Prosopocoilus piceipennis ( Westwood, 1855 )

Zhong, Fang, Bai, Ming, Ge, Yang & Wan, Xia, 2014, Taxonomic revision of Prosopocoilus gracilis (Saunders, 1854) and its allied species from China (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), Zoological Systematics 39 (1), pp. 136-148 : 140-142

Prosopocoilus piceipennis ( Westwood, 1855) ( Figs 2 , 18–21 , 52–54 )

Cladognahus piceipennis Westwood, 1855 . Trans. R. Ent. Soc. Lond., (3) 4: 202–203.

Hemisodorcus picipennis: Roon, 1910 . C oleop. Cat., pars 8: 32.

Prosopocoilus piceipennis: Benesh, 1950 . Pan-Pacif. Ent., 26(2):17.

Epidorcus piceipennis: Séguy, 1954 . Revue Fr. Ent., 21(3): 192.

Prosopocoilus gracilis var. piceipennis: Benesh, 1960 . Coleop. Cat., 8(Suppl.): 69.

Dorcus piceipennis: Krajcik, 2001 . Lucan. World, Cat., Part I: 48; 2003, Part II: 66.

Prosopocoilus andreasi Schenk, 2009 . Beetles World, 3:1. Syn.nov.

Length 23.1–55.5 mm. Width 8.3–15.4 mm. Color. Reddish to dark brown ( Figs 18–21 ). Head. Inverted trapezoidal, 2.0 times wider than long. Anterior margin at middle concaved, with forming a relatively small, triangularly frontal depression. Vertex strongly raised, almost V-shaped. Male mandibles: about 1.1–1.3 times the total length of head and pronotum in males. Mandibles of large male strongly curved inwards. The apex sharp, with a marked sub-apical tooth. A large triangular tooth closed to the mandibular base (about at 1/4 posterior position on each mandible), 10–14 denticles serrated at front of this tooth, no denticles present behind of it. Size of these teeth and the amount of denticles gradually reduced following to the male body size diminishing in males. Mentum. Sub-trapezoidal, front angles almost rectangular, scattered with few punctures. Pronotum. 2.0 times wider than long, almost as wide as that of head. Front angles acute. Lateral margins straight, almost parallel-sides. Hind angles obtusely rounded. Elytra. 1.3 times longer than wide, almost as wide as that of pronotum. Disc dim and reddish. Punctures presented densely along the elytra suture. Legs. Front tibiae slender, laterally serrated with 4–7 small teeth. Middle and hind tibiae simply with a very small spine. Aedeagus ( Figs 52–54 ). Stout, the ventrally triangular tooth of PA large, long (about 1.9 mm long from its point angle to outer margin of PA) and slightly curved. PES about 2.0 times the length of Tegmen. BP about 1.5 times the length of PA. Female genitalia unknown.

Type material examined. Holotype of Prosopocoilus piceipennis ( Westwood, 1855) , ♂ ( Fig. 2 ), in MNHN, labelled : Holotype (red label) / Type SP. (pale label) / Cladognahus piceipennis West., Ent. S. Ln. 3 pl.10 (handwritten) / Ex. Museo Parry / Museum Paris. 1932. Coll. R. Oberthür .

Additional material examined. China, Guangxi, Baise, Leye, Tongle Forest farm, 1♂, 19 June 1981 , Zhen-Ming Lu leg., same locality 1♂, 16 September 1981, same collector leg. (in NZMC) . Jinxiu, Mt. Dayao , 4♂, 20 July 2006, local collector (in MAHU) .

Distribution. China (Xizang, Guangxi, Hainan).

Remarks. Comparison between the type and diagnosed specimens from Guangxi indicated that Prosopocoilus piceipennis was not a variation of P. gracilis as Westwood discussed in 1855, but a good species. In P. gracilis : body very slender; lateral margins of pronotum distinctly curved; male mandible without sub-apical tooth near the apex; a slenderly triangular tooth situated anteriorly on each mandible with serrated denticles at the front and behind of it; aedeagus quite slender, ventrally triangular tooth of PA small, short and blunt. Whereas in P. piceipennis : body relatively stout; lateral margins almost straight; male mandible with a marked sub-apical tooth near the apex, a very large and sharp tooth situated posteriorly on each mandible and very close to the mandibular base, no denticles behind it; aedeagus quite stout, the tooth of PA large, long and sharply curved.

Schenk (2009) published a species from Guangxi, Prosopocoilus andreasi , which was very similar to P. piceipennis . However, the author merely compared this species with P. gracilis (Saunders) in external morphology. Some important information especially male genitalia comparisons were not mentioned. In this paper, we proposed P. andreasi as a new junior synonym of P. piceipennis . Some specimens from the type locality of P. andreasi had been studied. Males of the two species both were stout, brown-reddish and slightly shiny; lateral margins of prontoum were paralleled. Mandibles of them were long, strongly curved. On each mandible, a very large long sharply-curved triangular tooth presented posteriorly where was close to the mandibular base in large and medium-sized male, the character of which can be used to distinguish them from other allied species in China fauna. Other features, such as, elytra, legs are also highly similar to each other. Aedeagus of them are almost same in morphology: very stout in shapes; BP broad; the ventrally triangular teeth of PA large, long and sharply curved. As regards geographic distribution, only three places were recorded. Type locality of P. piceipennis was relatively large scale area, “ China vel Thibeta”, but which could actually tell the type is from China. Benesh (1950) recorded some specimens from Hainan. Unfortunately, we have not found any specimen among our collection from the island. Perhaps, P. piceipennis is distributed around south China as the species of P. gracilis .

Figures

Figs 1–4. Labels, type specimens in MNHN. 1. Lectotype of Prosopocoilu gracilis (Saunders). 2. Holotype of Prosopocoilus piceipennis. 3. Holotype of Prosopocoilus tonkinensis. 4. Lectotype of Prosopocoilus denticulatus. Scale bars = 10mm.

Figs 18–21. Prosopocoilus piceipennis. Figs 22–30. Prosopocoilus crenulidens. 18–29. ♂ 30. ♀ 22–25. Specimens from Guangxi, Wuming. 26–30. Specimens from Hainan. 18–19, 22, 26. Large. 20–21, 23–24, 27–28. Medium-sized. 25, 29. Small. Scale bars = 10mm.

Figs 43–60. Aedeagus in ventral view, dorsal view and lateral view. 43–48. Prosopocoilus gracilis (Saunders). 43–45. Specimen from Fujian. 46–48. Specimen from Yunnan. 49–51. Prosopocoilus similis. 52–54. Prosopocoilus piceipennis. 55–57. Prosopocoilus crenulidens. 58–60. Prosopocoilus denticulatus. Scale bars = 1mm.