Bilobatus luridipennis ( Waterhouse, 1878 )

Allsopp, Peter G., 2021, The Australian endemic genera Mesystoechus Waterhouse, 1878, Amblochilus Blanchard, 1851, and Bilobatus Machatschke, 1970 revisited (Coleoptera Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Anoplognathini), Zootaxa 4965 (2), pp. 363-374 : 371-373

Bilobatus luridipennis ( Waterhouse, 1878)

Homotropus luridipennis Waterhouse, 1878: 227 .

Homotropus luridipenni: Ohaus 1901: 133 (in error).

Bilobatus luridipennis: Machatschke 1970: 157 .

Type series. Lectotype male (here designated): Type [printed, red-ringed, circular] | mouthparts dissected | N. Holl. 48 144 [printed] | Homotropus luridipennis (Type) C. Waterh. [handwritten] | Bilobatus luridipennis Det. A.B.T. Smith 2001 | LECTOTYPE ♂ Homotropus luridipennis Waterhouse des. P. Allsopp 2017 [printed] [ NHML].

Paralectotype: 1♂, N. Holl. 48 144 [printed] | PARALECTOTYPE ♂ Homotropus luridipennis Waterhouse des. P. Allsopp 2017 [printed] [ NHML] .

Other material examined. AUSTRALIA. VICTORIA. 2♂, Barmah Lake, 9 km N Barmah, 10.xii.2008, K.R. Pullen, in low flight over leaf litter, afternoon sunny, Eucalyptus camaldulensis forest [ ANIC]; 1 ♂, East Kew, 9.xii.1967, A.A. Calder [ MV]; 1 ♂, Goulburn River , Tallarook, 3.i.1977, on water [ MV]; 1 ♂, Kerrisdale, xii.[19]27, J.C.G[ouldie] [ MV]; 1♂, Koondrook, xii.1925, S.R. Goudie [ ANIC, compared with type by G.J. Arrow]; 3♂, Koondrook, xii. 1925, J.C. Gouldie [ MV]; 1♂, Foley Rd, 4 km SE Yanakie, 30.xii.1984, I. Faithfull, 1.50 pm flying back and forth over grassland near dam, female in grass, copulated [ MV]; 1♀, same date/locality, ESST 1.50 pm in grass near dam, Male flying low o’head [overhead], copulated [ MV]; 1♂, Victoria, collector illegible, ex C. French collection [ MV] . NEW SOUTH WALES: 1♂, N of Murray River, Corowa , 21-23.xii.1936, K.E.W. Salter [ ANIC]. LOCALITY PRESUMABLY VICTORIA: 1♂, 29.11.36 [ MV]; 1♂, 6.12.36 [ MV]. NO DATA: 2♂ [ MV, UQIC] .

Diagnosis ( Figs. 16–17 ). Body 10–14 mm long; clypeus reddish brown; frons, pronotum, and scutellum almost black with a slight green tinge; elytra brownish yellow with intervals deeply darkened to black and contrasting with lighter-coloured striae; coxae and abdomen yellowish brown; occasional specimens with entire head yellowish brown except for pair of darkened lateral frontal areas, pygidium black and remainder of abdomen dark reddish brown. Upper surface of clypeus shallowly depressed, lateral and anterior edges almost evenly rounded. Protarsus with tarsomeres 1–4 together as long as tarsomere 5. Description by Carne (1958: 214; right protibia of male Fig. 115); Weir et al. (2019: dorsum Plate 57B).

Remarks. The sex of the type was not stated explicitly in the original description, Ohaus (1901, 1904), Carne (1958), or Cassis & Weir (1992); Ohaus and Carne did not state whether they had examined the type, but both saw only males of this species. Cassis &Weir (1992) refer to a “ holotype (probable)” in NHML but provided no label data to identify the specimen or why they gave it that status and did not explicitly indicated that a particular specimen was selected from the type series to serve as the name-bearing type ( International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature 1999, Article 74.5). Waterhouse (1878) did not state how many specimens he saw, and he gave no range in the length measurement, so the composition of the type series is unknown. There are two specimens in NHML with the accession data “N. Holl. 48 144”; the one with the label “Type”, dissected mouthparts and a Waterhouse label I designate as the lectotype to stabilise its identity and have labelled it as such. The other is therefore a paralectotype.

Distribution ( Fig. 23 ). Widely distributed over central Victoria to the Murray Valley in the north and Yanakie in the south.

Natural history. The male collected near Yanakie was flying low over grass early in the afternoon and subsequently mated with a female in the grass. This is a similar behaviour to that of M. ciliatus

Figures

FIGURES 16–23. Bilobatus species. 16–17, Bilobatus luridipennis (Waterhouse, 1878), male: 16, dorsal view; 17, lateral view; 18–22, Bilobatus testaceipennis (Ohaus, 1901), male lectotype: 18, dorsal view; 19, lateral view; 20, labels; 21, parameres, frontal view; 22, aedeagus, lateral view; 23, known distribution of Bilobatus in Victoria and southern New South Wales: yellow squares—B. luridipennis; blue triangles—B. testaceipennis. Figs. 16–17 photographed by Greg Daniels. Figs. 18–22 photographed by Museum für Naturkunde.