Phoenicus sanguinipennis Lacordaire 1869: 174

Lingafelter, Steven W. & Nearns, Eugenio H., 2006, Rediscovery and Redescription of the Remarkable Phoenicus sanguinipennis Lacordaire (coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Trachyderini) from the Dominican Republic, The Coleopterists Bulletin 60 (3), pp. 199-206 : 201-204

Phoenicus sanguinipennis Lacordaire 1869: 174 .

Redescription. Medium to large cerambycid; length 12–18 mm (average, 15 mm); maximum width at base of elytra, 4.5–6.3 mm (average, 5.4 mm). Females on average slightly longer and broader than males. Color black throughout integument except for elytron. Elytron red with three longitudinal, yellow-orange costae and transversely black at extreme apex. Head ( Fig. 4b ) mostly glabrous, with only a few scattered erect translucent hairs, with coarse and irregularly sized and spaced punctures, more dense on occiput, vertex, between antennal tubercles, along middle of tubercles, and along fronto-clypeal margin. Antennal tubercle weakly elevated. Eye large, finely faceted, deeply emarginated around antennal insertion, lower lobe occupying most of lateral portion of head, upper lobe smaller, about 10 ommatidial facets thick. Antenna with scape coarsely punctate, remaining segments with dense short vestiture of pubescence and weak fringe of longer hairs ventrally. Antenna of male much longer than body, extending beyond elytral apex by four segments or more, antennomeres increasing slightly in length successively from fourth through seventh, eighth through tenth subequal, eleventh 1.3 times length of tenth, weakly flattened and curved. Antenna of female shorter, extending beyond elytral apex by two to three segments, antennomeres subequal after fourth, last antennomere not flattened or curved. Pronotum ( Fig. 4a ) quadrate, only slightly wider than long, length 3.8– 4.7 mm (average, 4.3 mm), width 4.0– 4.9 mm (average, 4.6 mm), mostly glabrous except for inconspicuous scattered hairs as seen from lateral view. Pronotal surface densely alveolate, punctures of slightly differing shape and size, not arranged in rows. Two anteromedial small, raised, impunctate calli present, and on each side, arising from just behind midpoint, a small, blunt lateral tubercle of variable size, but not extending to lateral elytral margins. Prosternum with small punctures in male and large, deep punctures in female. Prosternal process punctate, between one-third and one-half width of procoxa, with a small posteroventral tubercle and a vertical shelf to anterior border of mesosternum. Procoxal cavities open laterally. Elytron nearly glabrous (except for a few scattered hairs best seen from lateral view), densely alveolate, but less so than pronotum. Punctures separated by three dorsal and one epipleural costae that extend from base to near apex (sutural costa terminates before others). In some specimens, secondary costae branch off of apices of main costae. Elytron uniformly red except for apical margin which is black and costae which are more pale orange than remainder. The bottoms of elytral punctures appear dark brown or black. Apex of elytron truncate with variably produced denticle or spine apicolaterally. Scutellum triangular, black, glabrous. Legs: foreleg stout, of average length, profemur weakly clavate, femoral apices rounded; middle leg elongate, mesofemur not clavate, mesofemoral apices spinose mesally and laterad ( Fig. 4c ) (mesal spines twice length of laterad spines); hind leg more elongate, hind tibia extending at or beyond elytral apex, metafemur linear, not clavate, strongly spinose femoral apices ( Fig. 4c ) mesally and laterad (mesal spines slightly longer than laterad spines), metatibia with very dense brush of black hairs extending around tibia from basal one-fifth to apex ( Fig. 4c ). Venter of metathorax and abdomen mostly glabrous, shiny, impunctate. Inconspicuous hairs on metathorax and apical ventrite. Ventrite five of male obviously wider than long; ventrite five of female elongate, obviously longer than wide.

Diagnosis. This genus is monotypic and the only known species is very distinctive with its black and red color, alveolate punctation of the pronotum ( Fig. 4a ) and elytra, the pale elytral costae, the bispinose meso- and metafemoral apices ( Fig. 4c ), the brush of pubescence of the metatibiae ( Fig. 4c ), and elongate legs and antennae. No other species of Cerambycidae possess this combination of striking features. Superficially, Phoenicus sanguinipennis resembles Tragidion (particularly in the coloration, elytral costae, and metatibial brush (present in a few species of Tragidion , e.g., Tragidion cyanovestis Chemsak & Linsley ), but Tragidion species lack the meso- and metafemoral spines, have pronota with denser pubescence and finer non-alveolate punctation, and much shorter antennae in females. Rhodoleptus (in particular R. femoratus (Schaeffer)) is similar but the dense pubescence of the pronotum and elytron, the weaker femoral spines, less obvious costae, and absence of a metatibial brush of hairs easily distinguish it. The genus Polyschisis (in particular P. hirtipes (Olivier)) is similar in having elytral costae and pronounced metatibial pubescent brushes, but has very short antennae, not extending to apex of elytron, and lacks alveolate punctation and femoral spines. Purpuricenus has species of similar coloration, but they have reduced femoral spines, poorly developed costae, and weak or absent metatibial pubescent brushes.

Type Material. Although most Lacordaire material is deposited in the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle , Paris , France, Gérard Tavakilian (pers. comm.) indicated that this type is not present. It was determined that M. C. A. Dohrn material was deposited in the Stettin Museum (formerly Germany, now Poland) and transferred in the early 20th century to the collection at the Polish Academy of Sciences , Warsaw , Poland. Mieczyslaw Wolsan and Dominika Mierzwa of the Polish Academy sent two specimens of Phoenicus sanguinipennis , a male and female. Since Lacordaire based his description on only one specimen (male), this suggests that Dohrn had sent only one of the two to Lacordaire. Based on the original description, we conclude that the photographed specimen ( Fig. 3 ) is the holotype. This specimen did not have a holotype label, but we affixed one stating, ‘‘ Phoenicus sanguinipennis Lacordaire , Holotype [Male], det. Lingafelter & Nearns 2005.’’ Interestingly, Bates (1880) mentioned the existence of a male and female in his note on this species, so it is unclear why Lacordaire did not indicate a second specimen in his original description.

New Material. We collected 26 additional specimens of this species in 2005 and 1 specimen in 2006: Dominican Republic, La Altagracía Province, Punta Cana near Ecological Reserve , 0.5 meters, 18 ° 30.477 9 N, 68 ° 22.499 9 W, 29 June, 2005, S. W. Lingafelter, attracted to lights (1 male, USNM) ; same, but June 30 (1 male, USNM) ; same but N. E. Woodley (1 female, USNM) ; same but 1 July, E. H. Nearns, ex: dead Maclura tinctoria [not lights] (1 male, 1 female, ENPC; 1 male, 1 female, ENPC; 1 male, RTPC; 1 male, 1 female, FHPC; 1 male, 1 female, JWPC; 1 male, 1 female, FSCA) ; same but S. W. Lingafelter, 2–7 July, (2 males, 2 females, USNM; 1 male, MNRJ; 1 female, MZSP; 1 male, MNHN; 1 female, DHPC; 1 male, RMPC) ; same but N. E. Woodley (1 male, 1 female, USNM) ; same but 7 July (1 male, USNM) ; same but 2 July 2006, at lights (1 female, USNM) .

Figures

Fig. 4. Characters of Phoenicus sanguinipennis: a) pronotum detail; b) punctation of head; c) metatibial brush and femoral spines.

Fig. 3. Holotype of Phoenicus sanguinipennis (Polish Academy of Sciences Collection, Warsaw, Poland).