Cerocoma (Cerocomina) vahli Fabricius, 1787

Turco, Federica & Bologna, Marco A., 2011, Systematic revision of the genus Cerocoma Geoffroy, 1762 (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Cerocomini) 2853, Zootaxa 2853 (1), pp. 1-71 : 26-27

Cerocoma (Cerocomina) vahli Fabricius, 1787

Figs 2K , 3K , 4K , 5C , 6K

Cerocoma vahli vahli Fabricius, 1787 :

Cerocoma vahli Fabricius, 1787: 217 ; Reitter, 1913: 191.

Cerocoma wahli, Mařan, 1944: 84 .

Cerocoma vahli var. chalybeiventris Chevrolat, 1838: 268 .

Cerocoma vahli var. wagneri Küster, 1844: 32 .

Cerocoma (Cerocomina) vahli, Kaszab, 1951: 262 , 266, 271.

Cerocoma vahli tarudanti Martinez de la Escalera, 1913 :

Cerocoma vahli ssp. tarudanti Martinez de la Escalera, 1913: 55 .

Cerocoma (Cerocomina) vahli var. tarudanti, Kaszab, 1951: 262 , 266, 271.

Type locality. Cerocoma vahli vahli : “Barbariae” ( Fabricius 1787). Cerocoma vahli tarudanti : “Tarudant, Aderdori, Dar el Caid, Hida Nmues” ( Martinez de la Escalera 1913); Taroudant is in southwestern Morocco.

Type specimens. We examined photographs of a female in ZMUC. This specimen was considered as possible type of C. vahli but it is C. schreberi , a species not occurring in North West Africa (“Barbariae”). The designation of this type being uncertain, we do not consider it as holotype of C. vahli .

Description. Male. Body metallic dark green with a very short and sparse yellowish pubescence; abdomen dark green metallic ( ssp. vahli ) or partially orange (subspecies vahli and taroudanti); mouthparts, including maxillary palpi, yellow-orange; fore legs yellow-orange except for the base of femora and the last two tarsomeres dark, meso- and hind legs dark, except for the base of mesofemora yellowish.

Head transverse with protruding eyes ( Fig. 5C ). Maxillary palpi wide, flattened and curved (particularly palpomere III); palpomere IV flattened and stout, about twice as long as wide ( Fig. 3K ). Antennae distinctly modified with antennomere I bearing a narrow, long and bent protrusion on the external side and dorsal keel very high and narrow, incised on the apical edge; III–VI expanded ventrally, III with a very curved expansion bearing a tuft of short setae; IX rounded ( Fig. 2K ).

Pronotum slightly elongate. Protibiae with a short and shallow dorsal keel and dorso-ventrally flattened particularly widened in the external side of apical half ( Fig. 4K ). Protarsomeres wide and weakly flattened.

Gonostyli, in lateral view, straight, with apical lobes directed forward; apical lobes, in dorsal view, narrow and parallel; in lateral view, pointed. Apex of aedeagus rounded; aedeagal hooks equal in size. Sclerotised hooks of endophallus subequal in size (the apical slightly larger), both pointing outwards ( Fig. 6K ).

Female. Not distinctly modified. Refer to key for diagnostic characters.

Taxonomy. Cerocoma vahli is the only representative of the subgenus Cerocomina , and it is a polytypic species with two identified subspecies:

(a) C. vahli vahli , with an elongate dark spot at the apex of antennomere IX, the distal margin of protibiae distinctly curved, green metallic abdomen, or only the first two segments orange. It is distributed in northern and central Morocco, northern Algeria, and Tunisia.

(b) C. vahli tarudanti , without apical spot on antennomere IX, the apex of protibiae with a straight margin, orange abdomen being only the apical two segments metallic. It is endemic to southwestern Morocco, Sous Valley.

Motschoulsky (1872), in his key to the Cerocoma species , mentioned C. pectinata from Egypt distinct from C. vahli , which is the only known Cerocoma species from northern Africa (except for an unconfirmed record of C. ephesica from Egypt). Indeed, C. pectinata seems to be a nomen nudum, and we could not locate any type or description for this species. Our suggestion is that this taxon could be Diaphorocera hemprichi , another cerocomine with pectinate antennae occurring in Egypt.

Distribution. Morocco, N Algeria, N Tunisia.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Male right antenna, lateral view: A, C. schreberi; B, C. martae; C, C. ephesica; D, C. prevezaensis; E, C. festiva; F, C. graeca; G, C. malatyensis; H, C. albopilosa; I, C. longiseta; J, C. barthelemyi; K, C. vahli; L, C. scovitzi; M, C. latreillei; N, C. adamovichiana; O, C. confusa; P, C. azurea; Q, C. turcica; R, C. muehlfeldi; S, C. schaefferi; T, C. prochaskana; U, C. dahli; V,C. bernhaueri; W, C. simplicicornis; X, C. gloriosa; Y, C. rapillyi; Z, C. marginiventris; AA, C. macedonica; AB, C. kunzei; AC, C. bodemeyeri. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 3. Male right maxillary palp, dorsal view: for lettering refer to caption to Fig. 1. Scale bars = 1 mm (1: C–E, G–J, L– R, Y, AA–AC; 2: B, F, K, S–T, X, Z; 3: A, U–W).

FIGURE 4. Male right protibia, lateral view: for lettering refer to caption to Fig. 1. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 5. Male head, dorsal view: A, C. schreberi; B, C. scovitzi; C, C. vahli; D, C. adamovichiana; E, C. kunzei; F, C. schaefferi. Scale bar = 1 mm.

FIGURE 6. Male external genitalia (from left to right: tegmen, dorsal and lateral views; aedeagus, lateral view): for lettering refer to caption to Fig. 1. Scale bars = 1 mm (1: A–E, H, L–M, R; 2: F–G, I–K, N–P, S–T, X–Y, AA–AC; 3: Q, U–W, Z).