Macrolema vittata Baly, 1861

Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2010, 2486, Zootaxa 2486, pp. 1-60 : 27-29

Macrolema vittata Baly

( Figs 15–17, 31, 37, 40, 43, 57, 59, 65, 78–80, 92–94, 110–112, 125–127, 132)

Macrolema vittata Baly 1861: 275

= Macrolema marginata Jacoby 1898: 350 ; syn. nov.

Material examined

Types: Macrolema vittata : Lectotype (this designation): male: / Macrolema vittata Baly Dawsons River [23:38S 149:56E] coll Diggles Stevens/ M. B. [Moreton Bay]/ type/ type/ lectotype / lectotype Macrolema vittata Baly det C. Reid i.1991 / [ BMNH]; paralectotype: female: /M. B. [Moreton Bay]/ Baly coll/ paralectotype / paralectotype Macrolema vittata Baly det C. Reid i.1991 / [ BMNH]; Macrolema marginata : Holotype: male: / Queensld./ Macrolema marginata Jac. / Jacoby coll. 1909-28a/ type HT/ holotype / holotype Macrolema marginata Jac. det C. Reid i.1991 / [ BMNH].

Non-types (42): striped colour form (‘vittata s. str. ’): male: / Austr. 77.32/ Macrolema vittata Baly Australia / [ BMNH]; New South Wales: female: / 6110 Ballina/ vittata Baly / [ SAM]; female: / NSW Red Cedar Flora Res, GPS #279 30:11S 152:42E, 56J0470810-6661332 630m 15.xii.2005 J. Jurado/ [ AMS]; Queensland: female: /Canungra Ck, 4 mi S Canungra, Qld, xi.1971, G. Monteith/ [ UQB]; female: / [Lamington] National Park Q H. Hacker, xii.1923 / [ SAM]; female: / [Lamington] National Park Q H. Hacker, xii.1919 / [ QMB]; 3 males, 1 female: / Mt Tambourine Q A. M. Lea/ [ SAM]; male: / Rockhampt. Austral./ Jacoby 2 nd coll./ [ MCZ]; 2 males, 1 female: / Sth Johnstone, NQ, H. W. Brown/ [ AMS]; male, female: / T.Mt. [Tamborine Mountain]/ Macrolema vittata Baly Queensland / [ QMB]; male: / Tambourine Mountain H. Hacker, xii.1923 / [ SAM]; 2 males, 1 female: / Tambourine Mountain H. Hacker, 29.xi.1925 / [ QMB]; female: / Mount Tambourine Queensland / E. Sutton coll., don. Dec. 1964 / [ QMB]; male, female: / Tambourine Mountain, H. Hacker/ E. Sutton coll., don. Dec. 1964 / [ QMB]; female: / Tambourine Mountain H. Hacker, 28.xii.1911 / [ QMB]; female: / QLD Tamborine NP, Palm Grove section, Curtis Rd entrance, 8.xii.2007 C. Reid beating rf veg/ [ AMS]; 2 males, 4 females: / Tamborine Mtn Queensland / [ AMS]; plain colour form (‘marginata’): New South Wales: female: / N. S. Wales / Jacoby coll. 1909-28a/ [ BMNH]; female: / Dorrigo, NSW W. Heron/ [ AMS]; male, unsexed specimen: / NSW Norman Jolly FR GPS #275 30:13S 152:41E 730m 56J0468918-6657262 15.xii.2005 J. Jurado/ [ AMS]; male: / 32:20S 152:19E, O’Sullivan’s Gap, 10km NNE Buladelah, NSW, 15.xi.1976, I.F.B. Common, E. D. Edwards/ [ ANIC]; female/ Richmond R New S Wales / [ MCZ]; Queensland: female: / Cape York / 1 st Jacoby coll./ [ MCZ]; 2 males, 2 females: / Maleny, 12.i.1927, H. Hacker/ [ QMB]; female: / SEQ, 26:38S 152:51E, Mapleton Falls NP, 500m, Rf intercept, 30.xi.1991 – 8.i.1992, D. J. Cook/ [ QMB].

Description

Length: males 9–11.5mm, females 10.5–13mm; body convex in profile, length c.2.8x height. Two colour forms exist, differing by presence or absence of elytral vittae. Body and appendages brownish-yellow or reddish-brown, except: (i) apices of mandibles, median streak on vertex, median line of pronotum and small spot near each anterior angle, two long vittae on each elytron (absent in pale colour form), each c.0.25x elytral width, from base almost to apex, where they fuse, dark brown; (ii) dorsal surface of antennomeres 1–7, dorsal streak at apices of femora, outer faces tibiae, middle of tarsomeres 1, 2 and 5, dark brown to black, with metallic purplish-blue reflection; (iii) antennomeres 8–11 purplish-red; (iv) elytral margins pale yellow.

Head ( Figs 15–16, 31, 37): head puncturation variable, strong and close or sparse throughout dorsal surface, finer and generally denser on frontoclypeus; patch of minute setae present, dorsal to antennae; shallowly to deeply depressed between eyes, with or without groove on midline of vertex; eyes separated by c.3.75x eye widths (male) or c.4x eye widths (female); gena c.0.3x eye length (male), or c.0.37x eye length (female); antennae 4–4.5x socket diameters apart; antennae c. 0.85–0.9x body length (male), or c. 0.65–0.70x body length (female); all antennomeres elongate: 2 shortest (c.0.5x first), <3, <1, <4, <5=6=8=9=10, <7=11 (male), female similar except 1=4; labrum not densely setose, with 3 pairs of prominent setae; apical maxillary palpomere elongate, almost cylindrical in male, more fusiform in female, preapical palpomere slightly shorter than apical.

Thorax ( Figs 15–16, 40, 43, 57, 59): pronotum strongly and sparsely to closely punctured throughout, more diffusely on anterior half of disc, shining, with scattered distinct micropunctures between macropunctures and scattered fine pubescence at sides (often worn off); pronotal width 1.4x length (male) or 1.5x length (female), with strongly convex lateral margins; pronotal disc with deep lateral depressions, with or without shallow circular basal depression; anterior margination incomplete, absent from midline to middle third; hypomeron at least partly punctate; prosternal process narrow and strongly arched from base to truncate apex, with concave outer face; scutellum punctured and pubescent, at least at base, elongate-triangular with blunt apex; elytron with scattered minute pubescence at base of epipleuron (often worn off or matted to surface); elytron without depressions on basal half of disc; elytral punctures strong and deep in basal half, finer towards apex; elytra partly striate, with striae 1–4 regular and 5–9 partially irregular, all obscured by similar sized interstrial punctures, especially towards sides and apex; without depressions along basal half of elytron adjacent to epipleuron; upper margin epipleuron reaching base of elytron, and continued on basal edge; mesoventrite median process strongly arched to truncate apex; metaventrite shining and sparsely and minutely punctured, anterior flat, without complete margination, with median depression, edge pitted lateral to middle; metepisternum shallowly microreticulate, strongly punctured; with short spur on protibia, 2 on remainder.

Abdomen ( Figs 65, 78–80, 92–94, 110–112, 125–127): ventrites I and II entirely fused; male ventrites shining, not microreticulate, moderately closely and strongly punctured, closer at sides, impunctate at middle of base of V, setae on I–IV generally recumbent, not in distinct transverse bands; female ventrites densely punctured and wrinkled, generally microreticulate, with recumbent setae; ventrite I laterally keeled along basal 2/3–3/4, other ventrites without keels; apex ventrite V narrowly truncate to rounded in both sexes; sternite VIII of male Y-shaped; apex of penis slightly mucronate in dorsal view, tip straight and blunt in lateral view; female sternite VIII with slightly elongate almost parallel-sided basal apodeme; gonocoxite distinctly setose at apex; spermatheca hook-shaped, duct tightly coiled, with small sclerotised swelling at junction with bursa copulatrix.

Notes

Macrolema vittata was described from a single locality, Dawson’s River, Moreton Bay, Queensland, based on at least two specimens as two different lengths were given ( Baly 1861: 275). There are three specimens with Baly labels in BMNH, but only two are labelled ‘ M.B. ’ ( Moreton Bay ) and these have Baly’s handwritten ‘type’ labels attached. One of these, a male, is more completely labelled from Dawson’s River and collected by Diggles, and is hereby designated lectotype. The other specimen from Moreton Bay , a female, becomes a paralectotype. The third specimen carries a handwritten identification label by Baly but appears to have been acquired by Baly from a dealer (Janson) after the original description and it therefore is not a type .

This species has two colour forms. The pale one, without elytral vittae ( Fig. 16), dominates the southern (Buladelah to Dorrigo) and northern (Maleny area) extremes of the species’ range ( Fig. 132). This form was described as M. marginata by Jacoby (1898), but without a specific type locality although the holotype is labelled ‘Queensland’. The striped form ( Fig. 15), described by Baly as M. vittata , dominates the central part of the range (Dorrigo to Canoungra). The two forms do not seem to have been collected together, but this may be an artifact of rarity. However they have been collected within a few kilometres of each other on the Dorrigo Plateau. We have dissected males and females from the three centres, Dorrigo (‘marginata’), Mount Tambourine (‘vittata’) and Maleny (‘marginata’). There is general similarity in the genitalia, as well as in external features such as antennae, legs, elytral sculpture, ventral thoracic sclerites and the diagnostic abdominal ventrite sculpture. The Maleny specimens are slightly smaller and have slightly smaller genitalia, but no other obvious differences. We therefore consider M. vittata a senior synonym of M. marginata (syn. nov.).

Colour variation in this species may reflect a mimicry complex involving a species of galerucine, Oides fryii Clark , which commonly occurs with Macrolema vittata (label records and personal observation). Oides fryii also has two colour forms, one entirely pale brown with paler elytral margins and the other with two vittae on each elytron; in both the outer edges of the tibiae are black. The pale colour form dominates at the southern (Buladelah to Dorrigo) and northern (Maleny) extremes of this species’ range, while the striped form predominates in the centre of the range (Dorrigo to Brisbane). The matching ranges and colour patterns seem more than co-incidental. Oides species are slow-moving and conspicuous and the genus belongs to a subfamily well-known to include chemically protected species ( Pasteels, Braekman & Daloze 1988; Pasteels, Rowell-Rahier, Braekman & Daloze 1994).

Macrolema vittata is a relatively common and widespread species of the border and adjacent ranges between New South Wales and Queensland, from Dorrigo Plateau to Maleny, at c. 20–550m elevation. The old North Queensland specimen from Jacoby’s collection is likely to be mislabelled, as is the North Queensland specimen from the Brown collection (see also M. quadrivittata ). The 45 specimens of this species were collected from November to January .

A single larva of an unknown spilopyrine genus was collected in 1993 by CAMR and later described ( Fig. 17; Reid 2000). This larva was collected at the entrance to Red Cedar Flora Reserve, at exactly the same location as a specimen of M. vittata collected by our colleague José Jurado-Rivera 12 years later. No other spilopyrines are known from this locality, therefore we consider this larva to be M. vittata . Details are provided under the generic description.