Neolucanus horizontalis Xin, Zhong & Qi 2025, new species
Creators: name: Xin, Fei-Yi
name: Zhong, Xiao-Tian
name: Guo, Wen-Chi
name: Zhang, Yi-Feng
name: Qi, Zhi-Hao
name: Wu, Song-Qing
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lucanidae
Neolucanus
Neolucanus horizontalis

description: Neolucanus horizontalis Xin, Zhong & Qi, new species
Chinese common name: 平®圆OiNJƤ
Figs. 1A–B; 2A–B; 3E–H; 4A–D; 5A–H; 6A–B, E–F, I–J; 7A–B
Type locality. China, Yunnan Province, Honghe Prefecture, Lvchun County, Pinghe Town.
Type material. Holotype, male (NACRC: IOZ (E) 211512), China, Yunnan Province, Honghe Prefecture, Lvchun County, Pinghe Town, 22°49’10”N, 102°31’26”E, 8.VI.2024, 1316m, local collector leg. Paratype, 1 male (CXTZ), China, Yunnan Province, Honghe Prefecture, Jinping county, Ma’andi Township, Sitai Mountain, 22°45’24”N, 103°26’21”E, 2400m, 2.VI.2023, local collector leg.
Description of the holotype, male.
Measurements. Body length (36.0 mm). Length of particular body parts: head (3.8 mm), mandible (8.2 mm), pronotum (7.0 mm), elytra (16.3 mm). Width: head (9.1 mm), pronotum (12.3 mm), elytra (12.3 mm).
Habitus (Fig. 1A–B). Head and pronotum black, elytra kermesinus, with slightly glossy; whole body with tiny and almost invisible pubescence, all legs with yellow setae on surface.
Head transverse. Anterior ridge raised behind mandible and widely concave on the middle. Canthus long and wide, completely surround the eye. Clypeolabrum (Fig. 3E) tiny and subtriangle, visible in dorsal view, fused with frons, apex sharp. Mandible (Fig. 3E–F) about 2.2 times longer than head, inner smooth from base to teeth; in lateral view, almost horizontal, a dorsal tooth behind apex forming an approximately vertical right-angle and slightly protrudes beyond upper margin; in dorsal view, slightly curved, base thick, becomes thicker firstly and then thinner from base to teeth, with 2 continuous subtriangle inner teeth behind apex, proximal one smaller, apex of mandible sharp. Antennal club with 3 antennomeres; antennomeres 8–9 subquadrilateral; antennomere 10 semi-elliptic.
Pronotum (Fig. 3G) transverse, 1.8 times wider than long, markedly longer and wider than head with slightly raised edges. Anterior margin bisinuate, posterior margin slightly bisinuate. Anterior angles rounded and directed forwards, lateral angles obtuse and posterior angles blunt.
Scutellum subtriangular, punctate, width almost as long as length.
Legs. Protibia (Fig. 3H) with 2 conspicuous sharp protuberances along outer margin, apex bifurcate with branches moderately sharp at tip. Mesotibia and metatibia straight and smooth at outer margin with a terminal spine.
Elytra elongate, 1.3 times longer than wide, anterior margin significantly narrower than pronotum.
Abdomen and aedeagus. Abdominal tergite VIII (Fig. 5A) nearly semilune, lateral angles poorly defined. Abdominal ventrite VIII (Fig. 5B) with 2 slightly protruding tips on basal margin near middle. Ventral plate of abdominal segment IX (Fig. 5D) elongate without membranous stripe, basal part extremely narrow, then suddenly became wider, widens gradually to apex and constricted near apex. Aedeagus (Fig. 6A, E, I) in dorsal view about 3.2 times longer than wide. Basal piece elongated, weakly longer than parameres in dorsal view, with a significant and relatively slender pair of sclerotized dorsal plates, and almost as wide as paramere; ventral plate at apical end of basal piece membranous. Paramere relatively narrow, with a small inner curvature at base, apex of paramere curved outward. Penis about 0.9 times length of paramere in ventral view. Flagellum long, about 1.6 times longer than aedeagus, apex of flagellum simple.
Variation of paratype (n=1). Mesodont (Fig. 2A–B). Mandible 1.8 times longer than head (Fig. 4A–B), shorter and straighter in dorsal view, dorsal tooth almost not protrudes beyond upper margin in lateral view, with 3 indistinct smaller inner teeth and a large blunt tooth at base. Protibia (Fig. 4D) with 3 sharp protuberances along outer margin.
Female. Unknown.
Differential diagnosis. The new species is similar to N. fuscus Didier, 1926, N. brochieri Bomans & Miyashita, 1997, N. lehmanni Baba, 1995 in general appearance, but the following set of characters could help to identify precisely (Table 1, Table 2).
Etymology. This new species is named after the morphological features of its horizontal mandible when viewed in lateral view.
Distribution. China (Yunnan).
Biology. This species can be attracted to artificial light.
Remarks. Many species within the N. fuscus group exhibit individuals with elytra featuring prominent yellowish areas. Therefore, we hypothesize that similar individuals will also be found within the newly discovered species.
description: Published as part of Xin, Fei-Yi, Zhong, Xiao-Tian, Guo, Wen-Chi, Zhang, Yi-Feng, Qi, Zhi-Hao & Wu, Song-Qing, 2025, A taxonomic note on Chinese species of the Neolucanus fuscus group with the description of a new species (Coleoptera: Lucanidae: Lucaninae), pp. 344-360 in Zootaxa 5570 (2) on pages 346-350, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5570.2.6, http://zenodo.org/record/14735135