Luciola lata Olivier 1883

Ho, - Z., 2019, The Luciolinae of S. E. Asia and the Australopacific region: a revisionary checklist (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) including description of three new genera and 13 new species, Zootaxa 4687 (1), pp. 1-174 : 158-160

Luciola lata Olivier 1883

Figs 484−494

Luciola lata Olivier 1883: 79 .

Nec Luciola pallescens Gorham 1880: 102 . Olivier 1890: xxx (synonymy). McDermott 1966: 111. Stat. rev.

Type. BORNEO (no indication of specific area). Not located.

Specimens examined. MALAYSIA. Sabah Danum Valley 4.28N 117.47E June 1999 H. Mendel, male ( Figs 484−494 ) ( NHML). Sarawak 4 th division Gn. Mulu NP. V–viii.1978 PM Hammond, JE Marshall female ( NHML). Sarawak Quop, iii.1914, GE Bryant 2 females ( NHML). Sarawak Nov. 1895 female, handwritten label C. miranda ♀ ( MNHN). BRUNEI. Female labelled 1. Handwritten ‘ Colophotia miranda E. Ol. ♀ ’; 2. Handwritten ‘ Atyphella n. sp.’; 3. Handwritten ‘ Brunei N Borneo’ ( MNHN).

Male. For reasons outlined below it was considered appropriate to describe the single male listed above. 14.0 mm long. Colour: Pronotum and MN yellowish, semitransparent, with white patches of fat body irregularly scattered beneath cuticle; MS and elytra very pale brown, thin lateral margin of elytra paler; head antennae and palpi very dark brown; venter of thorax mid brown; legs yellowish with dark brown tibiae and tarsi; dorsal and ventral aspects of abdomen yellowish, except for white LO in V6, 7; cuticle semitransparent and underlying fat body is visible especially beneath tergites 7, 8. Pronotum: width subequal to humeral width; dorsal surface very convex, only depressed areas are across posterior margin. Elytra slightly convex sided; inner two interstitial lines visible. Head: GHW 5 X SIW; ASD ASW; apical labial palpomere laterally flattened with inner margin dentate. Antennae slightly longer than GHW, segments simple elongate. Abdomen: LO material retracted from posterior margin of V7; MPP well defined, about as long as wide and apically rounded. Aedeagal sheath: asymmetrical in posterior half only as sheath sternite is emarginated on both sides; short even edged emargination on left side of sternite posterior to tergite articulation; longer, deeper and wider emargination on right side, having a pointed projection at base near tergite articulation; anterior margin broadly rounded; anterior margin of sheath tergite evenly emarginated; posterior margin squarely truncate. Aedeagus: LL visible at sides of ML, broader at apices than apex of ML, separated along their mid dorsal length and with anterior margin produced and rounded; basal piece narrow; ML expanding a little along its length, then narrowed near apex; ML moderately strongly arched with apex inclined slightly ventrally and rounded.

Remarks. It is appropriate to address these few specimens separately. This single male may represent Luciola lata . It may also be a new genus (the outline of the aedeagal ML is suggestive of Luciola s. str. but the aedeagal sheath is unlike that genus). The females are associated by similarity of size, colour pattern and nature of the pronotum only. In MNHN they stand under the label of Colophotia miranda . However doubts about the definitive identification of both males and females suggest further investigation is necessary.

Whether this male represents Luciola lata is difficult to determine. Olivier (1883) described the species as 12 mm long, with an oblong shape with convex sided elytra which are wider at their base than the pronotum, and dorsally pale brown. However Olivier also indicated a median carina on the last abdominal ventrite (‘Dernier segment de l’abdomen ….charge sur son milieus d’une forte carène longitudinale obtuse’). This V7 median carina would indicate the species was most probably a Colophotia . The species was synonymised with L. pallescens Gorham by Olivier (1890), who indicated that he had seen Gorham’s type. However the apparent anomaly of a median carina on V7 cannot be explained (specimens of pallescens described here do not have a median carina on V7), and the synonymy of lata with pallescens is rejected.

Chey (2008 fig. 3) illustrated as Luciola sp. 4 a large (14 mm long) male with pale dorsal colouration, entire LO in V7 and no median carina. This presently unidentified specimen approaches L. lata in size and colour only and may be conspecific with the single male we address here. Chey saw several males which he indicated were solitary fliers.

The females are very likely conspecific with the single male. They also possess the somewhat convex dorsal surface of the pronotum, and the posterior margin of V7 is scarcely emarginated, unlike that of Abs. pallescens comb. nov. (which is strongly emarginated). We record here 22 females of Abs. pallescens from Quop of which six have yellowish pronotum; none have the convex dorsal surface we describe here.

The confusion surrounding the identity of Colophotia miranda is addressed under that species and some of that discussion is relevant here. Olivier’s identification of specimens he assigned to C. miranda is confusing and contradictory. In 1886 he described a large male from the Philippines (Bohol) as totally yellow dorsally and with a single recurved appendage of the terminal abdomen. Subsequently (1913b) he indicated the occurrence of the species from Borneo, but this time the abdomen having “two long elevated appendicles curved upwards”. It is possible the first specimen may have been a species of Pygoluciola , or even a female, while the second specimen could have been a Colophotia sp.

The issue is further confused as several Luciolinae have large females which approach Olivier’s (1886) description of C. miranda . Abscondita anceyi is a large pale specimen but with black elytral apices. Abscondita pallescens comb. nov. female is entirely pale brownish yellow dorsally except for variously sized darker brown marks on the pronotum. Luciola candezei and L. ochracea are both pale coloured dorsally but with distinctive black abdomens and are probably the same species. Luciola concreta Olivier from Java is a little smaller at 10 mms. See further discussion under Abscondita pallescens (Gorham) comb. nov.

This male possesses several unique morphological features that could suggest a new genus is necessary: the convex pronotal outline, the emarginations of the posterior area of the aedeagal sheath sternite where there is a pointed projection. Further investigation when more specimens become available will be necessary.

Figures

FIGURES 484−494. Possible Luciola lata male. 484 habitus dorsal; 485 habitus ventral; 486 lateral head pronotum and anterior part of elytron; 487 dorsal pronotum; 488 abdomen dorsal; 489−491 aedeagus: 489 dorsal; 490 ventral; 491 right lateral; 492−494 aedeagal sheath: 492 dorsal; 493 ventral; 494 left lateral. Scale line is 1 mm.