Novius Mulsant, 1846

Pang, Hong, Tang, Xue-Fei, Booth, Roger G., Vandenberg, Natalia, Forrester, Juanita, Mchugh, Joseph & Ślipiński, Adam, 2020, Revision Of The Australian Coccinellidae (Coleoptera). Genus Novius Mulsant Of Tribe Noviini, Annales Zoologici 70 (1), pp. 1-24 : 4-5

Novius Mulsant, 1846

Nomius Mulsant, 1846: 213 . Type species: Nomius cruentatus Mulsant, 1846 , by monotypy. Junior homonym of Nomius Laporte, 1835 .

Novius Mulsant, 1846 : addenda et errata [p. 4]. Replacement name for Nomius Mulsant. Treated as synonym of Rodolia by Iqbal et al., 2018:1104.

Rodolia Mulsant, 1850: 902 . Type species: Rodolia ruficollis Mulsant, 1850 , by subsequent designation of Crotch, 1874: 280. Korschefsky, 1931: 98; Sasaji, 1971: 233; Gordon, 1972: 25; Gordon, 1985: 665; Gordon, 1990: 291; Chazeau, 1991; Ślipiński, 2007: 141. Synonymized by Iqbal et al., 2018: 1104.

Macronovius Weise, 1885: 63 . Type species: Novius limbatus Motschulsky, 1866 (subgenus of Rodolia ). Weise, 1895: 149 (synonym of Rodolia ). Sicard, 1907: 68.

Eurodolia Weise, 1895: 149 . Type species: Eurodolia severini Weise, 1895 , by monotypy. Synonymized by Ślipiński, 2007: 141.

Anovia Casey, 1908: 408 . Type species: Scymnus virginalis Wickham, 1905 , by monotypy. Synonymized by Iqbal et al., 2018: 1104.

Description. Length 2.5–5.0 mm. Body oval or elongate-oval, winged; dorsum densely hairy without distinct rows of punctures. Elytra red, yellowish, brown or black, often with colour pattern. Head broad with eyes large, finely facetted, not emarginate, densely setose, broadly separated on vertex. Antenna with 8 antennomeres, much shorter than head capsule, with scape enlarged; antennal club with 3 antennomeres, asymmetrical, with divisions often indistinct. Mandible bifid apically; molar part with basal tooth; prostheca distinct. Terminal maxillary palpomere large, strongly securiform; labial palp with 2 palpomeres. Pronotum with anterior angles not thickened, blunt, indistinct; lateral edge smooth; submarginal carina absent; hind border rarely with marginal bead. Prosternal process about 0.3–0.6 times coxal diameter, surface without carinae but densely setose. Prosternum in front of coxae strongly reduced; anterior margin continuing as a straight or arcuate line. Procoxal cavity distinctly transverse. Meso- metaventral process narrow, narrower than coxal diameter, junction forming a straight line, with suture visible. Metaventral postcoxal lines separated at middle, complete and recurved, very close to coxal cavities. Tibiae without apical spurs. Protibia flattened and angulate externally; protarsus trimerous; tarsal claws in female bifid, tarsal claws in male appendiculate on mid and hind legs. Abdomen with six ventrites in both sexes. Abdominal postcoxal lines separate medially, recurved, complete, posteriorly distinctly separated from hind margin of ventrite; ventrite 5 in male emarginate medially. Male Terminalia: parameres and phallobase symmetrical; penis guide symmetrical; parameres articulated with phallobase. Penis slender or stout; apex abbreviated or drawn out into elongate flagellum; basal capsule with more or less distinct inner and outer arms forming T-shaped junction at base of penis, except inner arm vestigial or absent in Australian species. Apodeme of male sternum IX absent. Female Terminalia: Coxites distinctly elongate, triangular; styli absent; sperm duct simple, flexible, relatively uniform in diameter; infundibulum absent. Spermathecal capsule ( Figs 137–142 ) usually with well developed cornu, sessile ramus, small tapered or indistinct nodulus; general form of capsule variable, strongly inflated, reniform to oval in many species, or slender, vermiform, with distinct bend near middle, forming hairpin loop; some species with capsule of intermediate form, slender basally with distal part bulbous to strongly inflated. Spermathecal accessory gland present, but often lost in dissections.

Distribution. Same as for the tribe, above.

Remarks. Noviine lady beetles can be found on every major land mass except Antarctica, yet their morphologies are surprisingly consistent throughout this range and defy our ability to subdivide the tribe into multiple genera based on external characters alone. Possibly this is due to the group having optimized their morphologies early within their evolutionary history (Zhang et. al. unpublished), presumably in response to their specializing on a particular group of prey (scale insects in the family Margarodidae ) that occur on woody plants. This specialization may further correlate with a predictable set of biotic and abiotic factors which continued to exert selection pressure towards certain established morphologies. We might speculate, for example, that the compact and densely hairy forms of these noviine beetles, along with the use of carminic acid as a chemical repellant ( Forrester 2008), arose as a defense against ants that are drawn to the copious secretions of sugary honeydew produced by their sap-feeding scale prey. Most lady beetle tribes contain a greater array of habitat and trophic specializations than do noviines and exhibit correspondingly diverse beetle morphologies, which facilitates their classification into multiple genera. On the otherhand, internal characters within Noviini , such as the configuration of the male and female genitalia (see generic description, above), show greater diversity than the external characters and suggest that multiple lineages may exist within our broadly defined Novius . A much more in depth study of molecular variation and internal anatomy is needed to provide a meaningful reconstruction of the phylogeny of this group.

Forrester (2008) had suggested conserving the name Rodolia because of more than 100 years of use in many papers dealing with the biological control of scales. However, since the senior synonym Novius has been commonly used in European literature, its suppression under article 23.9.3 requires a ruling by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Therefore, given the uncertain outcome of such an application, and after some discussion, we have jointly decided to use the senior synonym, Novius .

Figures

Figures 137–142. Novius species, spermatheca: (137) N. pumilus (Weise); (138) N. koebelei; (139) N. breviusculus (Weise); (140–142) N. cardinalis.