopleural sutures indistinctly obvious; median line thin, merging with sculpture in middle; discal surface densely and rather finely tuberculate, tubercles somewhat larger and more irregularly shaped in female, in both sexes umbilicate with deep setigerous pit in their centre; sublateral anterior areas with more isolated and rounded tubercles which become smaller towards notopleural sutures; limited area on posterior declivity clearly transversely striate, more shiny but never effaced, only small posterolateral areas adjacent to notopleural sutures smooth; discal surface covered with sparser, mostly rather short and decumbent, dorsally barely obvious setae (better obvious on lateral areas), the basal transverse-striate area of posterior declivity almost glabrous; posterior lobe smooth, shiny and glabrous; proepisterna large, shiny, densely transversely striate on juxtanotopleural area (in male up to proepisternal dorsal half), glabrous except for long hairlike setae near ventral and posterior margins; mesepisterna smooth and polished, nearly glabrous except for few hairlike setae near ventral suture; metepisterna elongate with deep ventral sulcus, smooth, shiny and glabrous.

Elytra ( Figs 73–76 ) elongate, length 5.80 mm in male, 6.20 mm in female; surface convex, discal impression narrow and deep (V-shaped); humeri well marked, rounded; lateral margins parallel, indistinctly enlarged poste-riad in female; angles of moderate anteapical convexity rounded; elytral apices sexually dimorphic: apex in male ( Figs 73, 75 ) with small but distinct, acute external tooth, then broadly emarginated towards distinct, right-angled inner tooth and deep sutural emargination towards right-angled sutural spine (acute in right male elytron); apex in female ( Figs 74, 76 ) differs in having obtuse outer angle (lacking external tooth), and more protruding inner (median) tooth; elytral surface densely punctate except for smooth basohumeral area; punctures often anastomosing, deep and large with narrow and sharp intervals, deepest on basodiscal convexity and sublateral areas (particularly deeper so in female), smaller, but predominantly deep and dense on posterior elytral half; punctures on posterior declivity mostly with carinulate intervals with projecting anterior margins forming rasp-like sculpture (pattern of the sculpture changeable in different light angles); elytral surface rather densely covered with short decumbent or erect, easily abraded whitish or darkened ornamental setae mixed with much longer and blonde, hairlike sensory setae especially on posterior declivity area.

Abdomen. Ventrites pitchy black, sparsely covered with short microtrichia, apex of female ventrite 8 browned.

Legs. All segments of legs completely black, setae easily abraded; pro- and mesofemora with several long, erect whitish hairlike setae and scattered shorter whitish setae, sparsely mixed with short or longer black bristles, metafemora with sparser setae whitish hairlike and short setae and long black bristles; protibiae covered with whitish appressed microsetae and few erect dark bristles; mesotibiae with sparse whitish setae and black bristles, their apical third with a raw of dense black-brown setae, metatibiae whitish hairlike setae (much denser on protibiae) mixed with long black bristles; metatibiae with sparser, long and erect blackish bristles and very sparse whitish microtrichia; apical thorns stiff and black; tarsi with rows of black semierect setae (as usual male protarsi with last three tarsomeres dilated and with row of dense, stiff black setae); claws with ochre-testaceous apices.

Aedeagus in its left lateral aspect ( Figs 77–78 ) rather stout and with only slightly bent basal portion, widest in middle, then attenuated towards distinctly hooked and narrow apex; the apical half of the aedeagus in its ventral aspect ( Fig. 79 ) is gradually conically attenuated into rounded tip.

Biology and distribution ( Fig. 106 ). Pogonostoma (P.) densisculptum was hitherto known only from the single female holotype captured near a forest station (now with a degraded forest) in Manankazo near Ankazobe, 130 km north-west of Antananarivo, Central Plateau, newly defined as Central Highlands. The recently discovered male was caught virtually in the same area, about 30 km from Ankazobe, in the eastern moist montane forest of the Ambohitantely Reserve, at an elevation of 1800 m.

Remarks. Pogonostoma (P.) densisculptum was originally described ( Moravec 2003) as a subspecies of P. (P.) gibbosum , but with a note that its characters indicated a distinct species. Because of the distinctive diagnosis characters, P. (P.) densisculptum was later ( Moravec 2007) elevated to the separate species status. The differentiating characters of this species have been fully confirmed also on the male which is described for the first time here.

Figures

FIGURES 67–72. Pogonostoma (P.) densisculptum Moravec. 67–68—habitus: 67—♀, 10.7 mm, Manankazo, HT (temporar- ily in CCJM); 68—♁, 10.3 mm, Ambohitantely (CCJM); 69—lacinia, ♀, HT; 70—mandibles, ♁, Ambohitantely (CCJM); 71–72—labrum: 71—♁, Ambohitantely (CCJM); 72—♀, HT. Bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 73–79. Pogonostoma (P.) densisculptum Moravec. 73–74—elytral apices: 73—♁, Ambohitantely (CCJM); 74—♀, 10.7 mm, Manankazo, HT (temporarily in CCJM); 75–76—elytron: 75—♁, Ambohitantely (CCJM); 76—♀, HT; 77—ae- deagus, ibid.; 78—the same aedeagus without parameres; 79—ditto, ventral view. Bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 80–84. Two species of Pogonostoma. 80–82—P. (P.) densisculptum Moravec. 80–81—pronotum: 80—♁, Am- bohitantely (CCJM); 81—♀, Manankazo, HT (temporarily in CCJM); 82—labels of HT. 83–84—P. (P.) gibbosum Rivalier. 83—femoral apex with tibial base (“knee”), ♀, Vondrozo, HT (MNHN); 84—elytral apex, ♀, HT (MNHN). Bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 104–107. Maps of distribution. 104—Pogonostoma (Pogonostoma) ondravybirali sp. nov.; 105—Pogonostoma (P.) atrorotundatum W. Horn; 106—Pogonostoma (P.) densisculptum Moravec; 107—Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) fabiocassolai Moravec.