Scymnus (Pullus) subvillosus durantae Wollaston, 1854

Romanowski, Jerzy, Ceryngier, Piotr, Větrovec, Jaroslav & Szawaryn, Karol, 2019, The Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) from Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Zootaxa 4646 (1), pp. 101-123 : 111-112

Scymnus (Pullus) subvillosus durantae Wollaston, 1854

( Fig. 7 H–N)

Coccinella subvillosa Goeze 1777: 247 .

= Scymnus durantae Wollaston 1854: 465 .

= Scymnus (Pullus) nigropictus Wollaston 1867: 160 .

= Scymnus (Pullus) magnocapsularis Fürsch 1966b: 161 .

Material examined. Total of 174 specimens were collected from different plants, including N. oleander , Hibiscus sp., C. equisetifolia , Bougainvillea sp. and O. europaea . The species was recorded at 8 study sites: Antigua (25.III.2017), Caleta de Fuste (13.II.2017, 30.III.2017) , Costa Calma (08–12.II.2017, 22.III.2017, 09.VIII.2017, 12.VIII.2017) , Lajares (10.02.2017) , La Lajita (12.II.2017, 23.III.2017) , La Pared (30.IX.2016, 03.VIII.2017, 30.IX.2017) , Pajara (12.VIII.2017) and Tarajalejo (24.III.2017) .

Distribution. The species is widely distributed in Europe, North Africa and Asia ( Kovář 2007). New to Fuerteventura. In the Canary archipelago previously reported from Tenerife, La Gomera and La Palma ( Eizaguirre 2007).

Remarks. Scymnus durantae was described from Madeira by Wollaston (1854) but later it was synonymized by Fürsch (1987) with the Mediterranean species S. subvillosus (Goeze) . Recently, Eizaguirre (2007) revised the status of the Canarian S. subvillosus and decided to treat it as the subspecies S. subvillosus durantae . Indeed, it seems that the Canarian as well as other Macaronesian and West African populations are different from those found in Europe and Asia. Genitalia of specimens collected on Fuerteventura have the same shape as S. subvillosus durantae shown by Eizaguirre (2007), and also as S. magnocapsularis from Senegal ( Fürsch 1966b) and S. durantae from Cabo Verde ( Fürsch 1986). However, they clearly differ from those in S. subvillosus from France ( Gourreau 1974), the Balkan Peninsula (pers. observation), Afghanistan ( Bielawski 1963b) and China ( Chen et al. 2015). Further comparative examination is required to elucidate the taxonomic relationship between the two groups. As for now, we propose to retain Eizaguirre’s (2007) subspecific status of the Canarian population.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Scymnus nubilus: A) abdomen, male; B) habitus, dorsal; C) penis; D) tegmen, lateral; E) tegmen, inner; F) tip of penis; G) spermatheca; Scymnus subvillosus durantae: H) spermatheca; I) abdomen, male; J) habitus, dorsal; K) penis; L) tegmen, lateral; M) tegmen, inner; N) tip of penis.