Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) noheli Moravec & Vybíra 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Moravec, Jiří
name: Vybíra, Jan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Pogonostoma
Pogonostoma noheli

description: Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) noheli sp. nov.
(Figs 1–20)
Type locality. Eastern Madagascar: province of Toamasina (= Tamatave), Lakato forest near Moramanga. Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) flavomaculatum sensu Moravec (2007: 398), partim. Non P. (M.) flavomaculatum W. Horn, 1892!
Type material. Holotype ♂ in SDEI, labelled: “Madagascar Est / Lakato / Moramanga / 20–23.I.2000, leg. Jan Vybíral” [printed] // “Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) / flavomaculatum / W. Horn, 1892 / det. Jiří Moravec 2003” [printed] // “Holotype / Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) / noheli sp. nov. det. / J. Moravec et Jan Vybíral 2017” [red, printed]. Allotype. 1 ♀ in CJVB: “Madagascar Est / Lakato / (Moramanga) / 20–23.I.2000, leg. Jiří Moravec” [printed] // “Allotype / Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) / noheli sp. nov. det. / J. Moravec et Jan Vybíral 2017” [red, printed]. Paratypes. 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀ in CCJM: “Madagascar Est / Lakato near Moramanga / 19.XII.1998 leg. Jiří Moravec”. 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀ in CJVB: ibid., except for leg. Jan Vybíral” // “Paratype / Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) / noheli sp. nov. det. / J. Moravec et Jan Vybíral 2017” [red, printed].
Differential diagnosis. Externally similar to P. (M.) flavomaculatum, but the main diagnostic difference is in the unique shape of the aedeagus of P. (M.) noheli sp. nov. which is in the middle ventrally deeply excavated, and then constricted into elongate thorn-like apex (Figs 14, 16, 18–20). In contrast, P. (M.) flavomaculatum possesses a longer aedeagus with a much wider, gradually conically attenuated apex, usually emarginated dorsally (Figs 37– 38, 40–43). Moreover, the pronotal posterior lobe of P. (M.) noheli sp. nov. is consistently ochre-yellow or testaceous, while in P. (M.) flavomaculatum the posterior lobe is mostly black, rarely partly brownish, or brownishtestaceous, very rarely predominantly testaceous. The pronotal disc in P. (M.) noheli sp. nov. (Figs 5–6) is more narrowed anteriad and notably oviform, particularly so in females, covered with more distinctly transverse rugae, and the labrum (Figs 12–13) is mostly brownish and with clearly outlined central convexity, while the pronotal disc in both sexes of P. (M.) flavomaculatum is almost regularly ellipsoid with much finer and irregular surface sculpture, and the labrum is entirely black and with central convexity almost keel-like raised in middle.
Similar coloration of the body and appendages is also found in P. (M.) sawadai Moravec. (2007) described from Ranomafana (south-eastern Madagascar), but it clearly differs from both P. (M.) noheli sp. nov. and P. (M.) flavomaculatum in having its pronotal disc with much coarser surface sculpture consisting of more continuous transverse ridges, and with distinctly elevated notopleural sutures visible in dorsal view along the whole margins of the pronotal disc, and its aedeagus has the conical apical portion notably ventrally directed (Moravec 2007: 403, figs 1448–1450).
P. (M.) pusillum (Laporte de Castelnau & Gory, 1835) immediately differs from P. (M.) noheli sp. nov. in having entirely black legs, truncate elytral apices in both sexes and very different shape of the aedeagus (similar to that in P. (M.) flavomaculatum W. Horn, 1892).
Description. Body (Figs 1–2) small, length 5.55–7.50 (HT 7.30, AT 7.50) mm, width 1.55–1.90 (HT 1.70, AT 1.90) mm, both ventrally and dorsally shiny pitchy-black, except for ochre-yellow to ochre-testaceous pronotal posterior lobe; setal vesture whitish.
Head (Fig. 9) narrower than body, 1.25–1.45 mm wide, with only one orbital sensory seta (on each side), lacking frontoclypeal setae; temples moderately long (2 times shorter than eyes).
Frons flat or moderately convex, merging with clypeus in middle and not differentiated from vertex; supraantennal keels consisting of distinctly elevated anterior crest and smaller posterior one; vertex nearly flat on anterior area, convex between posterior half of eyes, with variably shallow or deep posterior impression; surface of the frons, anterior and median area of vertex rather finely scabrous-rugulose to partly areolate (thin intervals forming irregular subreticulate sculpture); posterior area more scabrous-rugulose, occipital area and temples with much more irregular, short and wavy rugae, or partly bumpy; whole dorsal surface densely covered with very short and therefore indistinct, decumbent to erect, whitish ornamental microtrichia which are barely obvious in dorsal view.
Genae shiny black, variably very shallowly or markedly rugulose, particularly on postgenal area, finely wrinkled on anterior area, ventral half nearly smooth with sparse whitish micrortichia.
Clypeus matt black, rough, distinctly elevated in frontoclypeal area, with sparse, short, whitish setae.
Labrum (Fig. 12–13) 4–setose bearing long, yellowish setae, surface brownish or black-brown, rarely black, sparsely covered with short, appressed, white microtrichia; central convexity moderate but clearly outlined by semicircular shallow impression; shape and size similar in both sexes: lateral margins moderately rounded towards mostly blunt, more or less distinct lateral indentations, small, subacute or blunt, right-angled anterolateral teeth, constricted towards narrow median lobe which is short or more anteriad prolonged, shallowly emarginate between two blunt or subacute anterior teeth; male labrum 0.35–0.45 mm long, 0.60–0.85 mm wide; female labrum 0.45– 0.53 mm long, 0.75–0.85 mm wide.
Maxillae (Fig. 11). Galea black with brownish apex; lacinia black-brown, elongate and outward-turned, gradually dilated towards simple, subacute apex with sinuous, but never bilobed margin, 0.15–0.70 mm wide; setae ochre-brown to testaceous.
Palpi (Fig 9) black-brown to black with rusty to rusty-brown apical area of terminal palpomeres; setae on longest palpomeres very long, ivory-yellow.
Mandibles (Figs 9–10) black-brown with reddish-brown to ochre brown to testaceous teeth and ochrebrownish juxtamolar area, separated by distinct edge from large, distinctly outward-convex basolateral portions, normally shaped, lateral margins (with terminal teeth) arcuate and moderately bent in middle, subsymmetrical (terminal tooth of left mandible slightly shorter than that of right one), both left and right mandible in male with second tooth smaller than third one, less markedly so in female.
Antennae (Figs 1–2, 9) in male very slightly shorter than body, in female reaching only angles of anteapical convexity, black, indistinctly maculate: scape black or black-brown with ochre-testaceous ventral side, bearing white apical seta and several surface microsetae, pedicel and antennomere 3 black or black-brown; antennomere 4 either entirely black or with more or less paler, brownish or dark testaceous basal half, antennomere 5 with either indistinctly or markedly ochre-testaceous basal half, or entirely testaceous, also antennomere 6 sometimes with pale brownish basal half, remaining antennomeres black-brown or brown; setal vesture usual, antennomeres 3–4 rather densely covered with whitish to ochre microsetae, antennomeres 5–11 with usual micropubescence.
Thorax. Pronotum (Figs 5–6) elongate, length 1.45–1.90 mm, width 0.90–1.05 mm; anterior lobe markedly narrower than posterior one, surface irregularly rugulose, nearly glabrous; disc notably oviform, particularly in female, with lateral margins moderately convex and narrowed anteriad; median line thin; notopleural sutures thin, indistinctly elevated, in dorsal view obvious only on posterior discal quarter or third; surface sculpture finely striate-rugulose, consisting of generally transverse rugae, continuous but also partly irregularly anastomosing, particularly on sublateral areas, but always clearly carved; whole discal surface appearing glabrous, but scattered, extremely short, indistinct microtrichia are obvious when the pronotum is observed in its lateral aspect in higher magnification; posterior lobe ochre or ochre-testaceous except for black area adjacent to disc, usually with small black spots, smooth and glabrous; proepisterna shiny and smooth except for shallowly wrinkled juxtanotopleural area, rarely finely wrinkled throughout, glabrous except for sparse microtrichia on ventral area; prosternum usually with testaceous anterior margin, sparsely covered with long and erect, whitish hairlike setae; basal half of mesosternum with scattered hairlike setae; metasternum with sparse microsetae; mesepisterna smooth, shiny, in both sexes with deep anterior-ventral furrow and scarce microtrichia on their ventral area; metepisterna transversely elongate with furrows, glabrous.
Elytra (Figs 3–4) elongate, length 3.40–4.30 mm, dorsal surface with moderate basodiscal convexity, deep widely V-shaped discal impression and distinctly convex disc; humeri oblique-arcuate; lateral margins moderately dilated towards rounded angles of anteapical convexity, more distinctly so in female; apices with more or less distinct ochre coloured marginal area, sexually dimorphic: apex in male (Fig. 7) rounded in middle but with wide, shallow sutural emargination towards rounded sutural termination (usually lacking sutural spine); apex in female truncate as obliquely shallowly emarginate towards right-angled or blunt outer tooth, and with deep and steep sutural excision which forms right-angled, subacute, or sharpened inner tooth; elytral surface notably shiny, punctate throughout: punctures deep, isolated, with wide, shiny intervals, much larger, deeper and sparsely anastomosing on elytral base, within the V-shaped discal impression and on lateral areas of anterior elytral half, becoming smaller towards apices, but smallest on posterior half of elytral disc posteriad from the discal impression, particularly so along sutures, in female this area, lateral margins of humeri, basal area adjacent to pronotum and lateral areas of anteapical convexity are often almost effaced and polished; setal vesture white, ornamental setae irregularly arranged, very short, mostly appressed, arising both from the punctures and from micropits of microtexture, rather densely covering shiny intervals, densest on discal area, but on female elytra on the areas with more spaced punctures the setae appearing as only arising from the punctures, because those on the shiny intervals are usually sparser, tightly appressed and therefore barely visible; the ornamental setae are mixed with sparse, long, and erect, whitish hairlike sensory setae which are particularly present on humeral, basolateral and anteapical areas.
Abdomen. Ventrites black except for testaceous margin of last ventrite, their surface sparsely or more densely covered with short whitish microtrichia.
Legs (Figs 1–2). Coxae black or partly rusty-testaceous; trochanters ochre to brownish-testaceous, metatrochanters sometimes partly blackened; femora black with ochre-yellow apical areas, glabrous or with only few, indistinct, short, whitish microtrichia; tibiae black with ochre-yellow basal areas (“knees” together with tibiae, Fig. 21), protibiae rarely also with paler apical third, rather densely covered with short, whitish or ferrugineous microtrichia which are darker on metatibiae; tarsi black, rarely protarsi and even more rarely mesotarsi with first two tarsomeres brownish-testaceous, densely covered with whitish microtrichia; claws testaceous.
Aedeagus of consistent shape (unique within the genus), notably short, 1.35–1.45 mm long, 0.22–0.25 mm wide, in its left lateral aspect (Figs 14, 16, 18–20) nearly straight with dorsal outline deeply excavated in middle, then constricted into narrow apical portion terminated with elongate, moderately ventrally directed and slightly dorsally bent, thorn-like apex which is in dorsal view (Figs 15) and ventral view (Fig. 17) conical and blunt.
Variability. The shiny areas of almost or entirely effaced punctures on the elytral disc in female vary. The mostly brown labrum is rarely almost entirely black. While the yellow-testaceous apices of the femora and bases of tibiae (“knees”) are consistent in all specimens, the testaceous areas on antennomeres vary (as mentioned in the description). The male labrum is in some males longer, thus of the same shape as the female labrum.
Etymology. Dedicated to Marcel Nohel, one of the friendly colleagues of the second author who is active in the research, specified to the protection of the ecosystems in Madagascar.
Biology and distribution. The nine type specimens come only from the eastern evergreen rainforest near the village Lakato southeast of Moramanga, approximately 19°11´S; 48°26´E. The locality is between the forest stations Amboditiana and Ankasoka, 1050–1130 m (Viette 1991). Within our last visit in the January 2002, a great part of the forest was destroyed and other portions were just burning. The area is rather isolated from the Analamazaotra forest where P. (M.) flavomaculatum occurs.
Remarks. In the monograph of the genus (Moravec 2007), P. (M.) noheli sp. nov. was previously partly included within the externally very similar P. (M.) flavomaculatum, but due to some differences from the holotype (by monotypy) of P. (M.) flavomaculatum deposited in SDEI, the possibility of an existence of a separate, undescribed species was mentioned in the monograph. For the circumstances leading to the confusion of these two species see “Remarks” under P. (Microstenocera) flavomaculatum below. The recent discovery of the numerous adults of the hitherto very rare P. (M.) flavomaculatum in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, has confirmed that these two species possess very different shape of their aedeagi, and that the photos in Moravec (2007, figs 1436–1437) show in fact the aedeagus of P. (M.) noheli sp. nov. The examination of the numerous specimens has enabled the separation and description of this new species.
description: Published as part of Moravec, Jiří & Vybíra, Jan, 2018, New or rare Madagascar tiger beetles- 17. Description of Pogonostoma (Microstenocera) noheli sp. nov. and redescription of P. (M.) flavomaculatum W. Horn (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), pp. 76-88 in Zootaxa 4388 (1) on pages 77-82, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4388.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/1187843