Xenicotela villiersi (Breuning, 1960) Xie & Barclay & Wang, 2023

Xie, Guanglin, Barclay, Maxwell V. L. & Wang, Wenkai, 2023, Review of the genus Xenicotela Bates, 1884 (Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Lamiini), ZooKeys 1183, pp. 185-204 : 185

Xenicotela villiersi (Breuning, 1960) comb. nov.

Fig. 8

Monochamus villiersi Breuning, 1960: 33; Breuning 1961: 370. Type locality: Tonkin (Hoa Binh), Vietnam.

Type material examined.

Holotype, male (MNHN), the label details are shown in Fig. 8e .

Redescription.

Male. Body length 13.0 mm, humeral width 4.5 mm. Body mostly dull reddish brown, clothed with greyish-yellow to pale-yellow and brown pubescence mottled on dorsal surface. Head and pronotum slightly darker than elytra; legs somewhat blackish brown. Head decorated with a dark-brown pubescent patch behind each upper lobe of eyes and a pair of homogeneous patches located at the basal half of pronotum, edged with pale-yellow pubescence and widely separated anteriorly. Antennae reddish brown; scape and pedicel densely clothed with greyish-yellow pubescence; base and extreme apex of antennomeres III-X; base and apical half of antennomere XI annulated with greyish-yellow pubescence; basal five segments fringed with sparse greyish-yellow setae ventrally. Scutellum covered with whitish yellow throughout. Elytra dull reddish brown, mottled with greyish-yellow to pale-yellow and brown pubescence. Tibiae decorated with a narrow subbasal and a wide apical annulus of greyish-yellow to pale-yellow pubescence.

Frons transverse, densely and finely punctate; lower lobes of eyes about as long as genae. Antennae long, about 2.5 times as long as body, with the apex of the fifth segment or the base of the sixth one exceeding the elytral apex; scape robust and short, base narrowed, apex distinctly constricted before cicatrix; antennomere III slightly longer than antennomere IV, about 2.5 times as long as scape; extreme apex of antennomeres III-X obviously thickened inwards. Pronotum transverse; lateral spine short and blunt, coniform; disc dotted with fine punctures. Scutellum lingulate. Elytra elongate, about 2.2 times as long as width across humeri, with subparallel sides and rounded apices; surface finely punctate, the punctures gradually becoming finer and sparser towards apex; disc slightly raised at centre of basal third, followed by a weak central depression. Legs moderately long, femora slightly clavate, claws divaricate.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution.

Vietnam (Tonkin).

Comments.

This species has the mesotibiae without grooves near the apex, the head decorated with two black velvet patches behind the upper eye lobes, the scape distinctly constricted before the apical cicatrix, the basal five antennomeres fringed ventrally and antennomeres III-XI annulated with light-coloured pubescent rings on the base and apex, the pronotum with two black velvet patches on the base, the elytra mottled with light-coloured pubescence mixed with brown pubescence and the tibiae ringed with dark and light-coloured pubescence. All characters are consistent with the genus Xenicotela .

This species is very similar to X. bimaculata , from which it can be distinguished by the male antennae being much longer (about 2.5 times as long as body), the scutellum wholly covered with light-coloured pubescence, the base of the tibiae mostly dark with a light-coloured pubescent ring and the elytra more mottled. In X. bimaculata , the male antennae are only about 2.0 times as long as body, the scutellum is mostly clothed with light-coloured pubescence and the base of the tibiae is mostly clothed with light-coloured pubescence. Xenicotela villiersi is also similar to X. convexicollis but differs in antennomeres V-VIII more protruding inwards at the apex and the elytra less elongate, without a transverse dark band behind the middle.

Figures

Figure 8. Xenicotela villiersi (Breuning, 1960) comb. nov. a dorsal view b ventral view c lateral view d frontal view e labels.