Blapstinus grandis Champion, 1885

Kamiński, Marcin Jan, Lumen, Ryan, Kanda, Kojun & Smith, Aaron Dennis, 2022, Phylogenetic status of some unique species representing Blapstinina Mulsant & Rey (Tenebrionidae: Blaptinae: Opatrini), and implications for continued study of the subtribe, Zootaxa 5093 (5), pp. 519-532 : 526-527

Blapstinus grandis Champion, 1885

Note. While describing this species Champion (1885) did not designate a holotype, nor state the exact number of the studied specimens. However, from the context it is clear that B. grandis was described based on at least two specimens (female and male). As a result a lectotype designation is needed to fix the taxonomic status of the species.

Studied material. LECTOTYPE (here designated), female ( MCZ): “Chontales / Nicaragua. / Janson.”, “Type / 7089”, “Ex / Godman / and / Salvin.”, “ Blapstinus / grandis, Ch ”, “grandis / Champ.” . Additional material: 29 specimens ( PERC): “ MEXICO: Chiapas / 12.4 km NE of Tonala / 16.153, -93.6466, 435m / 12.Aug.2015, AD-Smith”, “Fiesta de los Escarabajos / NAUF-CNIN-OSAC-ASUT, / ADSmith, GRodrigez-Miron, / RAGomez, and MAJohnston” .

Redescription. Length 9.5–11.0 mm, width 4.5–5.0 mm. Body ( Fig. 2H ): black, reddish or brown, legs and antennomeres brown; dorsal and ventral surfaces matte; ovate-oblong; widest at 2/3 of elytral length; weakly convex in lateral view; evenly covered with fine setae dorsally. Head: Epistoma broadly convex; punctures equal to diameter of an ommatidium (distributed less than single diameter apart); setae 2x length of internals between punctures. Fronto-epistomal suture visible on sides. Epistoma weakly emarginate. Prothorax: Widest at middle; apical margin evenly, broadly emarginate; apical angles sharp. Lateral margin evenly rounded or slightly sinuate. Basal width slightly narrower than humeri; basal margin bisinuate; dorsal surface broadly, evenly convex; all margins narrowly beaded, except obsolete at middle of anterior margin; disc finely punctate (punctures 1–3 diameters apart). Hypomeron glabrous near margin, then rugulose; whole hypomeron in single plane. Intercoxal process of prosternum tongue-like, densely punctate, depressed in lateral view. Scutellar shield: Subtriangular, of equal width and length, finely punctate. Pterothorax: Elytral striae impressed; strial punctures shallow (single diameter apart); intervals flat, finely punctate (3–5 diameters apart), punctures setose. Striae not joining prior humeral angle. Epipleura evenly and slightly narrowing towards apex in males; in females tip of epipleura circularly expanded ( Fig. 2I ). Metathoracic wings well developed. Metaventrite long, punctate; sparse setae present. Legs: Inner surfaces of tibiae densely setose and finely punctate in males; sparsely setose in female. Male protibia narrow, with a shallow, longitudinal cavity on inner side; female protibia lacking this feature. Male and female protarsi with tarsomeres 1–3 slightly expanded, ventrally with golden, densely setose pads. Male foretibia slightly bent. Remaining leg parts not modified in both sexes. Abdominal ventrites: Finely punctate, scattered with setae; intercoxal process narrowly rounded; ventrite 5, in males, medially slightly concave, posterior margin evenly rounded. Aedeagus ( Fig. 1 ): Basal piece slightly curved basally (lateral view); parameres straight, appearing as tridentate, length of lateral outgrowths equal to 0.6 of total parameres length. Female terminalia: Ovipositor with paraprocts slightly longer than coxites. Paraproct does not shield valvifer and other lobes (directed basally). Valvifer wide and short; second lobe elongate; third one triangular (about 0.5 of height of third one); apical lobe rounded, situated dorsally, bearing reduced gonostylus on dorsal side. Proctiger covering nearly whole ovipositor. Vagina without sclerites; bursa largely widened and curved. Spermatheca with narrow duct. Spiculum ventrale short.

Distribution. CARIBBEAN, MEXICO (Jalisco, Sinaloa), NICARAGUA ( Bousquet et al. 2018); MEXICO (Chiapas) (present paper).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogeny of subtribe Blapstinina. Figured topology was recovered in maximum likelihood analysis using IQ- Tree. Ultrafast bootstrap values (1,000 replicates) (integers) and posterior probabilities (20 million generations) acquired in Bayesian analysis (decimals) are displayed in red. The three investigated Blapstinina species are displayed in blue. Male genitalia (1–4) of selected species (dorsal views) are illustrated on the left. Topologies of collapsed clades (‘remaining Opatrini’ & ‘Dendarini + Pedininini + Playtonotini’) are fully consistent with those presented in Lumen et al. (2020).

FIGURE 2. Morphology of studied Blapstinina species. Habitus photographs and diagnostic features. (A–C) Lodinus punctulatus comb. nov., (D–F) Lodinus araguae comb. nov., (G) Blapstinus tibialis, (H, I) Blapstinus grandis. (B) protarsus, (C) mesotarsus, (D) last 5 antennomeres, (I) apical tip of epipleura.