Xenicotela Bates, 1884

Xie, Guanglin, Barclay, Maxwell V. L. & Chen, Bin, 2022, Taxonomic study on the genus Xenicotela Bates from China (Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Lamiini), ZooKeys 1122, pp. 145-158 : 145

Genus Xenicotela Bates, 1884

Xenicotela Bates, 1884: 242; Matsushita 1933: 346; Breuning 1944: 372; Gressitt 1951: 381; Breuning 1961: 353; Rondon and Breuning 1970: 458; Makihara 2007; Hubweber et al. 2010: 288; Lin and Tavakilian 2019: 324.

Type species.

Xenicotela fuscula Bates, 1884 (= Xenicotela pardalis (Bates, 1884))

Redescription.

Body small, elongated. Eyes coarsely faceted. Antennae slender, more than 2.0 times as long as body in male and nearly 2.0 times in female; several basal antennomeres sparsely fringed ventrally, antennomeres III-XI annulated with greyish white to greyish yellow pubescence basally and apically; antennal tubercle moderately elevated; scape short, rather robust, with a narrow and completely closed cicatrix at apex, distinctly constricted near the apex; antennomere III distinctly longer than fourth, about 2.0 times as long as scape. Pronotum broader than long, anterior and posterior margin with vague transverse grooves, each side with a coniform spine at middle. Elytra elongated, with subparallel sides, apices rounded. Prosternal process lower than procoxae, arched, procoxal cavities closed posteriorly. Mesosternal process obliquely sloping anteriorly, not tuberculate, mesocoxal cavities open at side. Metasternum normal in length. Legs moderately long, femora clavate, mesotibia without groove near external apex, claw widely divergent.

Distribution.

Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos, Nepal, India.

Comments.

The genus is characterized by the following combination of characters that distinguishes it from similar genera: antennae with basal several antennomeres (usually five segments) sparsely fringed with short setae ventrally, antennomeres III-XI annulated with greyish white to greyish yellow pubescence basally and apically; scape with a narrow and completely closed cicatrix at apex and distinctly constricted before it; lateral spine of pronotum coniform, short; mesosternal process obliquely sloping anteriorly, not tuberculate; mesotibia without groove near external apex.

Aurivillius (1922) placed the genus Xenicotela in the tribe Dorcaschematini . Subsequently, Matsushita (1933) defined the tribe Xenicotelini for the genus according to the following differences on the basis of comparing with tribes Ancylonotini and Prosopocerini : scape with a completely closed apical cicatrix and mesotibia without a groove near the external apex. Breuning (1943) transferred the genus into Agninii, and Gressitt (1951) placed it in Lamiini . Kariyanna et al. (2017) and Tavakilian and Chevillotte (2021) followed Matsushita’s decision and put the genus into Xenicotelini in their Cerambycidae database. In the present study, we follow Breuning’s and Gressitt’s arrangement, since the characters of Xenicotela correspond well with Lamiini .