Horniolus sororius Poorani

Poorani, J., 2015, Two new species of Scymnini (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) from Karnataka, India, Biodiversity Data Journal 3, pp. 5296-5296 : 5296

Horniolus sororius Poorani sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Location: continent: Asia; country: India; stateProvince: Karnataka; locality: Balehonnur ; verbatimLocality: Central Coffee Research Station; Event: year: 1999; habitat: Coffee plantation; Record Level: institutionID: ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources; institutionCode: NBAIR; ownerInstitutionCode: NBAIR

Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: P.K. Vinod Kumar; individualCount: 6; Location: continent: Asia; country: India; stateProvince: Karnataka; locality: Central Coffee Research Station, Balehonnur ; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Poorani; Event: eventDate: 1999; year: 1999; habitat: coffee plantation; Record Level: institutionID: NBAIR; institutionCode: NBAIR; ownerInstitutionCode: NBAIR

Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Sunil Joshi; individualCount: 1; Location: continent: Asia; country: India; stateProvince: Karnataka; locality: PDBC, Bangalore ; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Poorani; Event: eventDate: vi.2002; year: 2002; habitat: on wing; Record Level: institutionID: NBAIR; institutionCode: NBAIR; ownerInstitutionCode: NBAIR

Type status: Paratype. Occurrence: recordedBy: L. Lakshmi; individualCount: 1; Location: continent: Asia; country: India; stateProvince: Karnataka; locality: Hessarghatta, Bangalore ; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Poorani; Event: eventDate: 3.vi.2009; year: 2009; Record Level: institutionID: NBAIR; institutionCode: NBAIR; ownerInstitutionCode: NBAIR

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; sex: female; Location: country: India; stateProvince: Karnataka; locality: Bangalore ; Event: eventDate: 1958-12-11; year: 1958; month: 12; day: 11; verbatimEventDate: 11XII1958; habitat: Resting on Eleusinecoracana; Record Level: institutionID: NBAIR; datasetID: CIBC-BS

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; sex: female; Location: continent: Asia; country: India; stateProvince: Karnataka; locality: Hebbal, Bangalore ; Event: eventDate: 2001-09; year: 2001; month: 09; day: 09; verbatimEventDate: 09092001; habitat: Feeding on Aleurodicusdispersus; Record Level: institutionID: NBAIR; datasetID: CIBC-BS

Description

Length: 2.20-2.65 mm; width: 1.65-1.80 mm. Male: Body (Fig. 3) elongate oval, moderately convex. Head and pronotum testaceous to dark brown, elytra dark brown with four yellowish spots - first pair transverse, roughly quadrate, located before middle in anterior half, second pair smaller, transverse, located around 4/5th of elytra, both spots occasionally larger, almost touching lateral margins of elytra; head with elongate silvery white hairs, pronotum with yellowish white to brownish pubescence, elytra with a mixture of dark brown and yellowish white hairs, those on elytral spots paler, those on rest of elytra predominantly brown to black. Ventral side more or less uniform reddish brown, pro-, meso- and metasternites darker reddish brown, tarsi of legs slightly lighter, yellowish brown. Head with clypeal margin carinate, punctures separated by 2-3 diameters, denser and separated by less than their own diameter near eye margins. Pronotum densely punctate on posterior and lateral margins, slightly more widely spaced on disc, separated by 3-5 diameters. Elytral punctures denser and slightly larger than those on pronotum, separated by 2-5 diameters on disc, punctures on lateral sides and apices more closely spaced. Prosternal process with an inverted Y-shaped carina. Abdominal postcoxal line (Fig. 4a) complete and semicircular, area enclosed by postcoxal line sparsely punctate with few punctures along anterior margins. Ventrite 5 truncate, ventrite 6 barely emarginate. Tarsi trimerous. Male genitalia (Fig. 4b, c, d, e) with tegmen in ventral view (Fig. 4b, c) with penis guide shorter than parameres, apically very slightly asymmetrical, broadest at base, progressively narrowed to apex, apical one-fifth triangular; parameres longer than penis guide, apices with elongate hairs. Penis capsule (Fig. 4d) with a prominent inner arm, outer arm lacking; apex of penis (Fig. 4e) strongly flattened or spatulate, densely spotted. Female: Similar to male. Ventrite 6 apically weakly arcuate. Genitalia with spermatheca (Fig. 4f) with spermatheca tubular, long and intricately coiled, sperm duct elongate and progressively broader.

Diagnosis

The external appearance of H. sororius sp. n. is very similar to that of Horniolus vietnamicus Miyatake. Horniolus hisamatsui Miyatake also has a similar elytral pattern, but it has reddish brown head and pronotum. But the male genitalia, particularly the enlarged siphonal apex, are diagnostic and unique to this species. Horniolus sororius sp. n. is also similar to two common Indian species, Scymnus (Pullus) latemaculatus Motschulsky (Fig. 5a), and Pharoscymnus horni (Weise) (Fig. 5d). The former is close to H. sororius sp. n. in general appearance, but can be distinguished by the presence of parallel, apically divergent carinae on the prosternal process and the male genitalia (Fig. 5b, c) are also diagnostic. Besides, it is one of the most common general predators of aphids in India. Pharoscymnus horni can be differentiated from H. sororius sp. n. by its distinctly more rounded body outline and other generic characters.

Etymology

The specific epithet is a Latin adjective ( “sororius” L.= of a sister, sisterly) in reference to its similarity to other common species.

Distribution

India: Karnataka.

Biology

Collected in association with coffee mealybugs and on Eleusine coracana (label data). This species was recorded by Ramani et al. (2002) (as Horniolus sp.) as a predator of spiralling whitefly, Aleurodicus dispersus Russell ( Hemiptera : Aleyrodidae ).

Notes

Horniolus is an Oriental genus and only three species, H. dispar Weise (1900) (from Sri Lanka), H. nigripes Miyatake (1976) (from southern India) and H. hisamatsui (Nepal) are represented in the Indian subcontinent. Horniolus guimeti (Mulsant), distributed in Malaysia and Borneo, has been mentioned in literature from the Indian subcontinent, but is a doubtful record for India (R.G. Booth, BMNH, in litt.). Korschefsky (1931) includes India in its distribution range, but Indian records of H. guimeti are mostly misidentifications of Scymnus (Pullus) latemaculatus (Fig. 5a), and Pharoscymnus horni , which are externally similar.