Tiphysa Mulsant, 1850

Canepari, Claudio, Gordon, Robert D. & Hanley, Guy A., 2016, South American Coccinellidae (Coleoptera), Part XVII: Systematic revision of the genera Cyrea Gordon and Canepari and Tiphysa Mulsant (Hyperaspidinae: Brachiacanthini), Insecta Mundi 2016 (486), pp. 1-180 : 132-133

Genus Tiphysa Mulsant

Tiphysa Mulsant, 1850:517 ; Crotch, 1874:210; Korschefsky, 1931:208; Blackwelder, 1945:449; Gordon, 1987:26; Duverger, 1989:146; Millèo and Almeida, 2003:274 ; Milléo and Almeida, 2007:423.

Type species: Tiphysa plumbea Mulsant, 1850 , by monotypy.

Description: Brachiacanthini with form oval, convex. Dorsal surface of pronotum and elytra entirely black with metallic blue or green tint ( Fig. 655 ). Head partly yellow in male, brown or black in female. Antenna with 11 articles, basal article twice as long as wide, antennal insertion exposed. Clypeus with apical border emarginate. Labrum rectangular. Apical maxillary palpomere securiform with sides diverging ( Fig. 657 ). Mandible large, robust, with apical tooth and subapical tooth. Scutellum small, longer than wide. Elytral epipleuron narrow, deeply excavated for reception of tibiae, strongly descending externally. Prosternal process slightly convex, with two carinae. Protibia short, with large, arcuate flange smooth on outer margin ( Fig 656 ). Abdomen without visible gland pores between ventrites 4 and 5. Tarsal claw with subquadrate basal tooth. Postcoxal line on basal abdominal sternite incomplete, of Scymnus (Scymnus) type. Male genitalia with basal lobe asymmetrical ( Fig. 658, 659 ). Female genitalia typical Brachiacanthini type.

Remarks: Tiphysa was reviewed and correctly assigned to Brachiacanthini by Milléo & Almeida (2003). That publication should be referred to for detailed illustrations of morphological characters.

Tiphysa is not strongly distinguished from Cyrea , they both lack abdominal gland openings between abdominal ventrites 4-5, but Tiphysa has epipleurae strongly descending externally, a black, dorsal surface with a metallic luster, and strongly flanged protibia. Nearly all members of Cyrea lack a well-defined protibial flange, the epipleurae do not have a strongly descending external margin, and no known species has an entirely black, metallic dorsum.

Type specimens of Tiphysa ega e and two unlabeled specimens of T. plumbea in the Crotch collection are the only Tiphysa found among many Brachiacanthini taxa examined. Tiphysa plumbea , the type species, was described from Cayenne ( French Guiana), and T. egae from Brazil (Amazonas). Mulsant (1850) stated that his type (s) were in the Dejean collection, now deposited in the MNHL, but no specimens remain there.

Figures

Figures 655-662. Tiphysa spp. 655-661) Tiphysa plumbea 655) Habitus. 656. Protibia.657) Maxilla.658) Phallobase ventral. 659) Phallobase lateral. 660) Sipho. 661). Female genitalia. 662) Tiphysa egae 662) Female genitalia.