Lebia (Nematopeza) melanura
Creators: name: Rasool, Iftekhar
name: Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S.
name: Felix, Ron F. F. L.
name: Aldhafer, Hathal M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Lebia
Lebia melanura

description: Lebia (Nematopeza) melanura (Dejean, 1831)
Nematopeza melanura Dejean, 1831: 370
Type locality: Senegal
Type depository: Syntype male in MNHN
Material examined: Total 9 specimens: Asir: 3 ♂ and 5 ♀, KSA, “ Al Hubail, Wadi Reem, N18°06.981' E42°13.939' Alt. 451 m, 20.X.2014, (LT), I. Rasool & M. Al Harbi ” [KSMA]. 1 ♂, “ Al Hubail, Wadi Reem, N18°06.981' E42°13.939' Alt. 451 m, 20.X.2014, (LT), I. Rasool & M. Al Harbi” [RMNH].
Recognition. Small sized beetles (Fig. 20), TBL 4.65–6.25 mm. Colour: Head black, pronotum, femora, tibiae and antennomeres I–III testaceous; rest of the antennae, mouth parts and tarsi dark brown; elytra testaceous with a trilobed black patch at posterior third, widened at apex to the margin of elytra, median lobe extending along suture to middle, occupying two inner intervals, lateral lobes prolonged up to apical third, occupying all intervals and left lateral margin. Microsculpture: Elytra, head, clypeus and labrum with isodiametric mesh pattern; pronotum smooth; abdomen with transverse microlines. Head: Slightly wider than long, HL 0.92–1.28 mm and HW 0.99– 1.35 mm, narrower than pronotum; frons and vertex sculptured, vertex with weak longitudinal irregular furrows, frons with irregular coarse punctures (Fig. 32); labrum truncate at anterior margin. Pronotum. Transverse, PL 0.80– 1.06 mm and PW 1.24–1.68 mm, anterior margin slightly concave, anterior angles strongly rounded, lateral margin anteriorly rounded, obliquely straight in posterior half, sinuate in front of posterior angles, posterior angles almost right, pronotal base strongly incised towards posterior angles and lobate in middle (Fig. 32); disc sculptured, median longitudinal impression deep. Elytra: Elongate subovoid, EL 3.25–3.9 mm and EW 2.3–2.95 mm, lateral margin obliquely convex; apex of elytra obliquely truncate, not serrate, striae complete, deep and punctate, intervals convex throughout. Legs: Tibiae in mid leg of male with one preapical incision on inner side. Abdomen: Abdominal sterna moderately pubescent, last sternum rounded and tetra-setose in both sexes. Aedeagus: AL 1.33 mm; in lateral view, it is slightly curved and sinuate dorsally (Fig. 40); with equal width along its length except apical lamina, apical lamina short and pointed.
Affinity. This species is close to L. chaudoiri (Alluaud, 1932), but according to Alluaud (1932), L. melanura can be differentiated by elytral black patch shorter, less protruding towards the scutellum, and finer punctuation on head and striae.
Ecological note. Members of this species were collected from elevation 451 m in valley with damp place having gravels and stones among different kinds of grasses. This species was collected by UV–light during October.
Geographical distribution. It is described from Senegal (Dejean, 1831) also known from Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea (Lorenz, 2017) and newly recorded during this study from Saudi Arabia (Fig. 43). Lebia melanura is an Afrotropical species that exemplifies AFA Chorotype.
Comments: Lebia melanura and L. chaudoiri are problematic to distinguish and often wrongly recognized. The morphological characters suggested by Alluaud (1932) to differentiate L. chaudoiri from L. melanura include: black suture longer extending towards the scutellum, smaller red humeral spots, stronger punctuation on the head, the striae coarser punctuate and the posterior angles of the pronotum more elevated. In L. melanura, all above distinguishing characters overlap with those of L. chaudoiri in several examined specimens from Ivory coast, Congo, Senegal, Chad, Tanzania and Arabian Peninsula. The genitalia of both species seem also the same. These results suggest that L. melanura and L. chaudoiri are identical species. However, the holotypes of both species were not found in their type depository, so the authors keep the current status of both species.
description: Published as part of Rasool, Iftekhar, Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Felix, Ron F. F. L. & Aldhafer, Hathal M., 2018, A review of the Subtribe Lebiina Bonelli (Lebiini, Carabidae, Coleoptera) from Southwest of Saudi Arabia, pp. 87-102 in Zootaxa 4379 (1) on page 92, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4379.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/1172356