Megalocaria reichei pearsoni Crotch, 1874

POORANI, J., 2023, An illustrated guide to lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part 1. Tribe Coccinellini, Zootaxa 5332 (1), pp. 1-307 : 177-178

Megalocaria reichei pearsoni Crotch

( Fig. 125 )

Megalocaria pearsoni Crotch, 1874: 170 (Holotype, BMNH; Type locality: Darjeeling).— Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1982: 524; Poorani 2002a: 334.

Anisolemnia pearsoni: Korschefsky 1932: 270 .

Megalocaria reichei pearsoni: Crotch 1874: 170 ; Iablokoff-Khnzorian 1982: 524; Kovář 2007: 619.

Megalocaria reichii pearsoni: Ren et al. 2009: 212 .

Diagnosis. Length:15.00–17.00 mm; width: 13.70–14.00 mm.Form ( Fig. 125a, b ) broadly rounded, dorsum strongly convex, glabrous. Head black, pronotum yellow with a trapezoidal median black macula on posterior margin, lateral margins black except around anterolateral corners; scutellar shield black; elytra orange-yellow, margins of elytra very narrowly black, suture with a black stripe, elytra with two basal maculae, three black spots around middle in an obliquely transverse row, two spots in apical third, and a sutural macula slightly above midline. Pronotum only 0.6x as wide as elytra. Elytral borders broadly explanate. Ventral side black except prothoracic hypomeron, epipleura and lateral sides of abdominal ventrites yellowish, epipleura with a transverse black macula on level with hind leg. Genitalia not studied.

Distribution. India (Sikkim, West Bengal); Myanmar; Indo-China; Indonesia (Borneo); China.

Notes. It is probably the largest species of Indian Coccinellini and only Synonycha grandis (Thunberg) is almost as large or slightly smaller in size. It has a very limited distribution in India restricted to the Eastern Himalayan region. In Poorani’s checklist, this species was included with a note by R.G. Booth that it could be a subspecies of M. reichei ( Mulsant, 1850) . Kovář (2007) listed it as a subspecies of M. reichei . Iablokoff-Khnzorian (1982) treated and illustrated it in his revision of Palaearctic and Oriental Coccinellini .

Figures

FIGURE 125. Megalocaria reichei pearsoni Crotch: a, b. adult, dorsal view (BMNH).