Medeopteryx effulgens Ballantyne &amp; Lambkin 2013, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Ballantyne, Lesley A.
name: Lambkin, Christine L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lampyridae
Medeopteryx
Medeopteryx effulgens

description: <i>Medeopteryx effulgens</i> (Ballantyne) comb. nov. [Figs 144, 157, 164] <i>Pteroptyx effulgens</i> Ballantyne, 1987a: 141. <i>Pteroptyx cribellata</i> Olivier misidentification. Hanson <i>et al.</i> (1971), Hanson (1978), Buck <i>et al.</i> (1981a, 1981b). <b>Holotype</b>. Male. <b>NEW GUINEA</b>: 152.00E, 4.00S, New Britain, Gazelle Pen., 8.2 mi S Rabaul (ANIC). <b>Other specimens examined.</b> Unless otherwise indicated specimens are in BPBM. Listings extend Ballantyne (1987a). <b>NEW GUINEA</b>, New Britain: Bismarck Archipelago: 152.0E, 4.20S, Vudal, SW of Keravat, 13.xii.1959, T. Maa, male. Gazelle Peninsula, 140m, 21–27.x.1962, malaise trap, JS, male; Gazelle Peninsula, Baipinrs: St Pauls, 350m, 4.ix.1955, light trap. JLG, male. 152.20E, 4.20S, Keravat, Lowl Agr. Exp. Sta., 3.vi.1965, 3 males, 2 females; 21.vii.1965, 2 males G. S. Dun; 15.vi.1954, J. Szent-Ivany, female, resting on cacao (Dept. Agriculture, Port Moresby). Keravat, 10.ii.1966, G Monteith, 13 males, 2 females (Tubes 231, 221, 223 UQIC); 60 m, ix.11.1955, JLG, 2 males, 31.viii.1955, male. Vunabakan, 180m, 10 km east of Keravat, 16–20.xi.1959, T. Maa, 6 males, female. Gazelle Peninsula, Malmalwan–Vunakanau, v.4.1956, light trap, 4 males, v–11–13–1956, male, JLG. 150.0E, 5.0S, Willaumez Peninsula, Volupai, 100m, iv.16.1956, light trap. JLG, male. Vunakanau, 350m, x.10.1957, 2 males, v.4.1956, JLG 2 males. 151– 152.0E, 5.0– 6.0S, Jacquinot Bay, Wunung Plantation, iv.30.1956, JLG, male. 152E, 2– 5.0S, New Ireland: Lakuramau Plantation, east coast, 1.viii.1955, feeding on cacao foliage (adult was probably resting), J. Szent-Ivany, male (Dept. Agriculture, Port Moresby). <b>Diagnosis.</b> 6.8–7.5mm long; orange yellow pronotum, MS and MP; head between eyes yellow; deflexed elytral apex pointed; LO entire in V7; abdomen with dimple and hump; distinguished from all but <i>M. fulminea</i> and <i>M. amilae</i> by the possession of pointed elytral apices, and from <i>fulminea</i> and <i>amilae</i> by the orange head, and apparent restriction of <i>effulgens</i> to New Britain (Ballantyne 1987a Fig. 8). <b>Female.</b> 5.7–6.9 mm long. Colour: as for male except V5 sometimes paler brown than preceding ventrites, pale light orgn in V6, and the yellow semitransparent terminal two ventrites; basal abdominal tergites brown, T7, 8 paler brownish yellow than preceding ones. Abdomen (Fig. 157): posterior margin of V6 not excavated, posterolateral corners rounded; V7 broadly, moderately deeply and evenly excavated along posterior margin, with posterolateral corners acutely angled and pointed; V8 not indented in median line. Bursa (Fig. 164). <b>Remarks.</b> Ballantyne (1987a) included only specimens with associated flashing data in the type series, and indicated that assignment of specimens without flashing data was tentative only. Because <i>effulgens</i> and <i>fulminea</i> are very similar, determination of the colour patterns (especially those of head, MS and the terminal tergites) is important. Ballantyne (1987a) encountered difficulty determining colour patterns in alcohol preserved specimens, which were apparently dead before being preserved. This difficulty is sometimes overcome by drying specimens before examination. <i>M. effulgens</i> has an orange head with a dark triangular area on the vertex, and occur in New Britain. However Ballantyne (1987a) recorded one mating pair with an orange-headed male and black-headed female. No conclusions should be drawn from distributional records of specimens other than those of the type series. Type specimens of <i>effulgens</i> and <i>fulminea</i> are not sympatric, with <i>effulgens</i> restricted to New Britain while <i>fulminea</i> occurs on the New Guinea mainland. Although very similar morphologically, their light production is different. Ballantyne and McLean's (1970) composite <i>Pteroptyx cribellata</i> included certain specimens with orange head; their Groups 1A, p. 244 and 1D, p. 244 were recorded from both New Guinea and New Britain, and the New Guinean specimens are tentative inclusions here. In New Britain <i>M. effulgens</i> is sympatric with an orange-headed <i>Australoluciola pharusaurea</i> <b>sp. nov.</b> Lloyd (1973a) recorded 2 collecting sites "SW of Simpson Harbor, on Burma Road......The swarm trees were cocoas and palms at the roadside. Males flashed single, short flashes at a period of about 1.2 sec., frequently in bouts of about 6 flashes". Lloyd (1973a) described the "simple flashes" of both <i>M. effulgens</i> and <i>M. fulminea</i> and he listed them on p. 268 as species 15 and 16, and figured the flashes of the latter. The species recorded as <i>Pteroptyx cribellata</i> in Hanson <i>et al.</i> (1971), Hanson (1978), Buck <i>et al.</i> (1981a, 1981b) from New Britain is <i>M. effulgens.</i>
description: Published as part of <i>Ballantyne, Lesley A. &amp; Lambkin, Christine L., 2013, Systematics and Phylogenetics of Indo-Pacific Luciolinae Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) and the Description of new Genera, pp. 1-162 in Zootaxa 3653 (1)</i> on pages 87-88, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3653.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5265340
description: {"references": ["Ballantyne, L. A. (1987 a) Further Revisional Studies on the firefly genus Pteroptyx Olivier (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 113, 117 - 170.", "Hanson, F. E., Case, J. F., Buck, E. &amp; Buck, J. (1971) Synchrony and flash entrainment in a New Guinea Firefly. Science, 174, 161 - 164. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1126 / science. 174.4005.161", "Hanson, F. E. (1978) Comparative studies of firefly pacemakers. Federation Proceedings, 37, 2158 - 2164.", "Buck, J., Buck, E., Hanson, F. E., Case, J. F., Mets, L., &amp; Atta, G. J. (1981 a) Control of flashing in fireflies IV. Free run pacemaking in a synchronic Pteroptyx. Journal of Comparative Physiology, 144, 277 - 286.", "Buck, J., Buck, E., Case J. F. &amp; Hanson, F. E. (1981 b) Control of flashing in fireflies V. Pacemaker Synchronization in Pteroptyx cribellata. Journal of Comparative Physiology, 144, 287 - 298.", "Ballantyne, L. A. &amp; McLean, M. R. (1970) Revisional studies on the firefly genus Pteroptyx Olivier (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae: Luciolini). Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 96, 223 - 305.", "Lloyd, J. E. (1973 a) Fireflies of Melanesia: Bioluminescence, Mating Behavior, and Synchronous flashing. Environmental Entomology, 2 (no. 6), 991 - 1008."]}