Lemula, Bates, 1884

Ohbayashi, Nobuo & Chou, Wen-I, 2019, Revision of the genus Lemula (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lepturinae), Zootaxa 4671 (4), pp. 451-499 : 477-478

16. Lemula (s. str.) simillima sp. nov.

(Figs. IX-16, XI-16)

Description. Male. BL = 7.4–9.2 mm. Head and pronotum shiny dark bluish green; antennae with scape dark yellowish green, antennomeres II–V shiny black, VI–XI mat dark brown; elytra dark bluish green to yellowish green; legs yellowish green; ventral surface dark bluish to yellowish green; abdominal ventrites light reddish yellow. Head with labrum and clypeus densely provided with semi-long pale yellowish hairs; vertex to occiput sparsely covered with fine hairs; antennomeres I–IV provided with suberect dark bristles, and remainder with short dark pubescence; pronotum moderately provided with short erect hairs intermixed few flying whitish hairs; elytra furnished with moderate length of brownish suberect hairs; ventral surface with meso- and metasterna rather densely covered with recumbent pale yellowish hairs.

Head across eyes as wide as pronotum at lateral tubercles; disk sparsely covered with fine punctures; genae very short; temples roundly narrowed toward neck; vertex deeply concave. Antennae reaching apical third of elytra; relative lengths of antennomeres from base to apex as follows: 31: 10: 19: 20: 35: 32: 34: 31: 30: 29: 37.

Pronotum barely shorter than width across lateral tubercles (PL/PW = 0.98), strongly constricted at apical fourth, and weakly so at basal fourth, with a distinct triangular tubercles near middle of each side; disk well convex on both sides of median longitudinal depression, sparsely covered with fine punctures on middle of disk, and densely covered with rugose punctures along basal margin. Scutellum triangular with rounded apex.

Elytra nearly twice as long as humeral width (EL/EW = 1.97), with disk moderately punctured, space between punctures wider than size of each puncture.

Endophallus (Type C). Quite similar with that of L. coerulea in general structure without obvious differences.

Female. BL = 8.3–8.7 mm. Similar to male, but differ in the following characters: antennae reaching slightly beyond middle of elytra; relative lengths of antennomeres from base to apex as follows: 29: 9: 16: 16: 24: 23: 25: 24: 24: 23: 31; elytra slightly shorter than twice humeral width (EL/EW = 1.93); abdominal ventrites entirely reddish yellowish.

Etymology. Species name refers to the similar appearance to L. (s. str.) coerulea .

Type series. Holotype ( NMNS): ♂, Mao'er-shan (ṡņm), Xing'an-xian, Guilin , Quanzhou, Guangxi, China 1,000 m, Melliodendron , 12-IV-2000, W.-I Chou leg. (G-1033).

Paratypes: [ China]: Mao'er-shan (ṡņm), Xing'an-xian, Guilin, Quanzhou, Guangxi, China [2♂♂, 3♀♀, 1,000 m, Melliodendron , 12-IV-2000, W.-I Chou leg. (G-991)]; Dayaoshan (†‹m), Jinxiu, Laibin-shi, Guangxi, [2♂♂, 1♀, 1,200 m, Acer , 17–18-IV-2000, W.-I Chou leg. (G-420, 421); 1♀, Castanopsis , 21–22-IV-2000, W.- I Chou leg.]; Fanjingshan (X淨m), Jiangkou, Guizhou [1♂, 1,850 m, Cornus , 25-V-1998, W.-I Chou leg. (G- 1016)] .

Distribution. China (Guangxi, Guizhou).

Ecology. Flight period: April–May. Flower records: Melliodendron , Acer , Castanopsis , Cornus .

Remarks. This new species is similar to L. (s. str.) coerulea by the color of abdominal ventrites, but it is distinguishable by the larger body size and more elongate elytra (EL/EW = 1.97 in ♂ and 1.93 in ♀ instead of 1.81 in ♂ and 1.83 in ♀). Also the color of elytral hairs is brown instead of black. It also resembles L. (s. str.) pilifera or L. (s. str.) holzschuhi except for the color pattern of abdominal ventrites, but can be distinguished by the short elytral hairs, distinct pronotal longitudinal median depression, or more distinct pronotal lateral tubercles.