Amphicoma gandhara Nikodým and Sabatinelli, 2019

Nikodým, Milan & Sabatinelli, Guido, 2019, Amphicoma gandhara, a new species of Glaphyridae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) from Swat District in northern Pakistan, Insecta Mundi 693, pp. 1-5 : 2-3

Amphicoma gandhara Nikodým and Sabatinelli n. sp.

Fig. 1–6

Type series. Holotypus Ƌ, Paratypus Ƌ#1 and Paratypus Ƌ#2, labeled as follow: white label, printed, “ex H.-P. Tauzin / collection” // white label, printed “ PAKISTAN - Khyber / Pakhtunkhwa Prov., Swat / District, July 2008, Arihta leg.” // red label printed: “ HOLOTYPUS Ƌ / Amphicoma gandhara n. sp. / M. Nikodým and G. Sabatinelli, 2019” // (deposited in Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Geneva, Switzerland). // “ PARATYPUS Ƌ#1” // with other data as the holotype in G.Sabatinelli collection, Prévessin, France. // “ PARATYPUS Ƌ#2” with other data as the holotype in M. Nikodým collection, Roztoky, Czech Republic.

Diagnosis. Amphicoma gandhara belongs to the “ A. dubia group-species” ( Nikodým 2005) based on the following characters: mesotibia with apical spur, antennal club more than 1.5 times longer than stalk and markedly out curved. The most similar species is Amphicoma schneideri Nikodým, 2005 , having similar body length 14 mm, antennomeres 5–7 disc-shaped, elytra uniformly coppery green and terminal maxillary palpomere quite long. In A. gandhara , the elytra are rather dull with sutural angles right but with blunt angle while in A. schneideri elytra are shiny with sutural angles broadly rounded.

Description of the holotype (adult male). Body elongate, length (from clypeal anterior margin to apex of elytra) 13 mm, width across elytral humeri 5 mm ( Fig. 1 ).

Color. Head from above dark green with irregular golden luster, pronotum black green with weak golden luster. Scutellum and elytra even darker, luster is irregular from golden green to dark purple. Pygidium yellowish brown without reflection. Antennae brown, legs black-brown, tarsi lighter brown.

Vestiture. Dorsal setation yellow-brown, erect on clypeus and scutellum. Head setation longer, light brown and oblique toward apex. Elytra setation as long as on pronotum, irregularly inclined or erect and with solitary long brown setae in posterior quarter. Ventral setation yellow, legs setation light yellowish brown.

Head. Anterior margin of labrum slightly emarginate medially. Clypeus 1.1 × wider than long, lateral margins slightly rounded, anterior angles rounded, clypeofrontal suture fine but clearly distinct. Head strongly and densely punctuate. Clypeal punctation clearly weaker and not closely spaced. Antenna consisting of 10 antennomeres; 5, 6 and 7 disc-shaped; antennal club markedly out-curved, more than 2 × longer than wide. Terminal maxillary palpomere long, slightly widened in the middle, truncate at the end, without impression and with several punctures in apical quarter.

Pronotum. Width 1.1 × length, widest medially, narrowing anteriorly. Anterior angles produced and 90°, posterior angles obtuse. Basal margin markedly emarginate medially. Punctation dense and coarse, distance between punctures. With median longitudinal depression.

Scutellum. Triangular, elongate with slightly rounded apex, punctation similar to pronotum.

Elytra. Punctation finer than that of pronotum, slightly irregularly wrinkled. Posterolateral angles broadly rounded, sutural angles 90° but with blunt angles. Sutural margin distinctly raised apically from second third of elytra.

Legs. Protibia tridentate, mesotibia with apical spur shorter, less than half of mesotarsomere length. Basal metatarsomere 1.6 × longer than second metatarsomere.

Aedeagus. Parameres asymmetrical with the right paramere larger than the left one ( Fig. 4–6 ).

Relevant variability. The three specimens known so far show a remarkable difference in the integument color. Paratypus Ƌ#1 ( Fig. 2 ) has the dorsal surface black violet and irregular golden luster. Paratypus Ƌ#2 ( Fig. 3 ) has the dorsal surface black green and irregular golden luster. In Paratypus Ƌ#1 the antennal club is markedly deformed, segments are narrowed and distorted apically. This feature is also known in other species of the genus Amphicoma .

Type locality. Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Swat District .

Female. Unknown.

Etymology. The specimens were collected in Swat, a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Swat is renowned for its outstanding natural beauty and this region was also a major center of early Buddhist thought as part of the Gandhara kingdom. The new species is named after this ancient Indo-Aryan kingdom. Noun in apposition.

Remarks. The genus Amphicoma is known from Europe ( Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Greece and Albania) and Asia ( China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan and Ryukyu Islands). The new location from northern Pakistan is disjoint from all known localities for the genus Amphicoma . This indicates a potential for more species to be found in the Himalayan region: Glaphyridae can be expected from the eastern part of India (Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram regions) or Cambodia.

For comparisons with the most similar species, we studied 47 specimens of A. schneideri from China: Sichuan, Guan Xian and Songpan and Shaanxi, Luoyang. The two species can be easily distinguished by several characters as indicated in Table 1 .

Figures

Figures 1–9. Amphicoma spp. 1-3) Amphicoma gandhara, new species, dorsal habitus. 1) Holotypus Ƌ. 2) Paratypus Ƌ#1. 3) Paratypus Ƌ#2. 4-6). Amphicoma gandhara, new species, parameres. 4) Right view. 5) Dorsal. 6) Left. 7-9) Amphicoma schneideri Nikodým, parameres. 7) Right view. 8) Dorsal. 9) Left.