Stenothemus alexandrae Svihla , 2004 stat. n.

Ge, Shujuan, Yang, Xingke, Liu, Haoyu & Yang, Yuxia, 2021, Studies on the Stenothemus harmandi species-group (Coleoptera, Cantharidae), with descriptions of two new species from China, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 68659-68659 : 68659

Stenothemus alexandrae Svihla, 2004 stat. n.

Stenothemus dentatus alexandrae Švihla, 2004: 196, figs. 142-144.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordedBy: Jan Schneider; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon : scientificName: Stenothemus alexandrae; Location : country: India; stateProvince: Sikkim; locality: Gantok env. ; verbatimElevation: 2000-2500 m; locationRemarks: Fambong-Lho forest ; Event : eventDate: 8.- 15.07.1997; Record Level : language: en; collectionCode: Insects ; ownerInstitutionCode: NMPC; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen

Distribution

India.

Notes

In the original publication ( Švihla 2004), S. alexandrae was treated as a subspecies of S. dentatus Wittmer, 1974. However, differences between the two taxa have been found not only in the external appearance, but also in the structure of the aedeagus. In S. alexandrae , the body is uniformly dark brown, pronotum bears projecting and sharp posterior angles (Fig. 1 a) and the dorsal plates of the aedeagus are three times as long as wide and separated from each other in dorsal view ( Švihla 2004: figs. 142-144). In comparison, S. dentatus has a pale yellow body, mixed with dark brown markings on the disc of the pronotum, elytra and legs (Fig. 1 b) and the dorsal plates are 1.5 times as long as wide, converging in dorsal view ( Švihla 2004: fig. 145). As these differences are sufficient to support their independent status, we suggest that S. alexandrae be recognised at the specific level.

Compared with others, the aedeagus of this species is distinctive from all other species, where the ventral process of each paramere is bent ventrad to a less extent, at an angle of 30 degrees to the median lobe. Probably for this reason, it was not included in the S. harmandi species-group by Švihla (2005), when he established this group. Here, it is included in this species-group, based on the structure of the aedeagus, of which both ventral process and dorsal plate of each paramere bent ventrad, although to a lesser extent, ventral process thickened terminally and dorsal plate narrowed apically. All these characteristics match the definition of S. harmandi species-group well ( Švihla 2005), so S. alexandrae is suggested to be a member of this group.