Tricholapita reidi, Gómez-Zurita & Platania & Cardoso, 2020

Gómez-Zurita, Jesús, Platania, Leonardo & Cardoso, Anabela, 2020, A new species of the genus Tricholapita nom. nov. and stat. nov. (Coleoptera Chrysomelidae, Eumolpinae) from New Caledonia, Zootaxa 4857 (1), pp. 85-94 : 89-92

Tricholapita reidi sp. nov.

Holotype ( Fig. 3 ): female, IBE-JGZ-3952, New Caledonia (S), 22º06.0’S 166º39.3’E, Rivière Bleue , Pont Germain to Kaori géant (left river side), 160–180 m, 22.i.2007, leg. M. Wanat , HOLOTYPE Tricholapita reidi Gómez-Zurita, Platania & Cardoso det. 2020 [red label] (NHMW).

Body elongate oval, length more than twice width, and moderately convex. Head, pronotum, scutellum and most of elytra dark brown with faint dark greenish and violaceous metallic reflections; hypomera, epimera, episterna, coxae, thoracic ventrites and antennomeres 5[apex]–8 dark brown; labrum, mouth appendages, antennomeres 1–5[base] and 9–11, legs, pygidium and apical abdominal ventrite pale orangish brown; apex of elytra brown. Length: 4.1 mm; width: 1.9 mm.

Head ( Fig. 4a ) deeply inserted into prothorax, hypognathous, with frons nearly flat; surface glossy, with dense double punctation, smaller near eyes, reduced anterolaterally on clypeus and absent internally to antennal insertions, and with disheveled long pale yellow setae, tending to outward orientation, except near and above eyes. Clypeus transverse, narrowly connected to frons basally, with similar texture, punctation and pubescence to frons, with setae converging medially. Labrum transverse, about twice as wide as long, with broadly round anterior angles and emarginate at deflexed anterior border; surface finely microreticulate, with two setigerous pores at sides of middle and three pores at each side near anterior angles. Eyes relatively small, separated by 2.5x their transverse diameter; slightly elongate dorso-ventrally, strongly convex, bulging dorsally and posteriorly, shallowly emarginate at inner border. Genae half as long as transverse diameter of eye, smooth, with appressed pale yellow setae, shorter and finer than on frons. Antennae long, slender, reaching basal 1/3 of elytra, with antennomeres 7–11 finely granulose, densely pubescent, and slightly flattened and incrassate; scape thickened, anteriorly convex and slightly bent posteriorly, rather smooth, with few scattered erect setae and sparse appressed short, finer setae; pedicel less than half as long as scape, slightly longer than wide, widest slightly before middle; third, fourth and sixth antennomeres slender, feebly clavate, narrower and nearly 1.5x longer than pedicel, with scattered recumbent setae; fifth antennomere similar in shape and pubescence to antennomeres 3–4 and 6, but clearly longer, about twice as long as pedicel; seventh antennomere about as long as scape, 2.2x longer than pedicel, slightly more dilated apically; antennomeres 8–10 about as long as fifth (eighth imperceptibly shorter); antennomere 11 slightly longer than scape, acute at apical 1/3.

Pronotum transverse, 1.4x wider between posterior angles than long at middle ( Fig. 4b ); anterior border nearly straight, slightly advanced over vertex, with fine margin; anterior angles obtuse, with large trichobothrium at angle; sides curved, explanate, widest at middle, with two median teeth, anterior one wider and blunt, posterior slightly more acute; posterior angles obtuse, raised and weakly protruding laterally, with large trichobothrium at angle; posterior border feebly convex, unmargined; integument smooth, shiny, with surface of pronotum rather uniformly and densely covered with punctures as big as punctures on frons, larger than interspaces, and recumbent golden setae, denser at sides, near base and as fringe of erect setae along anterior border. Hypomera with anterior border feebly convex and surface convex antero-posteriorly, smooth, shiny, with punctures as large as those on pronotum but sparser. Prosternum short, narrow in front of procoxae, with anterior border concave and slightly raised; prosternal process as wide at middle as transverse diameter of procoxae, progressively expanded posteriorly; surface of prosternum finely rugose and covered with fine, long golden setae. Scutellum about as wide as long, subtrapezoidal, finely punctured, with posteriorly recumbent dirty yellow setae. Mesanepisterna and mesepimera finely shagreened, impunctate, glabrous. Mesoventrite with process as wide as prosternal process, wider than long, with similar texture and pubescence.

Elytra ( Fig. 4c ) elongate, 1.5x longer than maximum combined width, with base slightly wider than basal width of pronotum, marked humeral angles and prominent humeri, covering border of elytra in dorsal view; sides feebly curved, widest in front of middle, gradually tapering towards slightly produced, round apex, slightly explanate and visible from above up to apical 1/5, covered by lateral costae; surface of elytra irregular, inflexed in periscutellar area and inner side of humeri, slightly swollen on disc, with two short, weak and slightly oblique costae at both sides of suture; posterior end of humeri followed externally by irregular row of tubercles parallel to margin, and internally by similar row of tubercles becoming strong smoothly sigmoid costa at basal 1/4 of elytron, parallel to margin of elytron at apical half, reaching apical declivity and concealing sides of elytra; lateral declivities at apical half flattened between disc and lateral costae; surface of elytra smooth, shiny with relatively dense micropunctation and large, fossette-like punctures, as large or larger than intervals in basal half, punctures slightly smaller in apical half; punctures confused except along suture, margin and apical declivity, with intervals feebly raised; basal half of elytra with scattered long erect brownish setae mainly in periscutellar area and outer posthumeral ridge; posterior half of elytra with recumbent, long golden setae mainly concentrated in edge between disc and flattened lateral declivity, lateral costae and space between costae and margin of elytron, and apical quarter of elytra, with stiff posteriorly oriented brownish setae at apex of elytra. Epipleura narrow, progressively narrowing toward sutural angle, weakly slanted ventrally and visible in lateral view for entire length; surface finely shagreened, unpunctured, glabrous.

Metanepisterna finely shagreened, with fine imperceptible punctures and short, appressed, very fine translucent setae. Metaventrite longer than prosternum at middle, moderately convex at sides and advanced to middle of mesocoxae at blunt anterior angles; posterior border between metacoxae slightly arched, nearly as wide as metacoxae, with small median notch; surface finely punctured, with posteriorly appressed fine pale yellow setae. Legs without noticeable modifications; femora slender, enlarged medially, rather smooth with fine punctures and relatively dense appressed fine pale yellowish pubescence; pro- and metatibiae about as long as corresponding femora, nearly straight, gradually enlarged toward apex and with marked cuspid-like lateral expansion apically, with external border flanked by weak edges; mesotibiae slightly shorter than mesofemora, comparatively more robust than other tibiae; all tibiae with rather dense semierect long pale yellow setae; all tarsi shorter than corresponding tibiae; tarsomeres 1–2 of similar length, triangular, first metatarsomere narrower than second metatarsomere at apex; third tarsomeres clearly shorter than second, bilobed; fifth tarsomere twice as long as third tarsomere, clavate, with appendiculate claws.

First abdominal ventrite longer than metaventrite, with broad subtrapezoidal intercoxal process, slightly arched at apex; posterior border feebly convex; surface finely microsculptured with sparse appressed pale yellowish setae along middle, at sides and near posterior border; second abdominal ventrite 1/3 as long as first ventrite at middle, and abdominal ventrites 3–4 progressively shorter, all ventrites with similar sculpture and vestiture, more densely pubescent at sides and apical half; last abdominal ventrite short, transverse, with wide shallow apical emargination, glabrous. Spermatheca ( Fig. 5 ) with feebly globose ramus, spermathecal duct preapical and oriented toward inner curvature of spermatheca, and spermathecal gland at opposite side; nodulus short, slightly longer than ramus, cylindrical, connected nearly at right angle with enlarged, feebly bent cornu, longer than nodulus, with round blunt apex.

Etymology. The species is dedicated to Chris A. M. Reid (Australian Museum, Sydney) for calling our attention to the homonymy affecting the subgenus Taophila (Lapita) , but also for many years of support and stimulating discussion with the lead author.

Diagnosis. Tricholapita reidi belongs to a group of species with sinuous lateral costae on elytra, pale basal antennomeres and legs relatively uniformly colored, perhaps slightly darkened at base of tibiae ( Platania et al. 2020). From T. riberai , a species with which it coexists in Rivière Bleue, it can be immediately distinguished by the basally interrupted lateral costae on elytra, which are continuous from humeri in the case of T. riberai . Most other species in this group have two pale apical antennomeres in antennae, while T. reidi has three, a trait shared with T. gaea . Tricholapita reidi and T. gaea , however, can be distinguished by a number of traits, including: (i) round apical curvature of elytra in T. gaea , but more pointed and angled in T. reidi , similar to the elytral shape of T. mars ; (ii) closely pubescent base of elytra in T. gaea , with abundant erect dark setae, compared with relatively glabrous basal half of elytra with few dark setae in T. reidi ; and (iii) tip of apical antennomere dark in T. gaea and concolorous with the rest of the antennomere in T. reidi . The spermathecae of all the species in this group are nonetheless very similar.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Female holotype of Tricholapita reidi sp. nov.

FIGURE 4. Details of head (a), pronotum (b) and lateral view of elytra (c) of Tricholapita reidi sp. nov.

FIGURE 5. Spermatheca of Tricholapita reidi sp. nov.