Bohumiljania aoupinie, Reid & Beatson, 2011

Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2011, Revision of the New Caledonian endemic genus Bohumiljania Monrós (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Spilopyrinae), Zootaxa 3000, pp. 1-43 : 7-8

Bohumiljania aoupinie sp. nov.

( Figs 5, 13, 21, 39, 47, 55, 71, 75 88, 97, 101, 153)

Material examined

Holotype: male/ Aoupinie 21:09S 165:19E 420–530m, road to sawmill 7.ii.2004 M. Wanat ( MHNP) ; Paratypes (2): male, same data as holotype ( AMS); male/ Mt Humboldt summit, GPS 21°52.942S 166°24.776E, 1343m, beating nr refuge, xi.2009, G. Kergoat ( MHNP) .

Description [male only]

Length: male 9.5–10mm; body elongate parallel-sided, length c. 3.2x width, length c. 5x height, elevated towards elytral base in profile, with anteriorly elevated pronotum. Colour: head, prothorax, tibiae and tarsi reddish-brown, antennae paler especially anterior edges antennomeres 1–3; elytra olive green with orange yellow streak along basal ¾ of epipleuron and most of basal margin yellow; trochanters yellow, femora with yellow basal half, dark brown band and reddish-brown apical third (or apical half brown in Mt Humboldt specimen); apex of prosternal process, metepisternum, posterior and anterior edge metaventrite, and middle of ventrites I or I–II yellowish; remainder of thoracic venter and abdomen brown; apices of mandibles and posterior edge buccal cavity dark brown. Head and pronotal punctures each armed with recumbent short white setae, long and dense on genae. Head, pronotum and elytra shining, without microreticulation.

Head: distinctly pubescent, short recumbent setae dense at sides; puncturation dense (intervals equal diameters) and fine throughout, except larger and sparser on clypeus anterior to eyes and absent from postantennal tubercles; midline of frons shallowly to deeply depressed; eyes large and laterally prominent, with small internal canthus, separated by c. 4.2x eye width (male); temples short, c. 0.2x length eye, abruptly curved from eye to posterior of head; genal minimum length c. 0.2 eye length (male), genal lobe ratio 2; antennae situated at anterior of head, in laterally directed sockets, c. 4.2x socket diameter apart, c. 0.67x body length (male); all antennomeres elongate: 2 shortest (c. 0.6x first), <3=6, <1=4, <5, <8=9=10, <7, <11 (male); antennomere 7 (male) distinctly expanded (length 3x width) in contrast to antennomeres 8–9 (length 3.5x width); mentum strongly transverse, width 3x median length, with prominent anterior angles; labrum setose, with c. 8 pairs of prominent setae in anterior half; apical maxillary palpomere elongate-cylindrical (male), preapical slightly shorter (male); gula with faint transverse ridges.

Thorax: pronotum and hypomeron distinctly pubescent, with dense recumbent setae except glabrous elongate patch at base of midline; pronotum almost parallel-sided, with feebly convex sides, anterior truncate, base broadly convex; pronotal width c. 1.15x length; anterior angles laterally produced, c. 75°, posterior angles not produced, 90°; anterior not margined except near angles, sides and base margined; sides of disc longitudinally deeply grooved in basal half, with a slight swelling between groove and lateral margin; pronotal punctures variable in size and density: generally finely and closely punctured (as head), larger and sparser towards sides and anterior, and absent from a median strip on posterior of disc; punctures minute but present throughout hypomeron; prosternum punctured and densely pubescent at sides, process smooth, almost impunctate and glabrous; prosternal process elongate, medially grooved in apical half, with straight sides, slightly expanded to strongly bilobed apex, angle between lobes V-shaped, c. 80°; scutellum impunctate, semi-ovate to almost quadrate with rounded apex, flat; elytron glabrous except apical 0.15 and area between humerus and lower epiepleural margin with short semi-erect setae; without groove between humerus and epipleuron, sculpture coarsening towards apex, basal quarter finely and sparsely punctured with smooth interspaces, middle half more strongly and densely punctured (partly seriate) with shallow grooves between punctures, apical quarter with larger partly coalescent punctures; upper margin epipleuron reaching angle of humerus at base but obliterated by rugose sculpture in apical tenth; mesoventrite median process abruptly elevated to moderately bilobed apex, angle between lobes V-shaped, c. 110°; wing fully developed, with distinct brown medial fleck; metaventrite shining and glabrous medially, densely pubescent and finely punctured at sides, apical lobe not margined, flat; metepisternum densely finely punctured and pubescent; 1 short spur on protibia, 2 on remainder; tarsi broad, length first metatarsomere 1.5x width; length second metatarsomere = width.

Abdomen: ventrites I and II entirely fused; ventrites shining, shallowly microreticulate, smooth at middle with scattered large punctures, densely finely punctured with recumbent setae at sides; punctures and setae becoming larger but sparser from ventrite I to V; ventrite I almost entirely laterally keeled, II keeled for basal 2/3–3/4, III–V without lateral keels; apex ventrite V truncate in male.

Genitalia: spiculum relictum transversely rectangular, with shallowly concave apical margin; tegmen Ushaped, with symmetrical ventral keel in basal half; penis long and narrow, apex 90° with blunt tip in dorsal view, acute and straight in lateral view; membrane in ostium of penis with pair of darker struts at edge; endophallic sclerite well-developed, flagellar, but not exerted in repose, half length penis.

Notes

Etymology: named from the type locality, Aoupinie, as a noun in apposition.

The specimen from the summit of Mount Humboldt is a male and was collected at the same locality as the only specimen of B. humboldti made available to us, which is female. It might seem therefore that our recognition of this species is faulty, based on failure to recognise sexual dimorphism in B. humboldti . We reject conspecificity of the two Mt Humboldt specimens for the following reasons: (i) they differ by far more than the usual narrow sexual dimorphism in Spilopyrinae ( Reid & Beatson 2010a, b), in their pronotal sculpture, pronotal shape, prosternal process shape and sculpture, elytral puncturation and apical sculpture, elytral colour, tibial colour, tarsal width and ventrite sculpture; (ii) the male holotype of B. humboldti is described as 12mm long, 5mm wide ( Jolivet et al. 2005), in contrast to the males of B. aoupinie which are 9.5–10mm long and 3mm wide; (iii) the Mandjelia area harbours three distinct species of Bohumiljania , suggesting that the presence of two species at Mt Humboldt is not unlikely.

Bohumiljania aoupinie occurs at two sites in central and southern New Caledonia, at middle and high elevation. This species may therefore be moderately widespread in rainforests of this region of New Caledonia.