Macrolema longicornis Jacoby 1895

Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2010, 2486, Zootaxa 2486, pp. 1-60 : 19-20

Macrolema longicornis Jacoby 1895

( Figs 9, 25, 33, 38, 51, 62, 72, 86, 104, 119, 133)

Macrolema longicornis Jacoby 1895: 53

Material examined

Types: Lectotype (this designation): Macrolema longicornis : male: / N.S. Wales / Macrolema longicornis Jac. / type HT/ lectotype / Jacoby coll.1909-28a/ Lectotype Macrolema longicornis Jac det C. Reid i.1989 / [ BMNH]; Paralectotype: male: / N. S. Wales / paralectotype / Jacoby coll. 1909-28a/ paralectotype Macrolema longicornis Jac det C. Reid i.1989 / [ BMNH]; Macrogonus bifoveicollis : male: / female[sic]/ Mt Tambourine Hacker 742/ cotype/ [ QMB]; female: / female/ Mt Tambourine Q A. M. Lea/ cotype/ [ SAM]; 2 females: / female/ Tambourine Queensland/ cotype/ [ SAM].

Non-types (25): New South Wales: male: / Mt Warning near Murwillumbah NSW 12 Jan 1976 G. Daniels / [ AMS]; male: / G. G. Burns Mount Warning NSW 13.12.1984 / [ ANIC]; female: / Nightcap Rge NSW 10.xii.1976 F. T . Fricke / ex H. W. Brown coll/ [ AMS]; 2 males : / Richmond R NSW / [ MCZ]; Queensland : female: / Bald Mt area 3-4000’ via Emu Vale, SE Qld, 16–20.ii.1970, G. B. Monteith / [ UQB]; 2 males, 2 females : / Kuranda NQ 22.3.52 C. Oke / [ MVM]; female/ Lamington NP , Lathey Mem. [orial], 28.188S 153.121E, malaise RF, 23.i–3.ii.2009, G. Monteith & F. Turco / [ AMS]; male, female: / Lam. [ington] Nat. Pk Qld 17–21.i.1964 G. Monteith & H. A. Rose / [ UQB]; 2 males , female: / [Lamington] National Pk, Q, H. Hacker Nov 1920 / [ QMB]; female: / Lam [ington] Nat Pk 17 Nov 1955 I C Yeo / [ UQB]; 2 males / Mt Tamborine , SQ, 26.xii.1951, C. Oke / [ MVM]; male: / Tambourine 21.2.27 H Hacker / E. Sutton coll, don. Dec. 1964 / [ QMB]; male: / Tamb. [ourine] Mtn Qld B. G. Styles / ex H. W. Brown coll/ [ AMS]; male: / Tamborine Mt Qld 27.i.1964 E. B. Tay / [ UQB]; male, female: / Tamborine Mt 15.5.44 Jean Gemmell / C. G. L. Gooding collection donated to ANIC 1979 / [ ANIC]; female: / Tambourine Mountain H. Hacker 28.12.11/ [ QMB]; female: / T . [ambourine] Mt / [ QMB] .

Description

Length: males 8.5–10.5mm, females 10.5–12mm; body weakly convex in profile, length 3–3.2x height. Body and appendages yellow, except (i) antennomeres 2–11, elytra, apices femora, outer faces (sometimes whole) of fore and mid tibiae, hind tibiae, tarsi, black with metallic dark blue (or green on elytra) reflection; (ii) apices of mandibles and apical maxillary palpomere brown, often also median streak on vertex (rarely expanded to whole of base of vertex), two oblique marks at sides of pronotal disc (rarely additional median and lateral spots). The first antennomere may be entirely metallic black to entirely yellowish-brown.

Head ( Figs 9, 25, 33): head puncturation variable but strong and sparse to moderately close on vertex, fine and dense on frontoclypeus; shallowly to deeply depressed between eyes, with deep or shallow groove on midline of vertex; eyes separated by c.3.3x eye widths (male) or c.3.7x eye widths (female); gena c.0.27x eye length (male), or c.0.32x eye length (female); antennae 4–5x socket diameters apart; antennae c. 0.85x body length (male), or c. 0.75–0.80x body length (female); all antennomeres elongate: 2 shortest (c.0.5x first), <3, <1, <4=8=9=10, <5=6=7=11 (male), female similar but 4=6=8=9=10, <5=7=11; labrum not densely setose, with 2–3 pairs of prominent setae; apical maxillary palpomere fusiform, apex broader in male, preapical palpomere as long as apical.

Thorax ( Figs 9, 38, 51): pronotum closely and strongly punctured throughout, but slightly more diffusely and finely on anterior half of disc, shining, with scattered distinct micropunctures between macropunctures and glabrous; pronotal width 1.3x length (male) or 1.4x length (female), with shallowly convex lateral margins; anterior trichobothria on laterally projecting angles, pronotum widest at anterior angles and median lateral convexity; pronotal disc without lateral depressions, with or without shallow transverse basal depression; anterior margination complete; hypomeron at least partly punctate; prosternal process narrow and strongly arched from base to truncate apex; scutellum punctured and pubescent at base, elongate-triangular with blunt apex; elytron with scattered fine pubescence at extreme base and apex, most conspicuous at humerus (often worn off or matted to surface); elytron with 2–3 irregularly shaped distinct depressions on basal half of disc, one on striae 4–5, and 2 on striae 6–9; elytral punctures strong and deep in basal half, finer towards apex; elytra partly striate, with striae 1–6 regular and 7–9 partially irregular and partly obliterated by elytral depressions, but striae may also be obscured by variable and sometimes similar sized interstrial punctures, especially towards sides and apex; 1–2 deep irregular depressions along basal half of elytron adjacent to epipleuron; upper margin epipleuron reaching base of elytron, but not continued on basal edge; mesoventrite median process strongly arched to truncate apex; metaventrite shining and sparsely and minutely punctured, anterior with complete margination, margin raised at middle as a lobe slotting into cavity in apex of mesoventrite process, and without median depression, edge not pitted lateral to middle; metepisternum shallowly microreticulate, punctured; without short spur on protibia, 1 on remainder (both sexes): formula 0+1+1.

Abdomen ( Figs 62, 72, 86, 104, 119): ventrites I and II entirely fused; male ventrites shining, shallowly microreticulate at sides, closely and strongly punctured throughout; setae short and recumbent to semierect throughout, not in distinct transverse bands; female ventrites as male but more closely punctured and wrinkled; ventrite I with poorly demarcated keel along basal 1/5–1/3, other ventrites without keels; apex ventrite V narrowly truncate in both sexes; sternite VIII of male Y-shaped; apex penis slightly mucronate in dorsal view, apical angle c.80°, tip strongly curved and pointed in lateral view; female sternite VIII with elongate parallel-sided basal apodeme; gonocoxite distinctly setose; spermatheca falcate, duct not tightly coiled.

Notes

Macrolema longicornis was described from two unsexed specimens collected in New South Wales, “received from Dr Staudinger” ( Jacoby 1895: 54), without designation of holotype . There are two male specimens in BMNH from the Jacoby collection, labelled Macrolema longicornis by Jacoby, one of which has an old and invalid holotype label. Neither has a label from Staudinger. In the absence of other material , these are assumed to be the specimens used by Jacoby. The specimen with the holotype label is hereby designated lectotype, the other specimen becoming paralectotype.

In describing Macrolema bifoveicollis (Lea 1921) , the author confused two species, both of which were already described. The holotype is a specimen of M. atripennis (q. v.supra ) but four paratypes belong to M. longicornis , as listed above.

Macrolema longicornis is moderately common (31 specimens examined) in the vicinity of the Queensland- New South Wales border, from Nightcap Range to Mount Tambourine (Fig. 133). The four specimens from Kuranda, which lies in a different biogeographic area, are considered to be mislabelled. The collector of this material was one of many schoolteachers around Australia contacted by Oke to send material to the Museum of Victoria (K. Walker, pers. com.), where it was sorted and labelled, which could easily have led to mislabelling. These specimens are identical in structure to the remaining material .

Dark pronotal markings and more extensive darkening of the base of the head and the tibiae occurs on five of the six specimens from Lamington, one of the two from Nightcap Range and the specimen from Richmond River, but there seem to be no other differences between these and the paler specimens, which co-occur. Macrolema longicornis was collected from November to March, plus one specimen in May.