Ivalia lescheni, Nadein, 2013

Nadein, Konstantin S., 2013, Ivalia Jacoby-a flea beetle genus new to Australia (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae), Zootaxa 3669 (3), pp. 384-400 : 390-394

Ivalia lescheni , new species

( Figs 23–33 )

Description. Body nearly round, strongly convex ( Figs 23, 24 ); prothorax, antennomere 11 yellow, anterior margin of pronotum translucent, revealing black color of head underneath; head, elytra, antennomeres 5–9 black; scutellar shield, legs, venter, antennomeres 1–4, 10 brown to dark brown.

Head ( Fig. 25 ) moderate sized, visible portion as wide as long; vertex large, feebly convex, nearly impunctate, punctures minute, shallow and rather sparse; ocular sulcus distinct, reaching antennal socket, straight; frontal calli triangular, smooth, distinctly raised, faintly delineated from frontoclypeus and vertex by indistinct sulci; large setiferous pore situated close to inner margin of eye; frontoclypeus trapezoidal, slightly and evenly convex, shallowly and finely punctate, anterior margin of frontoclypeus distinctly triangularly concave.

Labrum small, transverse, with deep medial incision, dorsal surface with 6 setiferous pores. Maxillary palpomere 2 enlarged; last palpomere small, conical, at least 1/2 length of previous, barely longer than wide.

Eyes medium-sized, short-oval, feebly convex. Antennal sockets widely separated; distance between socket and inner margin of eye equal to diameter of a socket; distance between antennal socket and anterior margin of frons about 1.5 times socket diameter; antennae short; antennomere 1 as long as following two combined; antennomere 2 short, broad, about two times longer than wide; antennomere 3 long, thin, three times longer than wide, longer than preceding; antennomeres 4 and 5 short, feebly longer than wide, equal in length; antennomeres 6–11 gradually widening, much wider than previous, about as long as wide, last antennomere largest, about 1.5 times longer than wide.

Prothorax short; pronotum ( Fig. 26 ) strongly transverse, convex, about 2.2 times wider than long; anterior margin deeply emarginate with anterior angles strongly projecting, medially straight, margin without carina; lateral margins converging anteriad, carina thin and smooth; anterior angles with large, strongly convex triangular callosity, inner margin of callosity straight or barely curved; posterior angles not enlarged, moderately rounded with projecting setiferous pore; posterior margin strongly and evenly convex, without carina; pronotal surface finely punctate, punctures greatly vary in shape and size, uneven, irregularly placed, shallow; interstices shining, smooth, uneven.

Elytra rounded, strongly convex, as long as wide, 3.4 times longer than pronotum, apices strongly elongate; humeral calli reduced; dorsal surface randomly punctate, punctures small and shallow, larger than pronotal punctures, not very distinct, greatly vary in size and shape, distance between punctures 1 to 3 times puncture diameter, interstices smooth, punctures along lateral margin not larger than those in middle of disc; lateral margin with well-developed, smooth carina; elytral apices narrowly rounded, elongate. Epipleura broad, smooth, broadest at basal quarter, gradually and evenly narrowing to apex; basal portion concave, inclined inwards, invisible in lateral view, from medial portion to apex gradually and barely inclined outwards, visible in lateral view. Hind wings absent. Scutellar shield small, widely triangular, barely convex to flat, medially with small convexity.

Abdomen short, medially convex; ventrite 1 strongly transverse, about as long as metasternum; medial process of ventrite 1 long, narrow, triangular with obtuse apex, its lateral sides with distinct, straight ridge-shaped margins, converging and nearly reaching posterior margin of ventrite; ventrites 2–4 shorter, subequal in length, last ventrite transverse with rounded posterior margin; pygidium of female with anterior margin widely rounded, with moderately broad glabrous stripe medially ( Fig. 27 ).

Legs short, thin; pro- and mesofemora invisible from above; pro- and mesotibia, tarsi thin; metatibia hardly shorter than femora, viewed from above distinctly curved inward, in lateral view straight, dorsal surface of tibia shallowly channeled, outer margin thin, distinctly raised in distal third, distal half finely and sparsely serrate, inner margin smooth; apical spur of tibia long, thin, longer than width of tibial apices as seen from above; metatarsus about 1.5 times shorter than metatibia, tarsomere 1 distinctly longer than following 3 combined, thin, straight.

Genitalia. Median lobe of aedeagus in ventral view ( Fig. 29 ) elongate; basal foramen large, about one third of total length; sides gradually and weakly converging toward apical third, medially nearly parallel-sided, sides of apical third distinctly converging, tip clearly triangular with widely rounded apex; in lateral view ( Fig. 30 ) evenly and distinctly curved, tip simple, not curved, straight; tegmen Y-shaped, median process short and thin, lateral branches thick and long. Spermatheca ( Fig. 32 ) with pump short and thick, its apex with large process; receptacle oval, thick; duct short, not coiled, originates away from receptacle, curved towards receptacle, reaching basal third of receptacle, ramus very large, situated at distal part of duct; vaginal palpi ( Fig. 28 ) lightly sclerotized, thin, moderately long, diverging, proximally fused, palpus narrowed from proximal end to distal end; setae sparse, long, present at apical third of palpus, at least 3 times longer than maximum width of palpus; sternite VIII ( Fig. 31 ) small, barely sclerotized, its process long and thin, weakly curved.

Body length 2.2–2.4 mm, width 1.8–1.9 mm.

Type material. Holotype ♂. Label : AUSTRALIA Queensland, Lamington NP, 8 Oct 1979 G. Kuschel ( NZAC) . Paratypes: 7 specimens: the same label as holotype, 3 ♂, 4 ♀ (5 NZAC, 2 KN); Australia , 28°15’59”S 153°10’26” Lamington NP, bark spray 15, 5.i.2004 Coleoptera RL Kitching kt: NL1180 (1 ♀ AMS) Australia, 28°15’59”S 153°10’26” Lamington NP, bark spray 8, 4.i.2004 Coleoptera RL Kitching kt:NL1055 (1 ♀ AMS) . Austr, QLD, Lamington N. Pk. O’Reillys, Blue Pool Walk, 500 m, 11.I.1991 u. bark, Pollock & Reichert (1 ANIC) ; Lamington N.P. ( O’Reillys ), Q., 28.145S 153.08E, 22–27 Oct. 1978 Lawrence & Weir (3 ANIC) ; Werrikimbe NP, Moorback Camo, NSW 13 Nov. 1982 K. Doyen (3 ANIC) .

Etymology. The species is named in honor of the outstanding coleopterist Richard Leschen (NZAC).

Remarks. The new species differs from Ivalia reidi sp. nov. by the bicolored dorsum with yellow prothorax and black elytra (brown prothorax and elytra with greenish metallic luster in I. reidi ), vertex extremely finely punctate to nearly impunctate (distinctly punctate in I. reidi ), metatarsus about 1.5 times shorter than tibia (metatarsus 1.7 times shorter than tibia in I. reidi ), metatarsomere 1 distinctly longer than the following tarsomeres combined (as long as following 3 combined in I. reidi ), and the median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view with sides gradually and weakly converging toward apical third, medially nearly parallel-sided, sides of apical third distinctly converging (sides evenly rounded in ventral view and with evenly narrowing tip in I. reidi ). The new species differs from Ivalia iridescens sp. nov. by the coloration of body, lateral margins of pronotum strongly converging anteriad, shorter metatarsus (metarsus 1.5 times shorter than metatibia in I. lescheni , while the same is 1.6 times shorter in I. iridescens ), and the structure of male and female genitalia. The new species is similar to Ivalia bella (Samuleson, 1966) from New Guinea in coloration but distinctly differs in the structure of aedeagus and the shape of pronotum.

Figures

FIGURES 23–26. Ivalia lescheni, sp. nov. 23: general appearance, dorsal; 24: general appearance, lateral; 25: head; 26: pronotum, dorsal.

FIGURES 27–32. Ivalia lescheni, sp. nov. 27: female pygidium, dorsal; 28: vaginal palps; 29: aedeagus, ventral; 30: aedeagus, lateral; 31: spiculum ventrale; 32: spermatheca.

FIGURE 33. Map of the type localities of Australian Ivalia species. Legend: triangle—Ivalia reidi sp. nov.; square —Ivalia lescheni sp. nov.; circle—valia iridescens sp. nov.