Morphosphaera Baly

Lee, Chi-Feng & Bezdĕk, Jan, 2016, Revision of the genus Morphosphaera Baly (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae), Zootaxa 4179 (1), pp. 1-41 : 3-4

Genus Morphosphaera Baly

Morphosphaera Baly, 1861: 298 (type species: Morphosphaera maculicollis Baly, 1861 , by monotypy); Allard, 1889b: 67; Laboissière, 1930: 357; Maulik, 1936: 316; Ogloblin, 1936: 230; Chûjô, 1962: 171.

Description. Body medium-sized (length 5.7–12.5 mm), broadly oval, convex, dorsally glabrous. Head pale or black, rarely pale with black spot on vertex, pronotum pale with black spots, rarely uniformly pale, elytra metallic blue or green, brown with metallic lustre or pale without lustre, legs and antennae pale to black.

Head. Labrum transverse, with rounded anterior angles, anterior margin slightly rounded, dorsally with few setiferous pores. Anterior part of head subtriangular, covered with distinct punctures, slightly convex, occiput wide and flat. Frontal tubercles subtriangular, with anterior angles divergent, basally separated from frons by impressed line. Interocular space wide, 2.35–2.90 times as wide as transverse diameter of eye. Interantennal space 1.30–1.70 times as wide as transverse diameter of antennal socket. Eyes small. Vertex wide, moderately convex. Preapical (third) maxillary palpomere large. Antennae with 11 antennomeres, not slender, about 0.5–0.7 times as long as body, antennomere III about 1.5 times longer than antennomere II.

Pronotum strongly transverse, about twice as wide as long. Anterior margin broadly concave, posterior margin broadly rounded, lateral margins rounded with subparallel in posterior one-half, more or less convergent in anterior one-half. All margins thinly bordered. Anterior angles swollen, posterior margins obtusely angulate, each angle bearing one setigerous pore and a long pale seta. Surface glabrous, indistinctly finely punctate, moderately convex. Scutellum small, subtriangular.

Elytra convex, widest at posterior third, glabrous or with sparse, fine setae on apical and lateral slopes, punctation dense, fine, confused. Epipleura wide basally, gradually narrowed medially, and disappearing before apices. Humeral calli poorly developed but visible. Macropterous.

Legs moderately thin, apices of all tibiae with spine. First metatarsomere elongate triangular, ca 0.6–0.7 as long as following two tarsomeres combined. Claws appendiculate.

Procoxal cavities open, intercoxal prosternal process thin, elevated and visible between procoxae. Posterior margin of last ventrite with short distinct incisions.

Aedeagus slender, parallel-sided, apex subtriangular or rounded with distinct tip, one endophallic sclerite present.

Female. Abdomen with last ventrite entire. Spermatheca nearly S-shaped, nodulus developed but poorly separated from cornu. Gonocoxae reduced. Sternite VIII usually transverse, sometimes rhomboidal, often with wide, shallow incision on apical margin, with setae more developed in apical half. Tignum narrow, with apex sometimes slightly wider, ca 1.5 times as long as sternite VIII.

Diagnosis. Morphosphaera differs from Agelastica , Miltina and Borneola in possessing enlarged preapical (= third) maxillary palpomere (not enlarged in Agelastica , Miltina and Borneola ). Agelastica and Miltina have narrow epipleurae but they are clearly visible in the posterior half while in Morphosphaera the epipleurae disappear in the posterior third. Miltina also differs in that antennomeres II and III are subequal in males and the inner apical angles of antennomeres IV–X are extended.

The oval bodies of adult Morphosphaera resemble members of the genus Oides Weber, 1801 from the tribe Oidini . Oides species differ in having the epipleurae inflexed inwards compared to no inflexed epipleurae in Morphosphaera .

Biology. Members of Taiwanese ( M. chrysomeloides and M. bimaculata ) and Japanese species ( M. japonica and M. caerulea ) feed on leaves of various species of Ficus trees ( Moraceae ). Adults of M. coomani feed on leaves of Debregeasia orientalis (Urticaceae) . Life cycles of Taiwanese species seem to be bivoltine. Diapause occurs to adults and occurs during both summer and winter seasons.

Distribution. East Palaearctic and Oriental regions. Two species were recorded from Philippines. One ( M. peregrina ) is transferred to the genus Borneola (see below). The taxonomic status of the other species ( M. impunctata ) is uncertain. It is possible that Morphosphaera is absent from the Philippines.