Mispila (s. str.) venosa auguralis Pascoe, 1878, 1864

Xie, Guanglin, Barclay, Maxwell V. L. & Wang, Wenkai, 2023, The collection of the genus Mispila Pascoe, 1864 housed in the Natural History Museum, London (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), Zootaxa 5352 (2), pp. 245-265 : 250-251

Mispila (s. str.) venosa auguralis Pascoe, 1878 stat. rev.

( Figure 4 )

Mispila auguralis Pascoe, 1878: 376 .

Mispila (Mispila) auguralis: Aurivillius, 1922: 275 .

Mispila (Mispila) venosa m. auguralis: Breuning, 1961a: 281 ; Breuning, 1963b: 486.

Mispila (Mispila) curvilinea (partly): Yan et al., 2023: 3.

Type material examined. India (Andamans). Holotype, male ( Figure 4a–d ): ‘Type [p, label circular, red framed]; Andaman [h, label oval, dark green]; Pascoe / Coll. / 93–60 [p]; Mispila . / auguralis / Typ. Pasc. [h]; Mispila / auguralis / Pasc. [h]; NHMUK 014596488’.

Non-type material examined. India (Andamans): 1 male: ‘Andaman / Islands [h]; Capt. / Wimberley [h]; 45514 [h]; Fry Coll. / 1905. 100. [p]; M. auguralis [h]; Mispila / auguralis [h]; NHMUK 014596466 [p]’; 1 female: ‘Andaman / Islands [h]; Capt. / Wimberley [h]; 45514 [h]; Fry Coll. 1905. 100. [p]’; 1 female: ‘ANDAMAN IS. [p]; 628 [p]; Mispila auguralis Pasc. [h] / det. Breuning [p]’; 1 female: ‘Andaman/ Islands [h]; Capt. / Wimberley [h]; Fry Coll. / 1905. 100. [p]’; 1 male: ‘Andaman Islands; Atkinson Coll. 92–3’.

Comments. Pascoe (1878) described this species and considered it to be distinguished from both M. venosa and M. curvilinea by the white curve at the base of the elytra. Breuning (1961a) took it as a morph of M. venosa , subsequently he (1963b) regarded it as a colour variant of M. venosa . Yan et al. (2023) followed Breuning’s decision. However, the white linear markings on the basal half of the elytra is less developed than in M. venosa in appearance, the first transverse curve is more irregular, incomplete, broken at the suture, and the short central longitudinal line of each elytron is shorter and does not meet backwards at the end of the second transverse line or is absent; and it is also isolated from M. venosa in distribution, occurring only in the Andaman Islands ( India), while M. venosa occurs in Sarawak of Malaysia, Batchian, Java and Celebes of Indonesia. In view of this, herein we propose M. auguralis as a geographic subspecies of M. venosa , i.e., Mispila (s. str.) venosa auguralis Pascoe, 1878 stat. rev..

Figures

FIGURE 4. Habitus of Mispila (s. str.) venosa auguralis Pascoe, 1878 stat. rev. (a–d) holotype, male; (e, f) male; (g, h) female; scale: 5 mm.