Platypria yunnana Gressitt, 1939

Sekerka, Lukáš, Jia, Fenglong, Pang, Hong & Borowiec, Lech, 2016, Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) types deposited at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, Zootaxa 4084 (1), pp. 50-78 : 71

Platypria yunnana Gressitt, 1939

( Fig. 31 )

Platypria yunnana Gressitt, 1939a: 183 .

Type locality. China, Yunnan Prov., Mengzi Co., 20 mi S of Mengzi, Black Dragon [the locality is unknown to us].

Original type series. Holotype ( LMNH), two paratypes from the type locality ( LMNH, coll. Gressitt) and one from Yunnanfu ( USNM).

Type material examined. Holotype, pinned: ‘ Yunnan, South China | Dragon Noir (20 mi. | south of Mengtsz), | alt. 5000 feet. | August 19, 1934. | Ernst R. Tinkham [w, p, cb] || HOLOTYPE | PLATYPRIA [hw] | YUNNANA [hw] | J.L.Gressitt [r, p + hw by Gressitt, cb] || 39 [w, t, cb] || PLATYPRIA | YUNNANA | GRESSITT [w, hw by Gressitt, cb] || [vernacular name in Chinese, hw] | Platypria yunnana [hw] | Gressitt [hw] | det. Li-Zhong Hua [in Chinese, p] 1982 [hw] [w, p, cb] || En-289766 | [Data Matrix barcode] SYS [w. p, cb]’.

Current status. Valid species.

Remarks. Gressitt (1939a) mentioned that one paratype was deposited in LMNH, however, we were unable to find such specimen.

The species was synonymized along with other species of this group with P. hystrix (Fabricius, 1798) by Würmli (1978). Chen et al. (1986) considered all species described from China after 1938 valid and this classification was followed in recent catalogue ( Borowiec & Sekerka 2010). However, the validity of individual taxa is questionable. Gressitt (1939a) differentiated P. yunnana by sparsely pubescent elytra with rather short hairs while typical P. hystrix has densely pubescent elytra with long hairs. This character seems to be constant examining larger series of both taxa and thus we leave P. yunnana as valid species. On the other hand it has identical position of elytral spines which are on average only slightly shorter than in P. hystrix thus still P. yunnana might prove to be only northern population of widespread P. hystrix .

Chen et al. (1986) separated P. yunnana from P. hystrix by number of spines on posterior explanate lateral plate of the elytra being four in the first species and three in the other. The holotype of P. yunnana has four spines on the posterior plate, however, we have examined additional specimens agreeing otherwise with the holotype which had only three. Similarly specimens of P. hystrix have usually three spines on the posterior plate but sometimes four. Therefore this character is not useful for separating these two taxa.

Figures

FIGURES 26 – 31. 26. Dactylispa planispina Gressitt, 1950 (holotype, 7.1 mm); 27. D. setifera zeae Chen & Tʼan unpublished manuscript name (5.7 mm); 28. D. uhmanni Gressitt, 1950 (holotype, 4.0 mm); 29. Hispellinus chinensis Gressitt, 1950 (holotype, 4.5 mm); 30. Monohispa tuberculata (Gressitt, 1950) (holotype, 6.5 mm); 31. Platypria yunnana Gressitt, 1939 (holotype, 6.2 mm).