Euschizomerus indicus Jedlicka, 1955

Jithmon, V. A. & Thomas, Sabu K., 2018, Taxonomy of Euschizomerus Chaudoir 1850 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Panagaeinae) from India with a new species and new synonym, Zootaxa 4471 (2), pp. 361-368 : 365-368

Euschizomerus indicus Jedlicka, 1955

Figures 2a–2e.

Euschizomerus indicus Jedlicka 1955: 207 (Type locality: India—Maharashtra: Mumbai), Hackel & Farkac. 2012. 86 Euschizomerus schuhi Kirschenhofer, 2000: 360 new synonymy (Type locality: India—Maharashtra: Mumbai: Lonvala, Paratype: India: Goa: Benaulin Beach); Hackel & Farkac. 2012. 86

Materials examined: Euschizomerus indicus , Holotype. ♀, labelled “ India : Bombay ”, in NMP ; Euschizomerus Schuhi , Holotype. ♀, labelled “ India: Maharashtra, Lonvala (80 km E Bombay), 13.IX.1991, leg. R. Schuh ”, in NMW .

2 ♂ & 2 ♀, labelled “ India: Kerala: Kozhikode Dt. ( East Devagiri ), 18.IV.2017, light, Divya M. ” in ZSI-Ca . 2 ♂, labelled “ India: Kerala: Kozhikode Dt. ( Govindapuram ), 05.X.2016, UV light, Anju ”, in ZSI-Ca.

Description. Length. 12.5–14 mm

Colour: Head, Pronotum and Elytra Pure black. Antennae, palps and legs reddish yellow.

Head: Smooth forehead and labrum, shiny, vertex distractly punctured, with strongly bulged eyes, slightly convex in the middle, long and deep furrows. Labrum small, angles weakly rounded, smooth, anterior margin strongly emarginated. Mandibles fairly short, narrowed to the tip strongly rounded. Frontal furrows reaching about the level of the posterior margin of eye, Genae briefly deposited.

Pronotum: Convex, wider than head, wider than long. Very rough, wrinkled and hairy dorsal side with punctures. Narrowly rounded to the anterior corners, widest and expands behind the middle, posterior corners obtuse. The marginal edge of the pronotum extremely thin.Basal impressions oblong, rectilinear, flat.

Elytra: Highly convex, weakly ovoid, quite long, 3.5 times as long as the pronotum with weakly sloping projected shoulders. Slightly rounded on the sides, largest width just behind the middle, striae moderately deep, roughly punctured, Intervals slightly convex, fine and distracted punctured.

Sexual dimorphism: First protarsal segment of male non-symmetrical with distal half outwardly enlarged than in female, ventral side of enlarged portion bears adhesive setae.

Male genitalia Aedaegus: median lobe of aedeagus long with pointed apex, arcuate downwardly.

Geographical Distribution: India: Mumbai. Lonvala (Maharhastra), Goa: Benaulin Beach— 5 km W Margao , Kerala: Kozhikode—Devagiri & Govindapuram.

Remarks: A comparison of the descriptions and holotype of E. indicus Jedlicka 1955 (NMP) and E. schuhi Kirschenhofer, 2000 (NMW) revealed that E. schuhi is a synonym of E. indicus . The holotype of Euschizomerus indicus and Euschizomerus schuhi share the same diagnostic characters and were determined to be conspecific. Additionally, holotypes of both species were collected from the same locality in Western India with additional specimens of Euschizomerus schuhi from a nearby coastal locality in Western India. New synonymy of E. schuhi Kirschenhofer with E. indicus Jedlicka is proposed here.

Distinct sexual dimorphism exists in Euschizomrus indicus with the male having enlarged and asymmetrically lobed first protarsal segment and the female with simple symmetrical fore tarsal segment. Report of E. liebkei Jedlicka 1932 with simple symmetrical fore tarsal segments in both male and female members ( Kasahara 1984) indicates that this trait cannot be applied to the entire genus.