Uloma jourdani L. Soldati

Soldati, Laurent, Kergoat, Gael J., Clamens, Anne-Laure, Jourdan, Herve, Jabbour-Zahab, Roula & Condamine, Fabien L., 2014, Integrative taxonomy of New Caledonian beetles: species delimitation and definition of the Uloma isoceroides species group (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae, Ulomini), with the description of four new species, ZooKeys 415, pp. 133-167 : 146-149

Uloma jourdani L. Soldati sp. n. Figs 3 I–J, 7A, B, C, D, E

Type specimens.

Holotype male, pinned, with genitalia glued on the same glue board as the specimen itself. Original label: “Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Dawenia, 13.XI.2010, Jourdan & Mille rec. / 20°32.268'S, 164°40.903'E, ca 640 m NC130-2 a’” / Uloma jourdani m. n. sp. L. Soldati det. 2013, HOLOTYPE ♂ (red printed label) (MNHN); Allotype female, pinned. Original label: “Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Dawenia, 14.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille / 20°32.290'S, 164°40.967'E, ca 620 m NC139-2 a’” / Uloma jourdani m. n. sp. L. Soldati det. 2013, ALLOTYPE ♀ (red printed label) (MNHN); Paratypes: one male (MNHN) and one female (CBGP): “Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Dawenia, 13.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille / 20°32.268'S, 164°40.903'E, ca 630 m; Paratypes: two males (CBGP): “Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Dawenia, 13.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille / 20°32.268'S, 164°40.903'E, ca 640 m"; Paratypes: one male (CS): “Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Dawenia, 12.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille / 20°32.265'S, 164°40.843'E ca 620 m"; Paratypes: one male and one female (CS): “Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Dawenia, 14.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille / 20°32.262'S, 164°41.092'E ca 620 m"; Paratype: one female (CS): “Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Dawenia, 14.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille / 20°32.290'S, 164°40.967'E ca 620 m".

Other material.

one male, Nouvelle-Calédonie, Massif du Panié, Wewec, forêt sur pente, 20°35.63'S, 164°43.66'E ca 420 m, 8.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille rec.; one female, Massif du Panié, La Guen, 20°37.48'S, 164°46.83'E ca 580 m, 23.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille rec.; one female, Massif du Panié, La Guen, 20°37.50'S, 164°46.83'E ca 590 m, 19.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille rec.; two males and one female, Massif du Panié, La Guen, 20°37.50'S, 164°46.83'E ca 590 m, 18-25.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille rec.; one male, Massif du Panié, La Guen, 20°37.50'S, 164°46.92'E ca 570 m, 18.XI.2010, H. Jourdan & C. Mille rec.

Diagnosis.

The completely glabrous and flat mentum of Uloma jourdani males is also found in Uloma caledonica , Uloma isoceroides and Uloma kergoati . Uloma jourdani can be distinguished from Uloma caledonica by its shorter metaventrite (the part between meso- and metacoxae hardly longer than half of the length of a mesocoxa), by the reduced humeri and also by different male aedeagus. It differs from Uloma isoceroides and Uloma kergoati by the shape of the terminal ventrite (anal sternite), by the presence of a dull shagreened patch on the upper face of male antennomeres 5-7 and also by differences in male aedeagus.

Description.

Length 8.0-9.0 mm; width 4.0-4.2 mm. Shining, pitchy dark brown, elytra often brighter, dark red-brown. Antennae, mouthparts, legs and elytra reddish-brown.

Head (Fig. 7E).

Male: Transverse, genae straight just in front of the eyes, then continuous in curved line with the clypeus. Frontoclypeal suture shallowly impressed. Frons and clypeus fused in a shagreened and dull surface covered with extremely fine, sparse and barely visible punc tures. Vertex convex, shining and separated from the frons by a deep transverse impression that extends behind the eyes. Tempora and vertex (more sparsely) coarsely punctured.

Female: contrary to the male, the frontoclypeal area is finely and densely punctate over a shining background. The frontoclypeal junction is slightly convex and there are two feebly impressed oblique lateral lines at the place of the clypeogenal suture. In between, the transversal line of the suture is barely visible.

Antennae (Fig. 7E) gradually becoming transverse and expanded from antennomere 5. Antennomeres 5-9 flattened with the apical edges more or less protruding in the middle, especially the 7th. In the males, antennomeres 5-7 are dull and shagreened on their upper face only.

Mentum (Fig. 7C) transverse, cordate, flat, with two oblique lateral grooves arranged symmetrically in relation to midline; disc flat, covered with a dense, extremely fine and horizontally confluent punctation. In the female, the mentum is similar to the male’s one, but the punctation is less dense and distinct.

Pronotum: about 1.3 times wider than long. Sides narrow in light curve from rear to front, widest just in front of the base. Rim on the anterior margin obliterates completely in the middle; base unrimmed, with exception of two very short folds located at the level of the two concave curves of external margin. Anterior angles 90°but smooth at the top and slightly protruding forward, posterior ones obtuse. Lateral rims becoming progressively thinner from the base toward the anterior angles. Whole upper surface of the pronotum finely punctate, sparser on the disc but denser on the sides.

Male: antero-median depression of pronotum well impressed, quite broad, not reaching half of pronotal length, its posterior edge arcuate and delimited by four very faint elevations. The lateral bumps anterolaterally bordering the depression’s sides forward are low.

Female: pronotum regularly convex, without antero-median depression and overall finely punctate, but denser on the sides.

Prosternal process in lateral view in steep slope beneath procoxae.

Elytra convex, slightly oval, sides not subparallel. Humeral angles of lateral margin feebly protruding and generally covered by the posterior angles of pronotum. Lateral margin invisible in dorsal view, except at the level of the humeral angles and at the rear of elytra. Each elytron bears nine grooved striae of punctures and a faint scutellary striole. Strial punctures are slightly wider than grooves. Elytral intervals flat on disc and becoming very slightly convex laterally - but not at the apex - covered with fine and superficial punctuation.

Metaventrite short, between meso- and metacoxae, about half the length of a mesocoxa.

Anterior tibiae (Fig. 7D) with only a faint trace of carina on their upper surface and strongly notched at base of at least one-fourth of the length of the inner side.

Aedeagus: on tergal face (Fig. 3I), the basal two-third of the parameres are bottleneck-shaped, then slightly enlarged and securiform at the apex. In lateral view (Fig. 3J), parameres are bisinuate and narrowed toward apex.

Etymology.

This new species is named after our friend Dr. H. Jourdan (IRD Nouméa) great connoisseur of New Caledonia. He is also a member of the "All Blaps" team.

Distribution.

At present, Uloma jourdani is only known from the surroundings of Dawenia, in a valley situated at the foot of the western slopes of Mount Colnett in New Caledonia.

Discussion.

As underlined by the results of the PTP molecular species delimitation analyses, there is potentially some level of cryptic diversity for this species. One putative species correspond to the material collected in Dawenia (in the Panié mountain range), whereas the other putative species correspond to material collected in La Guen and Wewec (in the Panié mountain range). Both groups are apparently morphologically indistinguishable, but we cannot exclude the possibility that future studies may find some morphological differences between the two. To avoid complicating possible future taxonomic revisions, we chose to only select specimens from one of the two putative groups (i.e. the specimens collected in Dawenia) as reference for all the type material.