Melanesthes (Melanesthes) maxima maxima Menetries , 1854

Long, Jia, Guo-Dong, Ren & You-Zhi, Yu, 2013, Descriptions of eleven Opatrini pupae (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) from China, ZooKeys 291, pp. 83-105 : 95-96

Melanesthes (Melanesthes) maxima maxima Menetries, 1854 Fig. 5: 10-18

Redescription.

Female. Body covered with setae on surface; setae on abdominal tergites and urogomphi more; the total number of setose tubercles and setae on pronotal borders, hypomeron, vertex, mandibles and the last segment of maxillary palpus about 16-20 and 50-58, respectively.

Head bent at acute angle to pronotum. Labrum covered with sparsely short setae along anterior and lateral borders, anterior border distinctly emarginated in middle. Oculus oval.

Pronotum: transverse, widest near middle, with the anterior part distinctly narrowed and the posterior part slightly narrowed; anterior border broadly emarginated and the emargination protuberant in middle, lateral borders broadly protuberant, posterior border straight ( Fig. 5 : 13); anterior angles rounded, posterior angles obtusely rounded; disc flat, glabrous, with short and narrow furrows, each side with a apophysis before the posterior border.

Mesonotum slightly convex in middle of posterior part, posterior border protuberant. Metanotum slightly convex in middle of anterior part, posterior border straight.

Elytral sheath obscurely striped and finely setose; with a distinct groove between elytral sheath and mesonotum. Metathoracic wing sheath completely shrouded by elytral sheath ( Fig. 5 : 10-12).

Abdominal segments III-IX curved ventrally. The width of abdominal segments I-VII gradually narrowed posteriorly. Posterior border of abdominal sternite VIII broadly protuberant. Abdominal segment IX and urogomphi densely covered with, brown, long setae. Urogomphi parallel to each other, with apices of urogomphi leaning against each other, BUL much shorter than UL ( Fig. 5 : 15-16). Abdominal tergites I-VII each with a concaveness between its lateral process and lateral border in middle, lateral processes each with 2-3 large setose tubercles and about 5-7 minute setose tubercles along outer border ( Fig. 5 : 17-18). Outer borders of lateral processes of abdominal tergites I-VI protuberant in middle. Spiracles of abdominal tergites I-VI oval.

Gonotheca with an obtusely rounded apophysis on the anterior part and a conical apophysis on the posterior part, a brown apophysis between gonothecas.

Male. Unkown.

Measurements.

BL: 11.8 mm; PL: 3.2 mm; PW: 5.4 mm; MSL: 0.3 mm; MTL: 0.2 mm; UL: 1.0 mm; BUL shorter than 0.1 mm.

Material examined.

adults collected information: 22 April 2001, Yaoba Town, Alxa Left Banner, Neimenggu, China; pupation date: 22 June 2001.

Remarks.

This species was included in the key of tenebrionid pupae by Yu et al. (1999), but only mentioned with some characters for identification. Here its morphological characters are described in detail and provided with the photos for the first time.

Figures

Figure 5. 1 - 9 Melanesthes (Opatronesthes) rugipennis Reitter, 1889 1 Pupal habitus in dorsal view 2 Pupal habitus in lateral view 3 Pupal habitus in ventral view 4 Pronotum 5 Head 6 Urogomphi in dorsal view 7 Urogomphi in ventral view 8 Lateral process of abdominal tergite V 9 Lateral process of abdominal tergite VII 10 - 18 Melanesthes (Melanesthes) maxima maxima Menetries, 1854 10 Pupal habitus in dorsal view 11 Pupal habitus in lateral view 12 Pupal habitus in ventral view 13 Pronotum 14 Head 15 Urogomphi in dorsal view 16 Urogomphi in ventral view 17 Lateral process of abdominal tergite V 18 Lateral process of abdominal tergite VII.