Chydaeus loeffleri tibetanus, Kataev & Schmidt, 2019

Kataev, Boris M. & Schmidt, Joachim, 2019, New data on the irvinei group of Chydaeus of the Himalaya from Nepal and southern Tibet (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Harpalini), Zootaxa 4686 (2), pp. 202-214 : 209-210

Chydaeus loeffleri tibetanus ssp. n.

( Figs 3 , 26–30 )

Type material. Holotype: ♂, labelled “ Tibet: Rongshar Valley . 11,000 ft. 28.VI.1924. Maj. R.W.G. Hingston. ”, “ Harpalus irvinei Andr. Cotype (var.) H.E. Andrewes det.”, and “ PARALECTOTYPUS Harpalus irvinei Andrewes , des. Kataev & Schmidt, 2019” ( NHML).

Description (male, female unknown). Body length 7.1 mm, width 3.2 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 3 . Characters as described for Ch. loeffleri loeffleri except as follows:

Head without fine micropunctation, HWmax/PWmax 0.76 and HWmin/PWmax 0.66. Fronto-clypeal suture thin, not deepened at middle. Labrum moderately deeply emarginate anteriorly.

Pronotum: PWmax/PL 1.50, WPmax/WPmin 1.18, almost impunctate, with fine dense punctation restricted to very narrow area along sides and with few indistinct punctures in basal fovea. Area just at basal angles depressed and separated from somewhat deep basal foveae by convexity.

Elytra: EL/EW 1.36, EL/PL 2.64 and EW/PWmax 1.29. Humeral denticle not recognized. Subapical sinuation very shallow, sutural angle narrowly rounded at apex. Marginal umbilicate series consisting of five or six basal and of six apical pores.

Legs. Additional large medial setigerous pore present only on left metacoxae. Tarsomere 5 with two pairs of latero-ventral setae. Pro- and mesotarsi (in male) similar to those in the nominative subspecies ( Figs 29, 30 ).

Aedeagus. Median lobe ( Figs 27, 28 ) relatively slightly longer (MLL/L 0.24) and with narrower terminal lamella ( Fig. 26 ) than that in Ch. loeffleri .

Etymology. The name of the subspecies is derived from the name of the region where this taxon occurs.

Distribution ( Fig. 38 , ‘ red square’). Rongshar Valley (= upper Tama Koshi Valley) in the Inner Himalaya of Tibet, immediately north of eastern Central Tibet, and northerly adjacent to the Rolwaling Himal.

Remarks. This taxon is geographically separated from Ch. loeffleri loeffleri by the mountain range of the Rolwaling Himal. Although only one male is available, some peculiarities in its external morphology (particularly very limited pronotal punctation) and male genitalia are sufficient, in our opinion, to treat it as a separate taxon. Similarity between the male from the Rongshar Valley and the specimens of Ch. loeffleri from the Rolwaling Valley in many distinctive characters including of median lobe of aedeagus argues for its subspecific status within the latter species, although additional collecting in this valley is needed to verify this conclusion. This subspecies should perhaps also include the specimens previously examined in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing from the upper Bhote Koshi Valley in southern Tibet, about 40 km west of the Rongshar (= Tama Koshi) Valley ( Fig. 38 , yellow square) and determined as Ch. irvinei ( Kataev et al., 2012) , but this material should be reexamined since the species of the irvinei group were found to have very local distributions.

Figures

FIGURE 38. Chydaeus, distribution: ‘red star’, Ch. irvinei (Andrewes. 1930); ‘red circle’, Ch. loeffleri loeffleri (Jedlička, 1966); ‘red square’, Ch. loeffleri tibetanus ssp. n.; ‘yellow square’, Ch. cf. loeffleri, population from Bothe Koshi Valley, see text for details; ‘blue circle’, Ch. soluensis sp. n.

FIGURES 1–5. Chydaeus, habitus (males). 1, Ch. irvinei (Andrewes. 1930), lectotype; 2, same, paralectotype from Gautsa; 3, Ch. loeffleri tibetanus ssp. n., holotype; 4, Ch. loeffleri loeffleri (Jedlička, 1966), specimen from the locality “Beding to Na”; 5, Ch. soluensis sp. n., paratype from Lamjura La. Scale bars = 1 mm.

FIGURES 26–30. Chydaeus loeffleri tibetanus ssp. n., holotype. 26, terminal lamella of aedeagus, dorsal view; 27, median lobe of aedeagus, lateral view; 28, same, dorsal view; 29, male protarsus; 30, male mesotarsus. Scale bar = 0.5 mm.