Haplolycus Bourgeois, 1883: 62

Kusy, Dominik, Motyka, Michal, Fusek, Lukas, Li, Yun, Bocek, Matej, Bilkova, Renata, Ruskova, Michaela & Bocak, Ladislav, 2021, Sexually dimorphic characters and shared aposematic patterns mislead the morphology-based classification of the Lycini (Coleoptera: Lycidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 191 (3), pp. 902-902 : 902-

Haplolycus Bourgeois, 1883: 62 .

Type species: Lycus congener Gerstaecker, 1871 .

Diagnosis

Haplolycus is an African endemic, but resembles in the shape of elytra Oriental Lycostomus and Lipernes ( Fig. 7P, Q ). It differs in the very long, slender, straight phallus with weakly emarginate apex ( Fig. 7 AM –AR). Unlike Lycus , the males and females of Haplolycus are similar and do not differ in the shape of elytra.

Redescription

Adults: Body slender. Head rostrate. Rostrum short to moderately long, often very stout. Pronotum widest at base, variable in shape. Elytra without sexual dimorphism, moderately dilated posteriorly in both sexes, with four indistinct costae in each elytron ( Fig. 7P, Q, V–Y ). Male genitalia without thorns, very slender, only weakly emarginate at apex and without membranous ventral part apically ( Fig. 7 AM –AR).

Distribution

Afrotropical region ( Fig. 5A ).

Remarks

The identification of Haplolycus is complicated by the unavailability of the type of Haplolycus congener . Using the information in the original description and identified specimens in collections localized by J. Turzanski, we assign to Haplolycus the species without sexual dimorphism and with a very long, slender, straight phallus with weakly emarginate apex ( Fig. 7 AM –AR). Haplolycus and Lycostomus share a similar shape of elytra, and they differ only in the form of male genitalia. These genera are allopatrically distributed and differently coloured owing to membership of specific local mimetic complexes. Therefore, investigation of male genitalia is not needed for the generic identification.

Figures

Figure 5. A, the revised distribution of genera and their alpha diversity. B, the putative dispersal routes recovered by the analysis of the pruned dataset. The grey lines designate dispersal barriers that were never crossed by the Lycini.

Figure 7. General appearance. A, Lipernes sp. 3, male. B, Lipernes sp. 1, male. C, Lipernes sp. 1, female. D, Lipernes sp. 2, male. E, ditto, female. F, Lipernes sp. 4, male. G, Lipernes sp. 5, male. H, Lipernes sp. 6, male. I, Lipernes sp. 7, male. J, Lipernes sp. 8, male. K, Lipernes sp. 9, male. L, Lipernes sp. 13, male. M, Lipernes sp. 14, male. N, Lipernes sp. 14, male. O,