Leptinopterus spitzi ( Ohaus, 1929 ) Cáceres & Grossi, 2023

Cáceres, Juan Sebastián D. & Grossi, Paschoal Coelho, 2023, Taxonomic revision of Aegognathus Leuthner, 1883 (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), Journal of Natural History 57 (9 - 12), pp. 557-595 : 559-563

Leptinopterus spitzi ( Ohaus, 1929) comb. nov.

Aegognathus spitzi Ohaus, 1929: 155 (original combination and description)

Aegognathus spitzi Ohaus, 1929: 155 (original combination); Didier et Séguy 1953a: 163 (774); Benesh 1960: 107; Maes 1992 d: 65; Krajcik 2001: 62, Krajcik 2003: 7; Grossi et al. 2003: 249; A. spixi [sic] Fujita 2010: 243; Grossi 2017: 110

Aegognathus iridicolor Luederwaldt 1935: 518 (original combination and description). syn. nov.

Examined material

Type material. Holotype major male of Aegognathus spitzi Ohaus , labelled as follows: (a) white typed and handwritten label, ′Est. São Paulo /Alto da Serra/22.1925/R. Spitz̍ ; (b) white typed and handwritten label, ′ Aegognathus spitzi /Ohaus/Type̍ (1J SMF); examined from images ( Figure 1a ). Holotype minor male of Aegognathus iridicolor Luederwaldt ( MZUSP), labelled as follows: (a) white typed and handwritten label, ′ São Paulo / Alto da Serra/ E. Schwebel leg./ II.1911 ̍; (b) white black bordered handwritten label, ′ Aegognathus J/ iridicolor Lueder. / Lueder. Det. 31̍; (c) blue circle; (d) red black bordered typed label, ′TIPO̍; (e) white typed label, ′08882̍; (f) red typed label, ′ HOLOTYPUS / Aegognathus / iridicolor/ Luederwaldt 1935 ̍ ( Figure 1c ).

Additional material

Brazil. São Paulo: Salesópolis, Estação Biológica da Boracéia , January1940, L . Silva leg . (1 J CERPE). São Paulo (2 J and 1 ♀ MNRJ – destroyed by fire in 2018) . São Paulo, Alto da Serra (2 J and 2 ♀ MZUSP) . No data ′ Col . Alunos UNB, F .Z. Vaz de Mello ̍ (1 ♀ CERPE) ( Figure 1b ) . São Paulo, Alto da Serra , ii .1975 (1 J and 1 ♀ SBC) .

Diagnosis

Body mainly black with dark red tones. Head and pronotum with shagreened surface, somewhat glabrous; mandibles somewhat flattened in lateral view, strongly reduced in minor males, resembling female mandibles without internal teeth. Elytral surface shagreened, with fine and dense punctures and dendritic setae. Venter surface with variable punctation, metaventrite shagreened, discrimen present as a continuous groove; abdominal ventrites finely punctate, with appressed to strongly curved setae. Aedeagus symmetrical, subtriangular, with a square median lobe, laterally constricted; everted sac with two divergent and easily distinguished vesicles, extending beyond the edges, also with a bifurcate, convex apical sclerite. Females entirely black without conspicuous vestiture, with a finely punctate surface, apparently smooth. Mandibles asymmetrical and strongly reduced compared with males. Female genitalia with symmetrical and subquadrate gonostyli; gonocoxites gradually narrowed anteriorly, medially somewhat convex.

Description – male

Size: Total length: 10–25 mm. Total width: 8–9 mm. Colour: Body mainly black with some dark red to brownish tones along legs and elytra; ventrally dark red. Head: Shape transverse, surface shagreened, glabrous; anterior margin emarginate; canthus only covering anterior portion of eyes; temporal process rounded. Mandibles in major males as long as head and anterior portion of pronotum together, strongly curved inwards, apex rounded to slightly emarginate with a basal emarginate tooth at base, one median rounded tooth and a preapical weak one. Minor males the same as major except for reduced mandibles mainly at median tooth. Pronotum: Surface shagreened, bordered all around except for a small portion over the anterior margin; shape convex with no pronotal groove; yellowish to white setae present as a continuous band over anterior margin; anterior and posterior angles somewhat rounded; scutellar shield setose. Elytra: Surface shagreened to finely and densely punctate, with yellowish dendritic setae, becoming more distinct distally. Epipleural surface shagreened and apparently glabrous. Legs: Protibiae externally serrate with several teeth and at least two apical strong ones; one apical spur. Mesotibiae and metatibiae with one median tooth, and three apical teeth. Venter: Labrum with a dense group of smooth setae at apical margin, dorsally visible. Mentum trapezoidal, finely punctate with suberect to appressed yellowish smooth setae. Gena surface shagreened. Prosternum with a continuous band of yellowish setae along anterior and posterior margins; surface with coarse to large punctures laterally, medially moderately punctate, with yellowish strongly curved setae, all punctures densely distributed. Mesoventrite punctate, punctures coarse to large, dense, with yellowish strongly curved setae. Metaventrite shagreened, discrimen present as a continuous groove. Abdominal ventrites shagreened with a few fine punctures moderately distributed, apparently glabrous but presenting fine smooth appressed setae along most ventrites, becoming strongly curved at ventrite V; all ventrites with carinate external margins. Genitalia ( Figure 6a ): Genital capsule simple. Aedeagus symmetrical. Basal piece subtriangular with rounded proximal end; wider at the posterior portion in lateral view; 1.5 times longer than parameres. Median lobe somewhat square; basally concave; laterally presenting several lamellate constrictions; dorsal cross bar transverse, slender, not lobed, somewhat ′M̍ shaped. Parameres subtriangular with convex base, distally rounded and narrower, setose at apex. Everted internal sac 1.5 times longer than basal piece and parameres together, wider compared with Aegognathus species, with sinuous margins along mid portion; basally slender, becoming wider distally, dorsally with a single sclerite and one more at distal portion with a bifurcate, convex apex; mid portion with divergent paired papillae, easily distinguished and extending beyond the edges, apical portion of everted sac strongly curved with clearer coloration, ending in the gonopore.

Description – female ( Figure 1b )

Size: Total length. 16 mm. Total width. 7 mm. Colour: As in males. Head: Size about half of males̍ not including the mandibles; shape transverse, anterior margin slightly emarginate, with a subtriangular to somewhat trapezoidal depression at head disc; mandibles somewhat asymmetrical, as large as head, with acuminate apex, also with an almost laminar median tooth, truncate at apex, and a short and rounded basal tooth. Pronotum: Surface finely punctate, densely distributed, apparently glabrous except for a continuous line of yellowish to white smooth setae along the anterior margin; anterior angles somewhat acuminate; posterior angles rounded. Elytra: Surface almost smooth with fine punctures densely distributed, glabrous; epipleuron with fine to moderate punctures, concave. Legs: Protibiae as in males except for presenting more distinct teeth and surface vestiture. Mesotibiae externally serrate, with two to three median teeth, three to four apical teeth and two apical spurs. Metatibiae as in males except for the presence of a median tooth. Venter: Head ventrally punctate, punctures coarse to large, densely distributed with suberect to decumbent setae. Prosternum and mesoventrite with coarse to large punctures, contiguous to dense with appressed setae. Metaventrite with coarse punctures laterally, medially with moderate to large punctures; discrimen mainly weak, posteriorly forming a subtriangular superficial groove. Abdominal ventrites with moderate to large punctures, large and dense ones mainly distributed at ventrite V, sparsely distributed along the remaining ventrites; all abdominal ventrites laterally carinate. Genitalia ( Figure 6b ): Styli symmetrical, with subquadrate shape, distinctly setose. Distal coxite subtrapezoidal with conspicuous setae along sides. Proximal coxite convex and narrowed anteriorly; spiculum ventrale cordiform.

Distribution

South-east Brazil, São Paulo State. Atlantic province ( Morrone et al. 2022).

Remarks

The proposed synonymy is based on the identical collection data (locality, year of collection and collector) of the holotype male of Aegognathus spitzi ( Figure 1a ) and the holotype of Aegognathus iridicolor ( Figure 1c ), revised by Luederwaldt (1935) at the MZUSP. It is also based on the absence of strong morphological differences. Almost all other known specimens of A. spitzi are from the locality called ′Alto da Serra de São Paulo ̍, nowadays near the Pindamonhangaba municipality. At the moment of the description of A. iridicolor, Luederwaldt wrongly concluded that the absence of a dorsal vestiture was enough to propose a separate species; this idea was followed by Weinreich (1963), who considered some of the females included by Luederwaldt (1935) to represent A. iridicolor instead of A. spitzi , the latter at that time with unknown females. In Lucanidae , very small males have the tendency to become morphologically close to females; this occurs in many genera around the world, and has been observed in other species of Leptinopterus . In respect to the holotype of A. iridicolor ( Figure 1c ), it is an extremely small male, being smaller than any other female of the ′Brazilian Aegognathus ̍. Weinreich (1963) stated that all females he studied should belong to this species instead of A. spitzi , as Luederwaldt (1935) suggested. It seems that the extreme sexual dimorphism is appreciable not only in mandibles, head, and pronotum, but also along the dorsal vestiture of the body. This species has not been collected for over 75 years and is considered rare among collections, making it a good taxon to be considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List under the category Vulnerable.

Leptinopterus caledoniaensis ( Grossi, Racca-Filho and Vaz-de-Mello, 2003) comb. nov.

( Figure 2a J; 2b ♀; 3a–c: general habitus)

Aegognathus caledoniaensis Grossi et al., 2003: 249 (original combination and description)

Figures

Figure 1. Dorsal habitus of (a) holotype male Leptinopterus spitzi (Ohaus,1929) comb. nov. (scale bar10 mm); (b) female L. spitzi deposited at CERPE. (c) holotype male Aegognathus iridicolor Luederwaldt, 1935 syn. nov. Scale bars: 5 mm.

Figure 2. Dorsal habitus of Leptinopterus caledoniaensis (Grossi, Racca-Filho and Vaz-de-Mello 2003): (a) male and (b) female from CERPE; (c) male holotype Aegognathus waterhousei Leuthner, 1883 from NHM. Aegognathus leuthneri Van De Poll, 1886 from CERPE: (d) major male, (e) minor male and (f) female. Scale bars: 5 mm.

Figure 6. Ventral view of L. spitzi: (a) male aedeagus; (b) female genitalia; and L. caledoniaensis: (c). male aedeagus; (d) female genitalia. Scale bars: 1 mm.