Luciola Laporte 1833 s. str.

Figs 246−314

Luciola Laporte s. str. (sensu Ballantyne & Lambkin 2013: 64 ).

Luciola Laporte 1833: 146 . Lacordaire 1857: 335. Motschulsky 1853: 52. Gorham 1880: 99. Olivier 1902: 69; 1907: 50. Lea 1909: 106. Ballantyne & Lambkin 2013: 64. Yiu 2012: 92; 2017: 92. Fu 2014: 23.

Type species: Luciola pedemontana Motschulsky designated by Motschulsky 1853.

Luciola (Luciola) Laporte. McDermott 1966: 103 (Partim) . Nec Calder 1998: 178.

Bourgeoisia Olivier. Olivier 1908: 17; 1911b: 102. McDermott 1966: 117. Deheyn & Ballantyne 2009: 47. Ballantyne & Lambkin 2013: 64.

Type species: Luciola antipodum Bourgeois designated by McDermott 1966.

Diagnosis. Ballantyne & Lambkin (2013: 64) defined Luciola s. str. based on specimens of the type species from Pisa, Italy, and gave an extensive diagnosis which included the aedeagal LL visible beside the ML, the strongly curved ML of the aedeagus terminating in a preapical point, and elongate narrow pointed lobes arising from the inner ventral margins of the LL (Jeng et al. 2003b figs 21A–C). The following genitalic features vary within what we assign here to Luciola s. str.: 1. Slender projections on the inner surfaces of the LL of the aedeagus (Fig. 308 arrowed); present in all species except antipodum, aquilaclara, hypocrita, oculofissa and jengai sp. nov. 2. Narrowed aedeagal LL which are widely separated along their mid dorsal line and bear a small hook along the inner margins; present in antipodum, aquilaclara and oculofissa (Ballantyne & Lambkin 2013 figs 111, 112). 3. Aedeagal ML strongly expanded in basal area with apical area very much narrowed (most obviously seen in chapaensis, curtithorax, kagiana, near nicollieri, parvula and satoi . 4. Aedeagal sheath with median anterior margin of sheath tergite with a well defined and usually anteriorly truncated projection (e.g. Figs 261, 265, 305), seen in horni, pallidipes, niah sp. nov. and tiomana sp nov.

Females may be macropterous or flightless, and associated larvae have laterally explanate tergal margins.

Remarks. Ballantyne & Lambkin (2009, 2013) included specimens of Luciola italica in their analyses and found it to be distinctive. In 2013 they defined and described Luciola s. str. in which they included 6 species including specimens of Lampyroidea syriaca Costa, the type species of Lampyroidea Costa. Their results indicated that syriaca belonged in Luciola s. str. but there has been no formal assignment of this species to Luciola (Ballantyne & Lambkin 2009 fig. 2 page 22; 2013 fig. 2 red node 37, blue number 16). Given that the remaining species of Lampyroidea occur outside the study area in question this matter was not followed by any attempt to revise the remaining species of Lampyroidea and the issue is dealt with subsequently under Taxonomic issue unresolved.

Here we expand Luciola s. str. to include 17 species including three new species and two tentative identifications made by Yiu (2017). Luciola chapaensis Pic (1923) is redescribed and assigned here and synonymised with L. atripes Pic (1929) .

There are several more species which could be assigned here. They are being addressed elsewhere (Fu Oba and Ballantyne in prep.) and include Luciola sp. in Fu (2014: 50) as well as a possible Luciola pieli Pic (Fu 2014: 24) . Yiu (2012) listed four unidentified species which he tentatively assigned to Luciola and (2017) expanded his treatment to address them as one new species, tuberculata, and three as near curtithorax, near laticollis and near nicollieri . The species with tentative identifications will be further investigated under Luciola s. lato. Fu (2014: 23–27, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38, 41, 43, 45) addressed 16 species which he assigned to “ Luciola ”, and of these we can assign five (pages 23, 26, 30, 32, 37) to Luciola s. str. and they are addressed below. One further species (Fu 2014: 50, 51) is presently undescribed (Fu pers. com. indicated it has a ‘jumping’ female, which can propel herself by expanding her elytra). The remainder are either assigned to various genera, or certain unidentified species are addressed in the discussion. Fu (2014: 24) identified specimens as Luciola pieli, but indicated that preliminary molecular investigation placed them in with Luciola curtithorax (Fu pers. com.). It is presently included in Luciola s. lato.