Tituboea lefevrei ( Pic, 1894 ) Bezdċk & Regalin, 2015

Bezdċk, Jan & Regalin, Renato, 2015, Identity of species-group taxa of the Western Palaearctic Clytrini (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) described by Maurice Pic and Louis Kocher, Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (suppl.) 55, pp. 1-114 : 53-55

Tituboea lefevrei ( Pic, 1894) comb. nov.

( Figs 46–50 , 198–207 )

Melitonoma lefevrei Pic, 1894a: 221 (original description).

Antina [sic!] (Titubaea) arabica var. palaestina Pic, 1929a: 14 (original description), syn. nov.

Antipa (Titubaea) chikatunovi Lopatin, 1995: 100 (original description), syn. nov.

Type locality. Melitonoma lefevrei : ‘Bou-Sâada ( Algérie)’. Antipa arabica var. palaestina : ‘Jaffa’ [= Israel, Tel Aviv]. Antipa chikatunovi : ‘ ɂɡɪɚɢꞍɶ, ɆɚFɚɪɢɚx ’ [= Israel, Nahariya].

Type material examined. Melitonoma lefevrei : HOLOTYPE: ♀, ‘ Bou / Saada / 1873 [w, h] // ♀ / Melitonoma ? [w, h] // type [w, h] // Lefevrei Pic / n sp. [w, h] // Le Nat. No. 182 / (… 94) p. 221 [partly illegible, w, h] // Tituboea / Lefevrei Pic [w, h] // TYPE [r, p]’ ( MNHN – coll. Pic).

Antipa arabica var. palaestina : SYNTYPES: 1 ♂, ‘Jaffa / Palestine / 21st June ̓ 24 / G. F. Hucklesby [w, h] // ♀ Palestine / in Br. Museum [w, h] // v. nov. / palaestina [w, h] // Titubaea / arabica Ol. / var [w, h]’ ( MNHN – coll. Pic); 1 ♀, ‘ Type [round label with red collar, w, p] // sent by / G. E. Bodkin [w, h] // Jaffa / Palestine / 21st June ̓ 24 / G. F. Hucklesby [w, h] // Pres. by / Imp. Bur. Ent. / Brit. Mus. / 1929-570. [w, p] // Antipa ou / Tituboea / arabica v. n. [w, h] // v. palaestina [w, h] // [illegible, w, h]’ ( BMNH).

Antipa chikatunovi : Not examined personally. The photos of two paratypes deposited in currently unavailable Lopatin ̓ s collection in Minsk (Belarus) were provided by Oxana Nesterova. PARATYPES: 1♂, ‘ Palestine, / Beer-sheba, 21.VI. / Bytinski-Salz, 1944 [w, h] // Paratypus [r, p] // Antipa / chikatunovi sp. n. [h] / det. I. Lopatin, 19 [p] 93 [w, h] // Tituboea / chikatunovi m. [h] / det. I. Lopatin, 200 [p] 9 [w, h]’; 1 ♀, ‘ ɂɡɪɚɢꞍɶ, Ȼeeɪ - / Ɲeɛɚ, 31.IV. 944 / ȻɵɬɢɧⱢɤɢ -ɁɚꞍɶɰ [= Israel, Beer-sheba, 31.VI.1944, Bytinski-Salz leg.] [w, h] // Paratypus [r, p] // Antipa / chikatunovi sp. n. [h] / det. I. Lopatin, 19 [p] 93 [w, h]’.

Additional material examined. ALGERIA: El Ateuf, 19.v.1897, 5 ♂♂3 ♀♀, without name of collector ( MNHN).

ISRAEL: Beersheba , 21.vi.19 [44?], 1♂, Bytinski-Salz leg.( RRCM) ; Negev, Sharandal , 20.vi.1950, 1♂, J.Wahrman leg. ( TAU) . JORDAN: Wadi Ghuba , 9.v.1995, 1 ♀, P. Pucholt leg. ( JBCB) . MOROCCO: Figuig , 26.v.1994, 1 ♂, Bourada leg. ( HKCH) . TUNISIA: Gafsa env., 27.vi.1976, 1 ♂ 1 ♀, Mager & Mühle leg. ( HKCH).

Redescription. Body length: ♂♂ 4.8–6.8 mm; ♀♀ 5.5–6.6 mm (holotype 5.5 mm).

Male ( Fig. 198 ). Almost complete body orange. Apices of mandibles black, scutellum dark brown to black with orange apex, each elytron with four black spots (2, 2), mesoventrite darkened to black.

Head and mandibles only slightly enlarged ( Fig. 199 ). Head lustrous, Ħat. Mandibles short and robust. Labrum transverse, anterior margin concave, lateral margins convergent and rounded, along anterior margin with several pale setae. Clypeus impunctate, anterior margin shallowly concave. Eyes small. Frons wide, 2.55 times as wide as diameter of eye, covered with small punctures, in middle with small round depression. Vertex covered with ħne punctures (smaller than on frons). Frons and vertex densely covered with short pale setae. Antennae short, 0.25 times as long as body, antennomere I club-shaped; II and III small, subglobular; antennae serrated from antennomere IV; antennomeres V–X wider than long.

Pronotum strongly transverse, 2.10–2.20 times as wide as long, widest in basal quarter, moderately convex, lustrous, covered with ħne punctures, along posterior margin and near posterior angles with larger and denser punctures, pronotal surface covered with dense short pale setae (usually partially abraded). Anterior margin shallowly concave, lateral margins convergent anteriorly and moderately rounded, posterior margin nearly straight but bisinuate in scutellar area. Anterior angles nearly rectangular with tip rounded, posterior angles very widely rounded. Lateral and posterior margins bordered, anterior margin bordered only in lateral parts. Posterior angles distinctly elevated above elytral base. Scutellum triangular with rounded tip, lustrous, in middle impunctate and glabrous, laterally with ħne punctures and short setae, scutellar apex elevated upon elytral level.

Elytra subcylindrical, 0.65 times as long as body, 1.30 times as long as wide in humeral part, glabrous, lustrous, densely covered with small confused punctures. Basal margin with complete thin border. Epipleura glabrous, impunctate, wide in humeral area, short, disappearing in 1/3 of elytral length. Lateral margin of elytra widely concave in lateral view.

Legs. Protarsi and protibiae enlarged. Protarsi ( Fig. 50 ): protarsomere I long, elongate subtriangular, 2.35 times as long as broad, protarsomeres II and III narrowed in basal quarter, rest parallel, length ratios of protarsomeres I–IV equal to 100-71-71-71. Metatarsi short and narrow, metatarsomere I 0.80 times shorter than two following tarsomeres combined, length ratios of metatarsomeres I–IV equal to 100-63-63-75. Claws simple.

Male genitalia. Aedeagus with subtriangular apex ( Figs 46–47 ).

Female ( Fig. 200 ). Head and mandibles not enlarged ( Fig. 201 ). Frons wider, 2.95 times as wide as diameter of eye. Protibiae not enlarged, protarsi much shorter and narrower than in males, length ratios of protarsomeres I–IV equal to 100-71-71-100. Spermatheca: cornu widely C-shaped, of the same width, spermathecal duct relatively wide, with several coils, with very peculiar club-shaped appendix with nearly sphaerical termination ( Figs 48–49 ).

Variability. The populations from the Near East are often darker with head partly black, pronotum with two posterolateral black spots and posterior elytral spots extended, connected and forming transverse band ( Figs 204–206 ). Often elytra are slightly paler than pronotum. Meso- and metaventrites can be darkened to black. Abdomen is orange in almost all specimens, only one male from Tunisia has abdomen dark brown with orange last ventrite. The spermatheca is pictured for the female from Jordan ( Fig. 49 ) and another female from Algeria ( Fig. 48 ). Both differ in the shape of connection of sphaerical appendix, but we consider such differences to be infraspeciħc variability within a large area.

Differential diagnosis. Tituboea lefevrei is characterised by combination of the following characters: protarsomere I relatively short in males ( Fig. 50 ), only slightly enlarged head and mandibles in male, pronotum covered with ħne setae, structure of aedeagus ( Figs 46–47 ), and very peculiar shape of spermatheca ( Figs 48–49 ).

Tituboea lefevrei has habitus similar to T. arabica and T. saadensis but both species have aedeagus distinctly S-shaped in lateral view (almost straight in T. lefevrei ), pronotum glabrous and spermatheca without sphaerical appendix.

Distribution. Algeria ( PIC 1894a, present paper), Israel ( PIC 1929a, LOPATIN 1995, present paper), Tunis ( REGALIN & MEDVEDEV 2010b, present paper). New species for Morocco and Jordan (present paper).

Comments. Number of the available specimens of Melitonoma lefevrei was not stated in the original description ( PIC 1894a). Three years later, PIC (1897c) speciħed that this species was described based on one female which is therefore considered holotype by monotypy.

The generic position of T. lefevrei was uncertain for many decades. PIC (1894a) described it in the genus Melitonoma Chevrolat, 1836 . Later, PIC (1897c) trasferred it to Tituboea and, ħnally, NORMAND (1949) classiħed it in Coptocephala . Most recently, REGALIN & MEDVEDEV (2010b) followed Normand ̓ s opinion and listed it again in Coptocephala but as a doubtful assignment. Also the species identity of T. lefevrei was an object of disputation for a long time being treated as a valid species (e.g. PIC 1913c, 1931; NORMAND 1949), synonym of T. perrisi (e.g. CLAVAREAU 1913, WINKLER 1929) or as a valid species but misidentiħed as Tituboea perrisi (see WARCHA Ł OWSKI 2003, 2010). Here we conħrm T. lefevrei as a valid species different from T. perrisi (transferred here to Coptocephala ).

Based on all available specimens we treat T. lefevrei as a species with wide distribution along the east and south shore of the Mediterranean Sea from Israel to Morocco. The population from the Near East was ħrst described by PIC (1929a) as Antipa arabica var. palaestina and due to the inadequate description usually listed as a simple synonym of T. arabica . Both male and female syntypes of var. palaestina were examined and it is synonymized here with T. lefevrei . Recently, LOPATIN (1995) described it once more as T. chikatunovi . Its type material is currently unavailable being in possession of Lopatin ̓ s relatives in Minsk ( Belarus), however Oxana Nesterova was so kind and sent us photos of the type specimens. Based on these photos and examination of an additional male specimen collected on the same occasion as the paratypes, we consider T. chikatunovi conspeciħc with T. lefevrei and propose their synonymy.

Figures

Figs 46–50. Tituboealefevrei (Pic, 1894): 46 – aedeagus (dorsal and lateral views, from Algeria); 47 – aedeagus (dorsal and lateral views, from Israel); 48 – spermatheca (from Algeria), 49 – spermatheca (from Jordan); 50 – right male protarsus. Scale bars: 1 mm for Fig. 50, 0.5 mm for Figs 46–47, 0.25 mm for Figs 48–49.

Figs 198–207. Tituboea lefevrei (Pic, 1894): 198 – male (Algeria, 6.6 mm); 199 – head of male; 200 – female (Algeria, 6.5 mm); 201 – head of female; 202 – holotype of Melitonoma lefevrei (female, 5.5 mm); 203 – labels. 204–207 – syntype of Antipa arabica var. palaestina Pic, 1929, male, 6.2 mm:204 – habitus; 205 – habitus in lateral view; 206 – head; 207 – labels.