Arctolamia sinica Bi & Chen, 2022

Xie, Guanglin, Barclay, Maxwell V. L. & Wang, Wenkai, 2024, Taxonomic notes on the collection of the tribe Lamiini (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) housed in the Natural History Museum, London, ZooKeys 1205, pp. 239-251 : 239-251

Arctolamia sinica Bi & Chen, 2022

Figs 4 a – j , 5 f, i

Arctolamia sinica Bi & Chen, 2022: 199.

Description.

Female: similar to male, body length 33.5 mm, humeral width 12.0 mm. Body black, mostly densely clothed with reddish-brown pubescence, each puncture bearing a black or reddish-brown erect hair; glabrous areas showing black integument; elytra provided with five black pubescent patches. Frons, gena and vertex with black hairs, mouthparts with hairs lighter in colour, nearly yellowish-brown. Antennae with scape clothed with reddish-brown pubescence only on lateral margin; antennomeres III – V clothed with reddish-brown pubescence on basal half, antennomeres VI – VIII on basal half and antennomere XI on extreme apex clothed with greyish-yellow pubescence; antennomeres III – IV clothed with black pubescence on apical half, antennomeres V – VIII clothed with pubescence fading to chestnut on apical half; antennomeres IX – X and most of antennomere XI clothed with chestnut pubescence; scape and pedicel clothed with a black long hair on each puncture, denser on inferior margin; antennomeres III – VI fringed with long hairs below, reddish-brown on base and black on apex, antennomeres III – IV tufted with black hairs around apex. Pronotum clothed with black erect hairs on anterior, lateral and posterior margin, more on anterior margin; disc barely clothed with hairs on calli. Scutellum clothed with reddish-brown pubescence, without hairs. Elytra densely clothed with reddish-brown and black hairs, glabrous only on basal granules; each puncture bearing a long erect black or reddish-brown hair, black hairs short and stiff, reddish-brown hairs long and soft, arranged intermixed with each other; elytra with five black pubescent patches: a basal one located around scutellum, subangular; a lateral one on basal quarter after each humerus, smallest, oblique, not reaching the lateral margin; a large oblique one on each side behind the middle, not reaching suture and lateral margin. Underside densely clothed with reddish-brown pubescence, slightly greyish-yellow on mesosternum and mesoepisternum; ventrites furnished with greyish-yellow and black erect hairs. Legs mostly clothed with reddish-brown pubescence, tibiae and tarsi furnished with sparse black bristles.

Head sparsely punctate; frons transverse, slightly convex, with a distinct median sulcus extending to occiput. Eyes coarsely faceted, lower eye lobe transverse, about as long as gena; vertex uneven, with irregular wrinkles. Antennae distinctly shorter than body; antennal insertions conspicuously elevated, broadly separated; scape stout, gradually thickened apically, longest; antennomere III slightly shorter than antennomere IV, antennomere IV about as long as antennomere V, antennomeres V – X gradually shortened in length, antennomere XI about as long as antennomere VII. Pronotum transverse, with a pointed lateral spine on middle of each side; disc convex, coarsely rugose, with developed calli. Scutellum semicircular. Elytra broad, lateral margins gradually expanding outward at basal quarter after humeri, then convergent backward from middle to apices, apices conjointly rounded; about basal fourth provided the sparse, glabrous granules, of which several large granules regularly arranged in a row near the scutellum. Abdomen with first ventrite distinct longer than second and third ventrite, distal ventrite with apical centre slightly depressed, apical margin nearly straight. Legs moderately long and thick, metafemur reaching the middle of fourth ventrite.

Non-type material examined.

Myanmar: 1 male: ‘ UPPER BURMA: / Nam Tamai Valley / 28. viii. 1938. / R. Kaulback. / B. M. 1938–741. [p]; Alt. 6,000 ft. / Lat. N. 27 ° 42 ′. / Long. E. 97 ° 54 ′. [p]; Arctolamia / fruhstorferi / Auriv [h] / DET. – E. F. GILMOUR [p]; NHMUK 014596131 ’ ; 1 female: ‘ UPPER BURMA: / Nam Tamai Valley / 28. viii. 1938. / R. Kaulback. / B. M. 1938–741. [p]; Alt. 6,000 ft. / Lat. N. 27 ° 42 ′. / Long. E. 97 ° 54 ′. [p]; NHMUK 014596132 ’ .

Comments.

Gilmour (1950) misidentified the above pair of specimens as Arctolamia fruhstorferi Aurivillius, 1902 (Fig. 4 a – j ) and, using this as a comparison, described another species, Arctolamia margaretae Gilmour, 1950 (Fig. 4 k – o ). In fact, A. margaretae is a junior synonym of A. fruhstorferi , as shown by Pu (1981), whereas the specimens misidentified by Gilmour as A. fruhstorferi represent A. sinica Bi & Chen, 2022 .

Bi and Chen (2022) indicated that A. sinica can be differentiated from A. fruhstorferi by the absence of light-coloured pubescence on the dorsal surface of the scape and numerous large granules on the base of elytra. However, a male specimen of A. sinica from Myanmar shows the scape distinctly clothed with reddish-brown pubescence on dorsal surface (Fig. 4 a, b, d ) and there is a female specimen in the NHMUK identified as A. fasciata Gestro, 1891 that is actually supposed to be A. fruhstorferi (maybe it is a transitional form), which also has some large granules on the elytral base (Fig. 4 a – e ). This seems to imply that, given current knowledge, the main feature that distinguishes A. sinica from A. fruhstorferi is the reddish-brown pubescence on its body.

Arctolamia sinica , is also recorded in Myanmar for the first time based on the pair of specimens mentioned above.

Additional discoveries

Type specimens of Lamia punctator Fabricius, 1776 [= Anoplophora chinensis (Forster, 1771) ] (Fig. 6 a – e ) and Cerambyx galloprovincialis Olivier, 1800 [= Monochamus galloprovincialis ( Olivier, 1800) ] (Fig. 6 f – k ) and the holotype of Melanauster granulipennis Breuning, 1938 [= Monochamus guerryi Pic, 1903 ] (Fig. 6 l – p ) are confirmed to be preserved in the NHMUK; all were considered to be ‘ lost’ and marked as ‘ depositary not known’ ( Tavakilian and Chevillotte 2023). Lamia punctator Fabricius, 1776 and Cerambyx galloprovincialis Olivier, 1800 are marked as having (missing) ‘ holotypes’ by Tavakilian and Chevillotte (2023) and are labelled at the NHMUK with standard red framed ‘ type’ discs, but there is no evidence of a holotype or of there being only one specimen in their original descriptions, so they are treated as syntypes. Melanauster granulipennis Breuning, 1938 is described from a single female, and this specimen is a holotype.

Figures

Figure 4. Habitus of Arctolamia spp. a – j Arctolamia sinica Bi & Chen, 2022 k – o holotype of Arctolamia margaretae Gilmour, 1950 a – d male f – i, k – n female e, j, o labels.

Figure 5. Habitus of Arctolamia spp. a – d, g, j Arctolamia fruhstorferi Aurivillius, 1902 f, i Arctolamia sinica Bi & Chen, 2022 h, k holotype of Arctolamia margaretae Gilmour, 1950 e labels a – d, f – k female.

Figure 6. a – d type specimen of Lamia punctator Fabricius, 1776, female f – i type specimen of Cerambyx galloprovincialis Olivier, 1800, female l – o holotype of Melanauster granulipennis Breuning, 1938, female e, j, k, p labels.