Calligrapha wickhami Bowditch 1911
Creators: name: Gómez-Zurita, Jesús
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Chrysomelidae
Calligrapha
Calligrapha wickhami

description: Calligrapha wickhami Bowditch, 1911
(Figs 1c, 2a, 2b)
Calligrapha wickhami Bowditch, 1911. Trans. Am. Entom. Soc. 37, p. 325.
Polyspila wickhami: Weise, 1916. Coleopt. Cat., p. 44.
Calligrapha wickhami: Wilcox, 1972. Bull. Univ. St. New York 421, p. 8.
Calligrapha wickhami: Wilcox, 1975. Checklist Chryomelidae, p. 66.
Calligrapha wickhami: Clark et al., 2004. Host Plants N. Am. Leaf Beetles, p. 39.
Calligrapha wickhami: Gómez-Zurita et al., 2006. Evolution 60, p. 333.
Calligrapha wickhami: Montelongo & Gómez-Zurita, 2013. Proc. Entom. Soc. Wash. 115, p. 380.
Calligrapha wickhami: Montelongo & Gómez-Zurita, 2014. Zool. Scr. 43, p. 608.
The holotype for this taxon is part of the collection of the Brookline (Massachusetts) entomologist Frederick C. Bowditch held in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, University of Harvard. This species is so characteristic and with such a precise distribution that it should offer no problems for its identification. Moreover, Bowditch's description was detailed and accurate, so that a redescription is not really needed. However, I opted to redescribe the type here for uniformity and to add additional characters that have been consistently used in these revisions and missing in the original descriptions of most Calligrapha species. Montelongo & Gómez-Zurita (2013) provided with updated distribution and ecological data for this species in their comparison with C. thermalis Gómez-Zurita; since there are no additions to locality data after that work, the list will not be repeated here.
Holotype, by original designation: Alpine, Tex., July 20–22, 4400–6000 ft. Wickham / Type 17436 [red] / C. wickhami Type Bow. [pale blue] / Jan.–Jul. 2004 MCZ Image Database (MCZ). The specimen, a female, lacks the right median leg.
Habitus (Fig. 1c). Length: 7.85 mm, width: 5.32 mm. Body short oval, markedly convex. Most of head and mandibles, five apical antennomeres, dark areas of pronotum, scutellum, inner parts of dark markings on elytra, narrow margin of elytra and epipleura, femora, tibiae and most of ventral surfaces bright reddish brown. Labrum, palpi, six basal antennomeres and tarsi orange. Outline of elytral dark markings, anterior angles of metaventrite brown, with slight bronzy reflection. Two spots on frons, above supra-antennal calli, anterior and lateral borders of pronotum (with three and one indentations, respectively), two spots on disc of pronotum, background of elytra and disc of epipleura creamy yellow. Apex of mandibles black.
Head large, transverse, deeply inserted in pronotum; surface very finely microreticulate, sparsely moderately punctured; punctures on occiput with short, very fine, anteriorly recumbent silvery hairs; supraocular area moderately impressed, with few semierect short yellowish setae; frons with fine median longitudinal impression, joining at apex broad V-shaped clypeal suture. Clypeus transverse, subtriangular, very finely microreticulate, with shallow punctation at apical half and very fine, short golden setae, especially near anterior angles. Eyes relatively small, dorso-ventrally elongate, entire, finely faceted. Labrum relatively long (W/L = 2.77), with sides weakly converging before broadly round anterior angles; anterior border almost imperceptibly emarginate medially; smooth, with dense shallow micropunctures and few setigerous punctures on anterior angles, with transverse row of four punctures anteriorly on disc bearing short, medially convergent golden setae. Mandibles short but strong, shortly projecting beyond labrum; weakly concave at sides before strong preapical curvature, sparsely covered by large setigerous punctures. Maxillary palpi relatively short; first visible palpomere twice as long as wide preapically, clavate, obliquely cut at apex; second palpomere wider and half as long as first, narrower at base than apex of previous segment, strongly dilated towards apex; apical palpomere nearly as wide at base as apex of previous, subtrapezoidal, with sides feeble curved and apex straight, oblique. Antennae relatively short; scape elongate oval; pedicel slightly clavate, less than half as long as scape; third antennomere slender, narrower than second, clavate, as long as scape; fourth antennomere subequal to second; antennomeres 4–6 progressively shorter, sixth thicker, rugose at apex; antennomeres 7–10 progressively longer, as broad at apex as long, granulose, densely pubescent; eleventh antennomere twice as long as wide at middle, with short blunt conical apex. Pronotum transverse, 2.06x wider than long at middle, with maximum width near to obtuse posterior angles; sides finely margined, feebly curved and slightly but gradually converging from base to stronger curvature of anterior angles; apical angles strongly projecting forward; anterior border convex at angles, nearly straight medially and conspicuously margined only at angles; basal border at wide obtuse angle with broadly curved median lobe, unmargined; disc of pronotum weakly and evenly convex; sides on pale area of lateral declivity of pronotum slightly callous, concealing margins in dorsal view; surface very finely microreticulate, rather uniformly punctured on disc similar to head punctation, disappearing on median line and on pale areas; sides of pronotum with stronger, deeper and larger punctures, mostly absent on pale areas. Hypomera smooth, unpunctured, transversally impressed near base; hypomeral suture deep, slightly diverging from pronotal border towards apex. Prosternum short, concave and finely margined anteriorly, with oblique impressions and punctures before procoxae; prosternal process convex on disc, very weakly depressed towards apex, with sides nearly straight, diverging towards round apical angles and straight apex, reaching behind posterior border of procoxae. Mesepimera and mesanepisterna finely microgranulose, punctured near borders and with scattered minute punctation on disc. Metanepisterna finely microreticulate, strongly punctured mostly near anterior and lateral borders. Anterior and lateral margins of metaventrite broad; disc glossy with fine scattered punctures and fine short translucent setae; sides leathery, strongly punctured, mainly at anterior half. Scutellum almost as long as wide at base (W/L = 1.03), lancet-shaped, with sides weakly curved to round pointed apex; surface microreticulate, unpunctured. Elytra nearly as wide at base as base of pronotum; humeri round and sides weakly curved, tapering to regularly round apex, widest before middle; surface more finely microreticulate than pronotum, with sparse dot-like dark punctures, denser at lateral and apical declivities; punctures around dark markings heavier, tighter; elytra with premarginal row of dot-like dark punctures, slightly confused in subhumeral area and gradually approaching border of elytra towards apex; short scutellar row of 10–11 punctures. Dark markings of elytra: (i) suture with very narrow dark margin reaching base of elytra and slightly diffused narrowly around scutellum; sutural stripe reduced to elongated V-shaped area hind scutellum, following scutellar row of punctures, convergent with dark margin of suture at apical third, and narrow dark area at apical declivity of elytron, reaching sutural angle; (ii) base of subsutural stripe as elongate spot at level with apex of scutellum, detached from remainder of stripe by pale gap half as long as spot; subsutural stripe gradually convergent to suture apically, mostly free except for short confluence with sutural stripe at apical declivity before suddenly disappearing at short distance before sutural angle; (iii) arcuate band free, hook-shaped, with long arm slightly converging posteriorly to subsutural stripe, recurved as short arm before apical declivity of elytron, with end at level with middle of band; (iv) humeral spot elongate, narrower at base, free from basal margin of elytron; (v) humeral lunule connected prebasally to humeral spot by dark suffusions, nearly twice as long as humeral spot, slightly sinuous, reaching at level with basal third of arcuate band; (vi) spot enclosed by humeral lunule large, with two differentiated parts, basal area elongate, as long as basal spot of subhumeral stripe, and apical area wider, nearly round; (vii) subhumeral spot small, elongate and free on confused area of premarginal line; (viii) midlateral spot reduced to darkened area around 4–5 punctures of premarginal line; (ix) spot of apical declivity elongate, broken apically into 1–2 additional smaller spots, free from subsutural stripe; (x) apical spot of irregular profile, free, equidistant from spot of apical declivity and margin of elytron; (xi) four irregular medium sized additional spots on lateral declivity. Epipleura with fine microsculpture, unpunctured. Femora straight, elongate and weakly enlarged medially, with sparse, rather strong punctures and very fine, semierect translucent hairs. Tibiae longer than femora, straight, widened at apex, weakly furrowed at apical half externally. Tarsi slender, shorter than tibiae; first tarsomere shorter than following two together; claws divergent at straight angle. Abdominal ventrites transverse, narrow, glossy; first ventrite with some large punctures on anterior half and remaining ventrites with finer punctures and short semierect, very fine yellowish hairs; last visible ventrite regularly convex, very finely margined and densely pubescent at apex. Penis (Fig. 2a, 2b) short and broad, with sides feebly widening toward ostium in ventral view, curved in lateral view with dorsum more strongly convex; ostium round, membranous; apex regularly curved, with sides expanded to lateral, acute teeth neatly surpasing border of median lobe laterally; apical end of flagellum simple, membranous dorsally.
Distribution. This species is a North American endemism only known at present from the sky island mountains of southern Texas (Montelongo & Gómez-Zurita 2013).
description: Published as part of Gómez-Zurita, Jesús, 2018, Systematic revision of Central American Calligrapha Chevrolat of the subgenus Erythrographa subgen. nov. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Chrysomelinae), pp. 1-58 in Zootaxa 4531 (1) on pages 13-14, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4531.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2614310