Lacon taotie, Zawadzki & Tencatt & Britski, 2023

Zawadzki, Cláudio H, Tencatt, Luiz F C & Britski, Heraldo A, 2023, Two New Flightless Species Of Lacon Laporte, 1838 From Yunnan, China, With Discovery Of The Female Of L. Habashanensis Platia Et Al., 2023 (Coleoptera: Elateridae: Agrypninae), Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 69 (4), pp. 323-336 : 324-328

Lacon taotie sp. n.

http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:ECFDF085-D859-4842-B2FC-297A778A1EF5 ( Figs 1A–B ; 2 A-B, 2E–F; 3A–D)

Chinese Common name. 饕餮鳞叩甲

Type material – Holotype: male ( MYNU), Lagaluohe River [拉嘎洛河], Zhonglu Township [中路乡], Weixi County [维西县], Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture [迪庆 藏族自治州], Yunnan, 2400–2600m, VI.2021, local collector leg.

Paratypes: 1 male ( MYNU), Ahualuohe River [阿花洛河], Zhonglu Township , Weixi County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture , Yunnan, 2400–2800m, III–IV.2023, local leg .; 1 male ( MYNU), ibid, but 2600–2800m, II.2023, local collector leg .

Diagnosis – This new species resembles L. lijiangensis ( Fig. 1E ) in the presence of indistinct foveae on pronotum, as well as the shape of posterior angles of pronotum, which are distinctly curved outwards and roundly pointed at apex ( PROSVIROV 2016 a, b). Lacon taotie can be easily distinguished from L. lijiangensis by the pronotum more strongly narrowed in anterior half towards anterior angles, antennomeres 3–10 narrower, and by the presence of vestigial wings.

Description – Male (holotype) ( Fig. 1A ). Body length 9.6 mm; width 2.8 mm. Body flattened, elongate. Integument almost matt, reddish brown; anterior margin of head, anterior margin and base of pronotum, prosternal process, base of hypomeron, scutellar shield along margin, anterior margin of mesoventrite, area around coxa, epipleural margin, metaholotype, female. Scale bar: 2 mm

coxal plate, and basal margin of elytra somewhat darkened. Body covered with golden, dense, tapered, and recumbent scale-like pubescence; pubescence on dorsum (head, pronotum, scutellar shield and elytra) similar to that on ventral side of body.

Head. Wider than long (length/width 0.75). Frons widely and deeply depressed. Punctures coarse and dense; intervals between punctures shagreen, shorter than diameter of one puncture. Mandible with tooth; apical segment of maxillary palpus subtriangular, rounded apically. Antennae short (3.0 mm), reaching beyond middle of pronotum, very weakly serrate from antennomere 4 ( Fig. 2E ). Antennomere 1 robust and long; antennomere 2 shortest, almost globose; antennomere 3 just slightly longer than antennomere 2; antennomere 4 1.3 times longer than antennomere 2; antennomeres 5–10 similar in shape, subequal in length, and longer than wide; last antennomere ovate, subapically very weakly tapered.

Thorax. Pronotum 1.9 times as wide as head, slightly longer than wide (length 2.9 mm; width 2.7 mm), widest at basal half, near middle ( Fig. 2A ). Sides narrowed toward anterior angles more sharply than toward posterior portion. Anterior angles of pronotum sharp in dorsal view, apices pointing slightly inwards. Lateral margins after middle very weakly concave, then slightly convex and narrowed before posterior angles. Posterior angles of pronotum in dorsal view depressed, rather short, bluntly angular at apex, constricted and slightly divergent, without carinae. Shallow impression groove throughout middle line, and bifurcate along anterior margin, two pairs of shallow foveae distributed laterally near middle and posholotype, male; D, H = L. yejiei sp. n., paratype, female. Scale bars: 2 mm

terior portion. Punctures large, coarse, very deep and dense, slightly larger than or similar to those on head; intervals between punctures shagreen, mostly shorter or equal to half diameter of one puncture. Prosternum gradually narrowed towards base when observed in ventral dorsal view; C, G = abdominal sternite VIII and tergite VIII, ventral view; D, H = aedeagus,

dorsal view. Scale bars: 1 mm

view. Pronotosternal sutures straight, deeply grooved from apices to basal thirds, then simply furrowed. Prosternal lobe broadly rounded, rather short, apex distinctly prominent beyond anterior angles of hypomeron, base with a transverse impression. Prosternal process in lateral view stick-like, ventral margin slightly narrowed towards apex, apex with small notch subapically, apex blunt. Prosternal punctures generally coarse, dense and deep, those in middle distinctly larger than on pronotum; intervals between punctures in middle subequal to diameter of half puncture; punctures on prosternal lobe smaller, intervals not wrinkled; punctures between procoxae smaller. Anterior and lateral parts of hypomeron with dense punctation, intervals between punctures on average smaller than diameter of one puncture; basal half of hypomeron with larger and sparser punctuation, intervals between punctures on average subequal to or greater than diameter of one puncture; intervals between punctures on hypomeron matt. Hypomeron basally with rather broad depression for insertion of profemora; this depression impunctate and with surface nearly smooth; hypomeron slightly impressed along prosternal suture. Mesoventrite and metaventrite punctate similarly, with deep but much smaller punctures than on prosternum, intervals between punctures mostly smaller than diameter of one puncture. Metaventrite without depressions. Metacoxal plates gradually narrowed from middle to lateral side. Scutellar shield tongue-shaped, basal margin straight, apex narrowed. Elytra length: 5.6 mm; width: 2.8 mm. Elytra elongate, sides subparallel, widest at apical third, slightly wider than pronotum, about 2.0 times as long as pronotum. Shoulders obtusely rounded, distinctly constricted and protruded anteriorly; sides of elytra slightly widened from base to middle, then narrowed from distal third, apical portion rounded. Disc of elytra flat, mildly convex at distal third, then sloping towards apex; without striae, more or less evenly punctate and setose; punctures smaller than those on head and pronotum, intervals between punctures mostly subequal to 1–2 diameters of one puncture. Hind wings strongly reduced, vestigial wings elongate, not reaching middle of elytra.

Abdomen. Punctation of abdomen deep but small, intervals between punctures less than or subequal to diameters of one puncture. Tergite VIII semi-oval, anterior margin well setose and less sclerotized, apex slightly narrowed ( Fig. 3C ); tergite IX with hind margin slightly concave, distal portion with two rounded lobes, median roundly concave; tergite X roundly protruded, slightly wider than long, anterior margin less sclerotized ( Fig. 3B ). Sternite VIII with two elongate, setose and well sclerotized portions laterally, anterior margin concave medially ( Fig. 3C ); sternite IX elongate, subquadrate at base, hind margin concave in middle, basal portion transparent, lateral margins constricted medially, distal portion tongue-shaped, pubescent, apex truncate, obtuse ( Fig. 3A ).

Male genitalia. Parameres longer than median lobe, straight at outer margin, apex roundly protruded, slightly narrowed, with large sharp processes subapically. Median lobe robust, apical portion sharply narrowed ( Fig. 3D ).

Variability. Body length of paratypes: 9.6–9.9 mm. The size of pronotum and length of antennae may vary to some degree in the males ( Figs. 1A–B ; 2A–B, E–F ). In all other aspects they are similar to each other.

Female. Unknown.

Larva. Unknown.

Distribution. China: Yunnan.

Bionomics. This species was found in the east slope of Nushan mountain range [怒 山山脉] (2,400 –2,800 m of the west side of Lancangjiang River). It inhabits the valleys of Ahualuohe and Lagaluohe, both of which are two close mountain streams, and are the tributaries of Lancangjiang River [澜沧江].

Etymology – The species epithet is a noun from Chinese Pinyin. “Taotie [饕餮]” is the name of a monster from Chinese mythology, which is a symbol of greed.

Figures

Fig. 1. Habitus of Lacon species, dorsal view: A = L. taotie sp. n., holotype, male; B = L. taotie sp. n., paratype, male; C = L. yejiei sp. n., holotype, male; D = L. yejiei sp. n., paratype, female; E = L. lijiangensis Prosvirov, 2016, holotype, female; F = L. diqingensis Prosvirov, 2016,

Fig. 2. Morphology of Lacon species: A–D = pronotum, dorsal view; E–H = antennae. A, E = L. taotie sp. n., holotype, male; B, F = L. taotie sp. n., paratype, male; C, G = L. yejiei sp. n.,

Fig. 3. Morphology of Lacon species, male: A–D. L. taotie sp. n., holotype; E–H. L. yejiei sp. n., holotype. A, E = Abdominal sternite IX, ventral view; B, F = abdominal tergites IX–X,