Prismognathus alessandrae Bartolozzi 2003
Creators: name: Huang, Hao
name: Chen, Chang-Chin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lucanidae
Prismognathus
Prismognathus alessandrae

description: Prismognathus alessandrae Bartolozzi, 2003
(Figs. 57–60, 93, 127, 148–149, 181, 209, 235)
Prismognathus alessandrae Bartolozzi, 2003: 18 [type locality: Deqen, northwest Yunnan], Fig. 1, male; Fig. 4, male head; Fujita 2010: 164, plate 99, Figs. 491-1–2 for male and female.
Material examined. CHINA: Yunnan Province: 5 3, 3 ƤƤ, Zhongdian, Tuguancun, 1800m, 14.VI.2009, X.-Y. Zhu, J.-Q. Zhu & H.-C. Shan leg.; 2 3, Weixi, 2000m, VII.2007, H.-C. Shan leg.; 1 3, 1Ƥ, Weixi, Pantiange, Jieju, 2561m, 9.VII.2009, H.-L. Shi leg.; 33, 3ƤƤ (CXBS, SNUC), Binchuan County, Jizushan, ca. 2400m, VII.2010, X.-B. Song & L. Tang leg. Sichuan Province: 1 3, Muli, Liziping, 2000m, VII.2007, H.-C. Shan leg.
Identification. This species was described based on a single male specimen from Deqin, the upper Lancang Valley in northwestern Yunnan. It was described as closely related to P. dauricus and P. davidis but readily distinguished by the rounded preocular margin of the head. There is only one species of Prismognathus found in the areas around the Lancang River (including the type locality), and all the specimens from this area examined match the characters of P. alessandrae and have no difference in the male genitalia. Specimens from the Yangtse valleys and the Dali area cannot be separated from the specimens from the Lancang valleys by an examination of external characters and male genitalia. A single male specimen from southern Sichuan differs a little from the specimens from Yunnan by having the color of the body blacker, but shows no differences in male genitalia.
The females were collected together with males from decayed wood in the field, and there is no other species of Prismognathus found from the same area.
Diagnosis. The males of P. alessandrae are less variable than other species, they always have the preocular margin of the head rounded. In small males the subbasal teeth along the dorsal ridge of the mandible may be absent, but the rounded preocular margin of the head does not vary. The male genitalia of P. alessandrae are slightly different from those of P. davidis and P. dauricus, usually the median lobe is relatively shorter and the flagellum is less enlarged at apex.
The females of P. alessandrae are almost indistinguishable from those of P. dauricus and P. davidis in external features, differing only by having a slender protibia with longer spines. They cannot be separated from P. triapicalis and P. formosanus by any genitalic characters, differing only by the dark color of the body.
Taxonomic notes. P. alessandrae is not closely related to P. d a v i d i s by the marked differences in female genitalia. Although P. alessandrae has most of the female genitalic characters in common with P. dauricus, P. triapicalis and P. formosanus, it is markedly different from all of them in many male characters. P. alessandrae is similar in many characters to P. shani.
Distribution. Northwestern Yunnan (Dali area, areas around the Lancang River and the Yangtse River) and southern Sichuan (Muli).
description: Published as part of Huang, Hao & Chen, Chang-Chin, 2012, A review of the genera Prismognathus Motschulsky and Cladophyllus Houlbert (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Lucanidae) from China, with the description of two new species, pp. 1-36 in Zootaxa 3255 on page 8, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.280626