Nemognatha (Pauronemognatha) beauregardi Pic, 1910

Bologna, Marco A. & Riccieri, Alessandra, 2023, Taxonomic and faunistic study of four almost unknown Brazilian Meloidae (Coleoptera), Revista Brasileira de Entomologia (e 20230041) 67 (3), pp. 1-7 : 3-4

Nemognatha (Pauronemognatha) beauregardi Pic, 1910

Nemognatha atra Beauregard, 1890:465 ,note 1,nomen praeoccupatum by atra Dugès, 1889 .

Nemognatha beuregardi Pic, 1910b: 7 .

Figure 2 a-f

Material examined. 27 exx., “Faz. (= Fazenda) Sta. (= Santa) Carlota, Cajuru, SP, BR ” with different dates (1 ex. 1986; 1 ex. 12.III.1987; 2 exx. 2.III.1988; 2 exx. 16.III.1988; 1 ex. 14.IV.1988; 1 ex. 1989; 1 ex. 17.III.1989; 1 ex. 19.III.1989; 1 ex. 27.III.1989; 1 ex. 10.IV.1989; 1 ex. 3.V.1989; 1 ex., 13.II.1990; 1 ex: 15.II.1990; 1 ex. 26.III. 1990; 1 ex. 23.IV.1990; 1 ex. 24. IV.,1990; 1 ex. 30.IV.1990; 1 ex. 16.X.1990; 1 ex. 12.X.1990; 1 ex. 23.X.1990; 1 ex. 23.II.1998; 1 ex. 25.IX.1999; 3 exx. without date) .

8 exx., “Faz.(= Fazenda) Cambuhy, Matão, SP, BR ”,with different dates (1 ex. 1986; 1 ex. 30.I.1996; 1 ex. 25.X.1996; 4 exx. 1997; 1 ex. 4.II.1997) .

8 exx., “ Serra do Japì , Jundalai, SP, BR ”, with different dates (1 ex. 1986; 1 ex. 14.IX.1995; 1 ex. 2.X.1995; 1 ex. 14.X.1995; 1 ex. 14.XI.1995; 1 ex. 27.IV.1995; 1 ex. 16.XI.1995; 1 ex. 1996) .

18 exx., “Est. (= Estação) Ecol. (= Ecológica) dos Caetatus, Gália, SP, BR, 22°22.51’- 49°40.26’”, with different dates (1 ex. 23.II.2007; 1 ex. 14.III.2007; 1 ex. 28.III.2007; 1 ex. V.2007; 1 ex. 23.V.2007; 1 ex. 29.V.2007; 1 ex. 1.VI.2007; 1 ex. 23.VI.2007; 1 ex. 25.VI.2007; 1 ex. 15.X.2007; 1 ex. 28.X.2007; 1 ex. 8.XI.2007; 1 ex. 10.XI.2007; 2 exx. 19.XI.2007; 1 ex. 24.XI.2007; 1 ex. 30.XII.2007; 1 ex. 3.XII.2009) .

Taxonomy. Also in this species, as in other Nemognatha from South America (N. chrysomeloides) and North America (e.g.,N.lurida LeConte, 1858, N. lutea LeConte, 1853), exists a great variability in the body colour and this condition produced several taxonomic errors. Usually the body is black with elytra dark blue-violet metallic and the abdomen orange ( Fig.2a /c), but with the following variation:males (except two)have orange shiny abdomen, while ca. one third of females have the abdomen black or at least distinctly dark; the head is black, but very few specimens have temples and genae partially orange ( Fig.2b ); one single specimen shows the head almost completely reddish and the pronotum dark-reddish.

As the other two following species, the head is very short and galeae are quite short, differently than in most Nemognatha , reaching the lateral-anterior angle of the eye. The male modified areas are present on ventrites II-V (see below; Fig. 2d ) and are represented by scarcely depressed, sub-oval surface, with a distinct and denser punctuation and dense different setae; male genitalia as in Fig. 2e /f.

Remarks. This species is recorded only from Brazil. Beauregard (1890) described it as N. atra using the name found on a specimen of the Brussels’ Museum collections, but this name was preoccupied by N. atra Dugès, 1889 from Mexico (now Zonitis (Parazonitis) dugesi Selander, 1954 ). Consequently, the name was changed by Pic (1910b) as N.beauregardi . After Pic’s paper this species has never been studied. Erroneously, N. atra and N.beauregardi were included byGarcía-París et al. (2007) among the synonyms of N. chrysomeloides (Linnaeus, 1763), a species widely spread from Mexico to Argentina, which belongs to another lineage and is greatly distinct at least because of the ventrites not modified and galeae extremely elongate.

According to the classification of Nemognatha proposed by Enns (1956), very few South American species have been assigned to one of the four Nearctic subgenera. Riccieri et al. (2023) referred tentatively N.nigrotarsata(Fairmaire et Germain,1861) from Chile and NW Argentina to the nominate subgenus, and N.mimula Borchmann,1952 from Ecuador and Peru to the subgenus Pauronemognatha Enns, 1956 , while they did not place in none of the described subgenera both N.chrysomeloides and N.nigronotata (Pic, 1914).We confirm the arrangement inPauronemognatha of the first two species and refer to it also N. beauregardi , which shows modified areas on ventrites II-V ( Figure 2d ).

García-París et al. (2014) recorded for the first time N. plaumanni Borchmann, 1942 from Venezuela. This species was described from south-eastern Brazil, Santa Catarina, Nova Teutonia [erroneously considered by Borchmann (1942) as in the Rio Grande do Sul State], not far from the localities ofN. beauregardi we studied in the São Paulo State.As noted above, García-París et al.(2014), who examined topotypic specimens of N. plaumanni in the Budapest’ Museum, erroneously considered N. beauregardi as a variation of N. chrysomeloides and did not compare N. plaumanni with N. beauregardi . According to the figures of the topotypic N. plaumanni published by these authors, this species seems extremely similar to N. beauregardi and we suggest their possible synonymy. We cannot confirm this co-specificity without the examination of the male structures (ventrites and genitalia) of N. plaumanni , and because García-París et al. (2014) stated that this species cannot be referred to any described subgenera, while in

N. beauregardi the modified ventral areas and the hind spurs typical of Pauronemognatha are clearly detectable.

Léo Correia da Rocha Filho communicated to us (pers. comm. II.2023) that specimens of N. beauregardi have been collected in the nests ofTetrapedia diversipes Friese, 1899 ( Hymenoptera , Apidae ), and those of N. rufoscutellaris and N. cfr. gounellei (see below) in the nest of Tetrapedia spp. Parasitization of T. diversipes was ascertained also in N. rufoscutellaris and in the species which probably corresponds to N. gounellei ( Rocha-Filho and Garofalo, 2016) .

Figures

Figure 2 Nemognatha beauregardi a. body dorsally; b. head variant; c. body laterally; d. ventrites ventrally; e. male genitalia laterally; f. male genitalia ventrally.