Paraclytra elegans Medvedev, 1993

Bezděk, Jan & Kantner, František, 2010, Revision of the genus Paraclytra (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cryptocephalinae: Clytrini), with description of P. cervenkai sp. nov. from Sultanate of Oman, Zootaxa 2353, pp. 1-33 : 8-9

Paraclytra elegans Medvedev, 1993

( Figs. 5 , 18 )

Paraclytra elegans Medvedev, 1993a: 6 (original description)

Type locality. „ Namibia, Luderitz region, Namuskluft 88 (27°S, 16°E)“.

Type material. Paratype 3 ( LMCM), labelled: “Namuskluft 88 / LUDERITZ / SE 2716 Dd / 12-15 Sept. 1973 [w, p] // H 14260 [w, p] // PARATYPUS [red label, p] // Paraclytra / elegans m. [h] / L. N. Medvedev det. 19 [p] 89 [w, h]“. According to the original description, two paratypes are deposited in Medvedev´s personal collection (Moscow, Russia) and holotype with 6 paratypes in State Museum of Namibia (Windhoek, Namibia).

Additional material studied. No additional material examined.

Description. Head black, labrum with brown anterior and lateral margins, vertex with a small indistinct brown spot behind each eye. Antennomeres 1 orange with a black dorsal side, antennomeres 2 and 3 orange, antennomeres 4 to 5 orange with a black serrated part, the rest of antennomeres black. Pronotum black, extreme anterior margin translucent, brownish. Scutellum black. Elytra orange, with a black spot behind humerus and a black irregular transverse band behind the middle of elytron (not touching lateral margins, broadened and connected in the suture). Extreme suture dark in the last quarter, elytral apex with a very small black spot. Trochanters, bases of femora, tibiae and tarsi orange, femora except bases black. Underside black.

Measurements (according to original description). Males: 5.60–7.60 mm; female: 7.50 mm (paratype examined: 7.25 mm).

Male ( Fig. 5 ). Labrum transverse, anterior margin shallowly incised. Head semiopaque, densely covered with small punctures and microsculpture and with long dense hairs. Frons broad, 1.65 times as wide as diameter of eye, with wide shallow subtriangular impression in the middle. Antennomere 1 clavate, anteriorly covered with long pale hairs, antennomere 2 small, anteriorly with several long hairs, antennomere 3 smaller than the second one, subtubular, antennae distinctly serrated from segment 4.

Prothorax transverse, 1.50 times as wide as long, widest in the middle, moderately convex, densely covered with small punctures and almost indistinct microsculpture, lustrous. Lateral margins moderately rounded, anterior margin nearly straight, posterior margin rounded, thickened in the scutellar area. Anterior angles rectangular with widely rounded tip, posterior ones rounded, obtuse, indistinct. All margins thinly bordered. Scutellum triangular with rounded apex, lustrous.

Elytra 1.60 times as long as wide at the humeral part, glabrous, lustrous, densely covered with very small fine confused punctures completely dissappearing in elytral apices.

Tarsi short and robust. First protarsomere triangularly elongate, as broad as long, 0.55 times as long as the two following tarsomeres combined.

Aedeagus as in Fig. 18 .

Female. Not examined.

Differential diagnosis. Due to coloration and very characteristic aedeagus, P. elegans cannot be confused with any other Paraclytra .

Distribution. Namibia. Known only from the type series (8 males, 1 female).

Comments. Because of hind prothoracic angles indistinctly angulate, more or less obtuse or rounded, Medvedev (1993a) considered P. elegans as transitional between Clytra and Paraclytra . However, the short robust aedeagus with characteristic alae supports its placement in the genus Paraclytra .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 6. Habitus of Paraclytra, males. 1 — P. cervenkai sp. nov. (paratype, Sultanate of Oman: Taqah, 7.85 mm); 2 — P. crocata (Saudi Arabia: Fifa, 7.70 mm); 3 — P. crocata (Saudi Arabia: Taif, 7.95 mm); 4 — P. crocata (Yemen: Hammam Ali, 7.05 mm); 5 — P. elegans (paratype, Namibia: Namuskluft, 7.25 mm); 6 — P. gambiensis (neotype, Senegal: Toubakouta-Ziguinchor, 7.85 mm).

FIGURES 16 – 19. Aedeagus of Paraclytra (a—dorsal view, b—lateral view, c—ventral view). 16 — P. cervenkai sp. nov.; 17 — P. c ro c a t a; 18 — P. elegans; 19 — P. gambiensis. Scale bar 1 mm.