Lasiochila fukiena Sekerka & Jia & Pang & Borowiec 2016, stat. nov.
Creators: name: Sekerka, Lukáš
name: Jia, Fenglong
name: Pang, Hong
name: Borowiec, Lech
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Chrysomelidae
Lasiochila
Lasiochila fukiena

description: Lasiochila fukiena Gressitt, 1950 stat. nov.
(Fig. 1)
Lasiochila insulana fukiena Gressitt, 1950: 65.
Type locality. China, Fujian Prov., Wuyishan Co. (Chong’an Co.), Wuyishan Mt., Guatun, approx. 27°44.26′N, 117°38.08′E, 1270 m a.s.l.
Original type series. Holotype (LMNH), allotype with the same locality data (CAS) and two paratypes from Upper Kuatun with unstated depository.
Type material examined. Holotype, pinned: ‘Fukien, S. China | Chungan, KwaTun | VIII-5 -[hw]194[p]5[hw] | K. S. Lin [w, p, cb] || L-21 [w, t, cb] || HOLOTYPE | LASIOCHILA [hw] | INSULANA [hw] | FUKIENA [hw] | J.L.Gressitt [r, p + hw by Gressitt, cb] || LASIOCHILA [hw] | INSULANA [hw] | FUKIENA [hw] | GRESS. [hw] | J.L.Gressitt-Det.19[p]50[hw] [w, p + hw by Gressitt, cb] || En-289754 | [Data Matrix barcode] SYS [w. p, cb]’; allotype, pinned: ‘Fukien, S. China | Chungan, KwaTun | VIII-5 -[hw]194[p]5[hw] | K. S. Lin [w, p, cb] || ALLOTYPE | LASIOCHILA [hw] | INSULANA [hw] | FUKIENA [hw] | J.L.Gressitt [r, p + hw by Gressitt, cb] || LASIOCHILA [hw] | INSULANA [hw] | FUKIENA [hw] | GRESS. [hw] | J.L.Gressitt-Det.19[p]50[hw] [w, p + hw by Gressitt, cb] || [vernacular name in Chinese, hw] | Lasiochila insulana [hw] | fukiena Gressitt [hw] | det. Li- Zhong Hua [in Chinese, p] 1982 [hw] [w, p, cb] || En-289755 | [Data Matrix barcode] SYS [w, p, cb]’; paratype, pinned: ‘Fukien, S. China | Chungan, ShaKuaTun | Alt. 1400 m | VIII-4-6 [hw] -42. T. C. Maa [w, p, cb] || PARATYPE | LASIOCHILA [hw] | INSULANA [hw] | FUKIENA [hw] | J. L. Gressitt [y, p, cb] || LASIOCHILA [hw] | INSULANA [hw] | FUKIENA [hw] | GRESS. [hw] | J.L.Gressitt-Det.19[p]50[hw] [w, p, cb]’.
Current status. Here restored to species as Lasiochila fukiena Gressitt, 1950 stat. nov.
Remarks. Gressitt (1950) stated that the allotype is in CAS and did not specified depositories of the two paratypes. Allotype and one paratype are actually deposited in LMNH. Deposition of the second paratype is unknown to us.
Species of the genus Lasiochila Weise, 1916 are in need of revision as they are very often misidentified and misinterpreted. Many are superficially close thus were synonymized but in fact are distinct. Kimoto & Chu (1996) synonymized all Taiwanese species including L. insulana fukiena under L. bicolor Pic, 1924. Borowiec & Sekerka (2010) considered L. insulana Uhmann, 1929 as valid with L. fukiena as a synonym and remaining Taiwanese species were listed as synonyms of L. bicolor. However, this was done rather tentatively following already published information (e.g. Chen et al. 1986). Recently, we had opportunity to examine types of L. bicolor, L.
insulana and larger series of Lasiochila from Taiwan. The taxa described from Taiwan were based on size and structure of elytra, however, when a large series of specimens is available it is easy to see that these characters are subject to intraspecific variability as the species displays greater size span which is directly proportional to size and elevation of the elytral intervals. Therefore we consider all nominal taxa described from Taiwan as synonyms of L. bicolor in agreement with Kimoto & Chu (1996) and Lee & Cheng (2007).
However, examination of the types of L. fukiena revealed that it is distinct from L. bicolor. Both taxa share the body shape but differ in the structure of head and elytra. Lasiochila fukiena has vertex distinctly more convex, densely punctate, and distance between the eyes is narrower than the length of the scapus and the pedicel combined while L. bicolor has the vertex barely convex, sparsely punctate, and broader with the distance between the eyes greater than the length of the scapus and the pedicel combined. Lasiochila bicolor is quite typical by its broad and elevated even intervals on elytra, particularly in basal third thus the rows of punctures look impressed and narrower with smaller punctures while L. fukiena has narrow and barely elevated intervals clearly visible only on apical half of elytra and rows of punctures broad in basal third of elytra on the same level as the intervals. In addition L. fukiena has more rugose structure of pronotum with densely and coarsely punctate basal 2/3 while L. bicolor has the coarse punctures sparsely scattered over shiny and smooth disc thus the general appearance is not rugose.
Based on general body shape, five shiny basal antennomeres and structure of vertex L. fukiena belongs to the L. cylindrica (Hope, 1831) species group. Medvedev (1992) synonymized most species of the group under L. cylindrica ignoring significant morphological differences and as a result all small Lasiochila species from SE Asia with uniformly brown body are identified presently as L. cylindrica (e.g. Kimoto 1999). Lasiochila fukiena is clearly distinct from the typical L. cylindrica from Nepal by much stouter body with punctation of elytra much sparser and larger punctures (interspaces in rows wider than the puncture diameter) while L. cylindrica has small punctures tightly arranged in rows with interspaces much smaller than the puncture diameter. Lasiochila fukiena seems to be most similar to populations identified presently as L. cylindrica from northern Thailand and Laos with sparsely punctate pronotum and distinctly widening body posteriorly. So far we did not find a nominal taxon proposed for this population therefore we remove L. fukiena from synonymy of L. insulana and rise it to species level. However, we have not yet examined types of all nominal taxa proposed in Lasiochila, particularly the other Chinese species, thus the taxon might prove to be synonymous with some other species in the future.
description: Published as part of Sekerka, Lukáš, Jia, Fenglong, Pang, Hong & Borowiec, Lech, 2016, Cassidinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) types deposited at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, pp. 50-78 in Zootaxa 4084 (1) on pages 51-53, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4084.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/1053949