Neacanista harmandi ( Pic, 1939 ) Pic, 1939

Huang, Gui-Qiang, Liu, Bin & Gouverneur, Xavier, 2015, Note on the genus Neacanista Gressitt, 1940 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Acanthocinini), Zootaxa 3981 (4), pp. 553-564 : 557

Neacanista harmandi ( Pic, 1939) comb. nov.

( Figures 15–19 )

Acanthocinus Harmandi Pic, 1939: 183 (type locality: “Lakhon”).

Hoploranomimus harmandi: Breuning 1959: 88 ; Breuning 1978: 48 (redescription), pl. IV, fig. 14; Löbl & Smetana 2010: 209 (catalogue).

Type specimens examined. Syntype: female ( MNHN), MUSEUM, PARIS, LAKHON, HARMAND, 1878 (printed on a rectangular white label in black ink)/ 596 (handwriting on a rectangular brownish white label in black ink)/ Acanthocinus Harmandi n sp (handwriting on a rectangular brownish white label in black ink)/ 381, 78 (handwriting on a circular white label in black ink)/ TYPE (printed on a rectangular red label in black ink).

Distribution. Bhutan; Laos; Thailand.

Remarks. Pic (1939) mentioned the differences between Acanthocinus harmandi and Acanista alphoides Pascoe, 1864 in his original description. Actually, Neacanista harmandi is closer to Neacanista tuberculipenne , but can be distinguished from latter by the elytra not covered with a pair of oblique black bands near apical 1/3; in addition, N. tuberculipenne may be a synonym of N. harmandi , but additional fresh specimens are needed to determine whether these differences are actually intraspecific variation.

The holotype of this species has a label ( Fig. 17 ) with the data “MUSEUM PARIS, LAKHON, HARMAND 1878”, “LAKHON” is the type locality, “HARMAND” is the collector. Pic (1939) just mentioned Lakhon in his original paper but without any explanations on Lakhon, Breuning (1978) considered the type locality “Lakhon” belonged to Laos and reported this species from Bhutan for the first time, while the TITAN database ( Tavakilian & Chevillotte, 2014) shows the type locality “Lakhon” belonged to Thailand.

This species was named in honour of Dr. J. Harmand ( Tavakilian & Chevillotte, 2014), whose full name was François-Jules Harmand (1845–1921) ( Wald, 1978). Dr. J. Harmand explored in Indo-China region between 1875 and 1878 ( Harmand, 1880; Aurousseau, 1922; Wald, 1978; Geiser & Nagel, 2013) and collected insects at a mountain of La-khôn ( Harmand, 1880). Some of his collections have a label with the same data “LAKHON, HARMAND 1878” and were deposited in MNHN ( Pic, 1936; Kojima, 1996; Gomy et al., 2007; Lin et al., 2009; Zhao & Tian, 2012; Stehlík, 2013; Wiesner, 2013) and DEI (Deutschen Entomologischen Institutes = German Entomological Institute) ( Döbler, 1973). There is also a butterfly specimen [ Paralaxita telesia boulleti (Fruhstorfer, 1914)) ] deposited in MNHN with the data “Lakhon, Siam 1878, Dr Harmand” ( Callaghan, 2009) ( Siam was an old name of modern Thailand).

Actually, the word “La-khôn” in the book of Harmand (1880) is “Lakhon” in French; some scholars believed the “LAKHON” belonged to Thailand ( Gomy et al., 2007; Stehlík, 2013), other scholars considered the “LAKHON” as belonging to Laos ( Breuning, 1978; Lin et al., 2009), but did not give any explanations. According to Harmand’s (1880) map, there was a province named La-khôn. Meanwhile, a place named La-khôn was in Lakhôn province and located on a bank of the Mekong [= “Mè-không” in Harmand (1880)] ( Fig. 18 ). Wiesner (2013) did not determine the location of “Lakhon”, but we conclude that the exact locality of Lakhon is no longer important. Firstly, “Montagnes de Lakhon” lies in the vicinity of Tha Khaek, Khammuane Province, Laos ( Geiser & Nagel, 2013) and La-khôn was in the vicinity of Mekong ( Harmand, 1880) which is the boundary of modern Laos and Thailand. Secondly, it is difficult to determine the exact locality where Harmand collected the type specimen of this species ( Neacanista harmandi ) without precise geographic coordinates even if he really collected the insects in Siam in 1878 (based on the data of the butterfly specimen mentioned above), because Lakhon is a region instead of an exact geographic location, and it is also difficult to determine the exact area of Lakhon, Laos, and Siam over 100 years ago. However, we can determine the probable range of Lakhon ( Figs 18 & 19 ). Finally, Pic (1939) described Acanthocinus harmandi based on several specimens. Therefore, we can conclude Neacanista harmandi distributed in Bhutan, Laos and Thailand.

Figures

FIGURES 15 – 17. Neacanista harmandi syntype female. 15. dorsal view; 16. lateral view; 17. labels.

FIGURES 18 & 19. Type locality of Neacanista harmandi. 18. pictures captured from Harmand (1880); 19. pictures captured from Google Map.