Apalochrus turkestanicus ( Pic, 1907 )

Tshernyshev, Sergei E., 2015, A review of species of the genus Apalochrus Erichson (Coleoptera, Malachiidae), Zootaxa 3941 (3), pp. 358-374 : 373

Apalochrus turkestanicus ( Pic, 1907)

( Fig. 5 , 19 (square))

Apalochrus turkestanicus Pic, 1907: 99 , type locality: “Turkestan oriental: Bagratsch-Kull”— China, Sinkiang-Uighur. Paratinus turkestanicus: Evers 1987: 13 , 59, 61.

Apalochrus turkestanicus Pic : Mayor 2003: 90; 2007: 416.

Description. Female. Head black without metallic lustre; clypeus, mandibles, genae, labrum, mouthparts including palpi, 1st–6th antennomeres, legs (except the dark brown apical third of intermediate and posterior femora), trochanters, anterior coxa, pronotum (except a W-shaped black spot in middle), elytron (except a basal and an apical black spots) yellow. Elytra and pronotum lacking metallic lustre. Scutellum light-yellow. Ventral side of thorax and abdomen brown, prosternum, wide margins of all sternites, thoracic mesepimera and vesicles yellow.

Head slightly narrower than the pronotum, impressed just before clypeus, with two thin longitudinal carinae, respectively in the middle of impression and in the middle of frons; sparsely covered with thin, short, semi-erect, brown pubescence and with a row of long, erect bristles on temple behind eyes; surface coarsely punctate, appearing wrinkled, microsculpture indistinct, moderately bright; labrum not short, transverse, bearing semi-erect white setae; genae short, straight; eyes protruding, round. Maxillary palpi short, 1st segment triangular, twice as short and as narrow than 3rd and 1.5 time longer and wider than 2nd, this one transverse; apical segment securiform, apically truncate; surface bright with white, short, semi-erect pubescence and several long setae. Antennae not long, reaching the elytral base; 2nd segment very small, rounded, almost completely hidden below the scape, 1st and 3nd segments cylindrical, not swollen, 1st 1.2 times wider and longer than 3rd, 4th–10th approximately rectangular, 6th–10th of gradually reduced size: each one slightly shorter and narrower than the previous, feebly sinuate at base, apical segment almost completely oval with sinuate and rounded tip. All segments sparsely covered with thin, pale, erect setae.

Pronotum transverse, slightly sinuate at base, anterior margin feebly convex, posterior straight, all angles rounded, anterior angles almost right, disc of the pronotum depressed at basal fifth; surface smooth, bright, sparsely punctate in the middle and densely both on sides and near hind angles, microsculpture indistinct; covered with double pubescence: uniform pale, short and semi-erect with two sets of sparse, long, black, erect setae near anterior angles.

Scutellum transverse-rectangular, small, almost completely hidden by pronotum, with straight distal side; surface dull, densely punctate, covered with thin, pale depressed pubescence.

Elytra parallel, narrow, only slightly widened posteriorly; shoulders distinct; apices evenly rounded, simple, lacking impressions or appendages; surface dull, densely punctured, shagreened, evenly covered with pale, thin, short, depressed, and erect pubescence.

Legs not long, thin, posterior femora reaching the apical fifth of elytra, covered with light, short, depressed pubescence and long, brown, erect and sparse setae. Tibiae thin, very slightly expanded anteriorly, rounded. All tarsi narrow; claw segment dorsally depressed, larger than the previous ones, as long as 3rd and 4th taken together and somewhat longer than of 1st and 2nd. Claws narrow, sharp, almost completely straight, with a small basal tooth.

Length (female) 5.7 mm, width (at elytral base) 1.7 mm.

Material. China: NE of Gansu Province: Dingxin, 40°26N, 99°47’E, valley of Erdzin-Gol River between Naryn and Tsagan-Buryuk Holes, border of east part of Beishan Mountain and Gobi desert, 5.V.1886, G.N. Potanin leg.—1 ♀ ( ZIN).

Distribution. China: Inner Mongolia,?Turkestan.

Notes. In his original description ( Pic, 1907) reported the type locality as“Turkestan oriental: Bagratsch-Kull (Coll. Hauser)”. Later, this locality was clarified by Wewalka (1992: 54) as: “ China, Sinkiang-Uighur, Bagratsch- Kul or Po-ssu-teng Hu”, a lake in the Xinjian province and now called “Bosten Hu” (co-ordinates 42°N 87°E) ( Fery, Petrov, 2005). The record for Turkestan is probably incorrect.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 10. Habiti of Apalochrus Er. species. A. femoralis femoralis (Erichson, 1840), male, dorsal (1), ventral (2); A. femoralis pallipes Motschulsky, 1860 stat. nov., male, dorsal (3), ventral (4); A. turkestanicus (Pic, 1907), female (5); A. flavicollis (Schaufuss, 1870), male (6); A. notatithorax (Pic, 1936), male (7); A. fulvicollis (Gebler, 1845), male (8); A. notatus (Zoubkoff, 1833), male (9, 10); A. notatus (pronotal colour as in morpha mongolicus), male (10). Scale bar 1.0 mm.

FIGURES 11 – 19. Apalochrus femoralis femoralis (Erichson, 1840), male, (11 – 14, 19 (triangle )), A. femoralis pallipes Motschulsky, 1860 stat. nov., male (15 – 18, 19 (circle )) and A. turkestanicus (Pic, 1907) (19 (square )); apical tergite (11, 15); apical sternite (12, 15); median lobe, lateral (13, 17); tegmen (14, 18); distribution map (19). Scale bar 1.0 mm.