Brasiella davidsoni, Acciavatti, Robert E., 2011

Acciavatti, Robert E., 2011, Taxonomic Revision of Hispaniola Tiger Beetles in the Genus Brasiella Rivalier 1954 (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Cicindelinae), ZooKeys 147, pp. 99-182 : 117-122

Brasiella davidsoni sp. n. Figs 56

Holotype.

Male! labeled "HAITI: Departement / du Sud, Ville Formon / 31 km NW Les Cayes, / S slope Morne Formon / Massif de La Hotte" [typeset black on white label]; "18-20N, 74-01W / 1405m, 7-8 Sept 1995 / R.Davidson, G.Onore / J.Rawlins. Disturbed / forest and fields" [typeset black on white label]; "Carnegie Museum / Specimen Number / CMNH-500,316" [typeset black on white label]; "HOLOTYPE / Brasiella / davidsoni / Acciavatti" [typeset black on red label]. [Genitalia in glycerin in a microvial pinned beneath specimen.]

Allotype.

Female! labeled with the same locality data as the holotype; "Carnegie Museum / Specimen Number / CMNH-494,052" [typeset black on white label]; "ALLOTYPE / Brasiella / davidsoni / Acciavatti" [typeset black on red label].

Paratypes.

Specimens! as follows: 1) 95 males and 64 females labeled with the same locality data as the holotype; "PARATYPE / Brasiella / davidsoni / Acciavatti" [typeset black on blue label]; [these paratypes each labeled with a CMNH Unique Number]; 2) 3 males and 3 females labeled "Desbarriere / Mf.LaHotte / nr. 4000 ft. / Oct. 12-14" [typeset black on white label]; "Haiti / 1934 / Darlington" [typeset black on white label]; "C. (Brasiella) / dominicana Mandl / det. R. Freitag / April 1988" [typeset black on white label]. "PARATYPE / Brasiella / davidsoni / Acciavatti" [typeset black on blue label].

Type Depositories.

Holotype, allotype and 157 paratypes at CMNH; each CMNH Unique Number stored in data files at CMNH. Paratypes (4 each sex) at MCZH.

[Male paratype from Desbarriere at CMNH with Carnegie Museum Specimen Numbers: CMNH-495,489. Female paratype from Desbarriere at CMNH with Carnegie Museum Specimen Numbers: CMNH-524,004. Male paratypes from Ville Formon at MCZH with Carnegie Museum Specimen Numbers: CMNH-529,026; 519,749. Female paratype from Ville Formon at MCZH with Carnegie Museum Specimen Numbers: CMNH-514,359; 521,194.]

Type Locality.

HAITI: Département du l'Sud, Ville Formon, Morne Formon, Massif de La Hotte, 18°20'N, 74°01'W, 1405 m. Aerial view in Fig. 19A.

Diagnosis.

Distinguished from other Brasiella species on Hispaniola by the following combination of characters: 1) elytral markings exhibiting a humeral lunule reduced to its extremities; middle lunule terminating near the suture in a broad hook, never anteriorly recurved; apical lunule entire or broken into marginal band and subapical dot; 2) eyes small, neither prominent nor bulging laterally; 3) male genitalia with aedeagus neck broadly and distinctly bowed, its apex terminating in an extremely short, blunt curved tip; 4) male aedeagus inner sac stylet with distal apex distinctively hooked at tip; 5) females completely lack the longitudinal membranous band and membranous wedge mesad on the female 5th abdominal sternum developed to various degrees in the other Brasiella species on Hispaniola.

Description.

General. Fig.s 5A, 6A. Body. Formslender; head wide, eyes small, neither prominent nor bulging laterally; pronotum square, sligthly wider than long; elytra in both sexes narrow only slightly wider distad, apices separately rounded. Size.Males, length 5.6-5.8 mm, width 1.7-1.8 mm; females, length 6.2-6.5 mm, width 1.8-1.9 mm.

Head. Fig.s 5B, 5D, 6D, 6F. Shiny dark copper black, back green or violet green dorsally and black green ventrally; entire surface glabrous except for two pairs of supraorbital sensory setae. Frons finely and longitudinally rugose. Vertex more coarsely rugose, transverse rugae along anterior margin narrow and irregularly arranged, 11-14 more or less complete longitudinal rugae between eyes and middle where rugae converge into an arcuate pattern; rugae transition abruptly into a posterior area with a finely and irregularly granulate surface. Eyes small, neither prominent nor bulging laterally. Genae longitudinally rugose. Clypeus finely and irregularly granulate, narrowed mesad. Labrum testaceous with a dark brown margin, subrectangular, width to length ratio 3.1 in holotype male, ratio 2.4 in allotype female; anterior margin protruding broadly mesad with a small medial tooth, both protruded margin and tooth larger in female; posterior margin very broadly arcuate mesad; medial carina broadly raised, very slight depression on each side near posterior margin; 6-7 setae in an irregular row near middle, most often symmetrically arranged. Maxillae and labium mainly testaceous, only distal palpal segments dark brown with metallic blue green reflections. Mandibles sexually dimorphic; in male, surface mainly testaceous, only teeth shiny brown with metallic green; in female, surface only testaceous in basal half, apical half and teeth shiny brown with metallic green; mandibles symmetrical, four teeth distad of molar, apical tooth longest, first and third tooth coequal in length, second tooth shortest; gaps between three intermediate teeth wide in both sexes. Antennae 11 segmented; scape dorsally shiny green, ventrally testaceous with a single subapical sensory seta; antennomeres 2-4 shiny green, glabrous except for a few, short erect setae along their length and distally; antennomeres 5-11 dull black, sheathed with dense short sensory setae.

Prothorax.Figs 5C, 5D, 6C, 6D. Pronotum shiny, dark copper black. Proepisterna shiny, dark copper black, surface wrinkled dorsad. Prosternum shiny, dark copper black, surface wrinkled dorsad. Pronotum glabrous except for short, decumbent, white setae distributed in several, irregular rows medially directed, originating close to, and lying in a narrow band distinctly removed from lateral suture, in a sparse narrow band transversely and anteriorly oriented within broad anterior margin, and in a sparse narrow band laterally oriented on each side of midline extending nearly to the narrow posterior margin; transverse submarginal sulci distinct, anterior sulcus shallow, posterior sulcus deeper and deepest at posterior angles; transverse rugae within broad anterior margin irregular and shallow, interrupted at middle by an irregularly arranged pattern, within narrow posterior margin more distinctly and deeply engraved especially medially and extending onto midline; surface sculptured by fine, transverse rugae angled on disc and interrupted by a finely engraved longitudinal midline, and more finely and irregularly sculptured elsewhere. Proepisterna glabrous except for white, erect and appressed setae arising from small setigerous punctures scattered over ventral and posterior surfaces in males, only in ventral half in females. Prosternum glabrous, surface smooth.

Pterothorax.Figs 5C, 6C. Mesepisterna glabrous except for appressed setae near ventral margin; female coupling sulcus represented by a small, shallow depression medially situated, a distinct groove extends only dorsally from pit, surface smooth below pit. Mesepimeron with sparse appressed setae. Metepisterna with scattered, appressed setae, more abundant in male than female. Prosternum and mesosternum glabrous, smooth to slightly wrinkled; metasternum glabrous except for long, dense white appressed setae laterad, surface smooth mesad and coarsely sculpted laterad where setae originate. Scutellum triangular, copper black.

Legs.Figs 5A, 6B. Segmentstestaceous brown with metallic brown green reflections. Coxae shiny metallic brown green; trochanters shiny testaceous; femora and tibiae testaceous with metallic green reflections anteriorly; tarsomeres dark metallic brown; white, appressed setae on front and middle coxae, and laterally on hind coxae; erect setae and suberect closely spaced in several regular and irregular rows on all femora; setae widely spaced in a few rows on all tibiae; middle tibiae with patch of appressed setae dorsally along distal half; tarsomeres with short scattered setae on ventral surface; distal tarsomeres with two asymmetrical rows each with a few to several small, erect setae; an erect subapical seta present only on front trochanter, absent on middle and hind trochanters; males with dense pad of erect setae ventrally on proximal three tarsal segments; tarsal claws small.

Elytra.Figs 5A, 6A. Form narrow in male, only slightly wider distad in female; posterior margins rounded, apices more evenly curved and separately rounded in female; sutural spine tiny, feebly withdrawn from apex; posterior margins finely microserrulate. Surface finely granulate, impunctate, numerous small, irregular, shiny green or blue green flecks of various sizes scattered over a dull, dark copper brown background; elytral pattern broad, broken, contrasting with the darker elytral ground color; setigerous punctures with short, erect, transparent setae indistinct in subsutural rows on disc, but distinct at elytral base, and at inner humeral angles, each surrounded by a metallic fleck slightly larger than flecks elsewhere on elytra; surface slightly depressed in humeral area and on disc creating a slight but distinct raised area basally. Elytral markings tawny, reduced pattern consisting of four or five isolated markings; humeral lunule broken into two widely separated terminal dots, humeral angle spot very small, discal spot small and oval; middle band sinuate, uniformly wide, not expanded laterally nor recurved anteriorly near suture; apical lunule entire or narrowly broken into marginal band and subapical dot. Elytral epipleura testaceous except for narrow, metallic green to copper green band along dorsal margin.

Abdomen.Figs 6B, 6E. Surface of 1st-5th sterna shiny black with green reflections, sterna 6th entirely shiny black to black brown; posterior margins of male 3rd-5th sterna and female 3rd-4th sterna narrowly black; posterior margin female 5th sternum broadly black; 3rd-5th sterna medially smooth with scattered, fine, erect setae in both sexes; male 1st-6th sterna and female 1st-5th sterna laterally covered with dense, scattered, appressed white setae and roughened from setal punctures; male 6th sternum glabrous medially with a broad, deep concave notch; female 5th sternum with slightly raised transverse wrinkles, longitudinal membranous band and membranous wedge absent; female 6th sternum entirely glabrous, posterior margin with a row of 6-10 erect spines and a small lateral gibbosity on each side.

Male Genitalia.Figs 5E, 5F, 5G. Shape broad near base, gradually tapering and uniformly broad to long, broad distal neck evenly curved, its apex terminating in an extremely short, blunt curved tip. Aedeagus inner sac sclerites: stylet long and straight, small hook at terminal tip; shield tapered distad; large tooth long and pointed at tip with large root and large dark fields; arched piece long and broad at base; spine field within aedeagus neck short and narrow.

Ecology.

Robert L. Davidson informed the author that this new species, named in his honor, was extremely abundant at the type locality when he and other CMNH staff collected there in early September. This new species was collected along dirt roads and trails through fields and disturbed forests at 1405 m on the south slope of Morne Formon in the Massif de la Hotte (Fig. 19A). Darlington's specimen labels indicate he collected this new species at about the same elevation around the paratype locality of Desbarriere in mid-October. Darlington (1935) during his Haitian Expedition traversed treacherous terrain at Desbarriere where vegetation covered eroded limestone slopes on the north side of the Massif de la Hotte. From the collection data available, it appears that adults of this new species are active during the latter part of the year in September and October.

Distribution.

Fig. 22. HAITI: Département du l'Sud, Morne Formon, and Département du Grand'Anse, Desbarriere, in the Massif de la Hotte on the Tiburon Peninsula of western Haiti. This species is likely to be encountered in suitable habitats at the higher elevations throughout the Massif de la Hotte.

Etymology.

This Latinized eponym, genitive case, is based on the family name of Robert L. Davidson, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Robert is a recognized taxonomic expert on Carabidae and, for several decades, has been my mentor for studying these beetles and a close friend. I am honored to name this species for him, not only because he collected this new species, but also for his outstanding efforts to acquire specimens of several other new Brasiella species described in this revision. Although Philip J. Darlington collected specimens of this new species in the Massif de la Hotte during his 1934 expedition to Haiti, earlier workers did not consider these to be distinct from either Brasiella argentata (Fabricius) or Brasiella dominicana (Mandl). The conspecificity of the Darlington specimens with Brasiella davidsoni was established in this revision. The Darlington specimens fall within the range of variation exhibited by this new species as documented by the large series of specimens collected by Robert L. Davidson and CMNH colleagues.

Remarks.

This species appears closely related to Brasiella darlingtoniana from the Massif de la Selle situated farther eastward in central Haiti (refer to discussion under that species) because of the suite of unique synapomorhic characters the two share that are not found in other Brasiella on Hispaniola. The shape and form of the male aedeagus and the four typical sclerites within the inner sac of the aedeagus that characterize Brasiella are the most highly modified in this species compared to others on Hispaniola. Among these modifications, the aedeagus neck is broadly and distinctly recurved with an apex terminating in an extremely short, blunt end. Furthermore, the inner sac of the male genitalia has a stylet with a distinctively hooked terminal tip. For females, the membranous transverse wedge and longitudinal median band on the 5th abdominal sternum, fully or partially developed in the other Brasiella species on Hispaniola, are completely absent. These modified morphological characters of this species, unique among the Brasiella on Hispaniola, were not previously considered in earlier phylogenetic analyses ( Freitag and Barnes 1989). Because of this omission, it is unclear how to interpret their conclusions about phylogeny within the Brasiella viridicollis Dejean species group, a concept now greatly expanded by the addition of numerous species described in this revision. Thus, the relationship of Brasiella davidsoni to the other Brasiella in the Dominican Republic remains uncertain. Loss or modification of several characters by Brasiella davidsoni of homologous characters found in related species implies isolation for a long period of time leading to these character divergences.