Asymmetricata ovalis (Hope, 1831)

Ghosh, Srinjana, Sarkar, Subhankar Kumar & Chakraborty, Susanta, 2023, New distributional records of fireflies (Coleoptera, Lampyridae, Luciolinae) from two Eastern States of India with notes on their biology and an updated Indian checklist, Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 98948-98948 : 98948

Asymmetricata ovalis (Hope, 1831)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordedBy: Srinjana Ghos; sex: 2 males; occurrenceID: 9E8ED297-C7D3-5878-BCB7-3EEE003496B3; Taxon : scientificName: Asymmetricata ovalis (Hope, 1831); family: Luciolinae ; Location : country: India; countryCode: Ind ; stateProvince: Odisha; locality: Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary , Balasore ; verbatimCoordinates: 21°25'12'' N, 86°43'48'' E; Event : samplingProtocol: Net sweeping; Record Level : collectionCode: VUEC-0054, VUEC-0055; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen

Diagnosis

Length 9-9.5 mm; Width 3.2-3.5 mm. Ventral thorax yellow, V3-V5 dark brown, LO white, legs yellow with the apical part of tibiae and all tarsi dark brown (Fig. 6). Asy. ovalis can be distinguished from other species of the genus by the following set of male characters: elytra dark brown to black with the sutural and lateral margins pale yellow ( Asy. bicoloripes is with pale yellowish-brown dorsum, elytra pale brown bearing dark brown basal and apical parts in Asy. humeralis ); PN brownish-orange (in Asy. humeralis , there are paired median dark spots on pronotum); V6 and V7 having white LO with the LO in V7 bipartite (whereas LO is entire in Asy. circumdata ); base of PN bisinuate; ASD <ASW; apex of MPP narrowly rounded. Male genitalia (Fig. 7): Aedeagus longer than wide (L/W =1.8); LL are of equal length and slightly shorter than ML (length of LL/length of ML = 0.6), asymmetrical, inner lateral margin of LL diverging from ML for about 4/5 of their length, outer lateral margin sinuate, apex of right LL out-turned, LL apex width greater than ML apex width, ML pointed and little produced beyond LL, BP hooded with its margin facing ML and LL, concave and covering the basal parts of ML and LL; aedeagal sheath L/W= 3.75, posteriorly symmetrical and subparallel-sided, posterior margin of sheath sternite broad and slightly asymmetrically emarginated, anterior part of sternite apically rounded; lateral arms of sheath tergite extended narrowly to the anterior sides of sheath sternite.

Biology

Adult males of Asy. ovalis were found flying at a height of around 5 metres, often reaching the mid- to upper canopy level in forest habitat. Some of these were collected when they came down by sweep net and identified in the laboratory. Females and larvae are terrestrial ( Ballantyne and Lambkin 2009, Ballantyne et al. 2019).