Platymetopus figuratus subsp. pictus Andrewes 1923
Creators: name: Kataev, Boris M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Platymetopus
Platymetopus figuratus
Platymetopus figuratus pictus andrewes, 1923

description: Platymetopus figuratus pictus Andrewes, 1923
(Figs. 54–56, 63, 64, 68, 69, 73)
Platymetopus pictus Andrewes, 1923: 233. Type locality: “Mysore”, Karnataka, India.
Platymetopus figuratus somalicus Basilewsky, 1948: 209. Type locality: “monts Mabla, C. des Adaels, 500– 1.000 m ”, Djibouti.
Platymetopus indicus Jedlička, 1969: 3. Type locality: “Madras: Coimbatore”, India.
Type material examined. Holotype of Platymetopus figuratus somalicus: female, labelled “ Mts Mabla 500–1000 m, C. des Adaels”, “Cote Francaise des Somalis”, “ Muséum Paris 1937–38 Aubert de la Rue”, “HOLOTYPE”, and “ Platymetopus figuratus ssp. somalicus nov. P. Basilewsky det. P. BA” (MNHN).
Holotype of Platymetopus indicus: female, labelled “Indien Madras Coimbatore 1400 f. XI. leg. P.S. Nathan 1964”, “Holotypus”, and “ Platymetopus indicus sp. n. det. Ing. Jedlička ” (ZSM).
Additional material examined. 16 specimens (males and females) from Djibouti, Pakistan and India (see Kataev & Wrase 2016).
Description. Body length: 7.0–8.2 (m 7.6) mm. Body proportions in Table 1. Habitus as Fig. 68.
Body brown to dark brown, occasionally almost black; head generally darker than pronotum and elytra; dorsum slightly shiny, with or without metallic green tinge; labrum, narrow lateral margins of pronotum and in some specimens also epipleura of pronotum and elytra (apically) brown; each elytron with intervals 6–8 and apices of other intervals yellow; in many specimens interval 7, occasionally also 8 and rarely 6, infuscate in short distance preapically; in some specimens also intervals 2 and 4 paler, brown or brownish yellow. Palpi and antennae yellowish brown, with basal segments yellow; legs yellow, with tarsi generally slightly darker, yellow brown.
Head with large, more or less convex eyes; tempora short and flat; genae slightly wider than antennomere 1. Labral apex concave at middle. Supraorbital pore small, located close to supraorbital suture slightly before level of posterior margin of eye. Frons and vertex densely punctate, with obliterate transverse meshes between punctures. Mandibles longer than in other species, curved apically (Fig. 69). Antennae moderately long, slightly surpassing pronotal basal margin; antennomeres 4–8 about 2.3–2.5 times as long as wide.
Pronotum comparatively wide, widest in the end of apical third. Sides rounded, with a short prebasal sinuation; lateral bead complete, very narrow throughout; lateral furrow recognized from apical to basal angles, narrow or slightly widened along entire length; medial lateral seta inserted almost in widest point. Apical margin very shallowly emarginate, border more or less obliterate at middle. Apical angles almost not prominent anteriorly, very wide, rounded at apex. Basal margin about as long as apical margin and markedly shorter than elytral base, distinctly bordered along entire length, ciliate. Basal angles obtusangular, with sharp apex, not denticulate. Disc moderately convex, more or less depressed laterobasally. Basal foveae moderately wide, outlines indistinct, usually fused with laterobasal depressions. Median line distinct, short, markedly not reaching anterior and basal margins. Anterior and posterior transverse depressions very wide and shallow or almost indistinct. Surface with dense double punctation consisting of larger and smaller punctures, and with obliterate slightly transverse indistinct meshes between punctures.
Elytra elongate, widest in apical third, convex on disc and moderately sloping to apex. Humeri slightly prominent, angularly rounded, with a tiny denticle. Lateral margins more or less smooth along entire length (at most with several indistinct nicks basally). Preapical sinuation shallow, not long; sutural angle acutangular, blunted or very narrowly rounded at tip. Striae slightly impressed along entire length, punctate anteriorly, gradually becoming smooth behind middle. Intervals slightly convex or almost flat, either equally wide or intervals 3, 5 and 7 slightly wider than neighboring. Discal setigerous pores absent. Marginal umbilicate series more or less clearly divided in basal and apical groups, each consisting of 6–8 setigerous pores. Punctation very fine and dense, with three to five punctures across each interval in its middle portion. Microsculpture between punctures present throughout, consisting of distinct slightly transverse meshes.
Prosternal process bordered. Proepisternum indistinctly punctate. Metepisternum narrow, much longer than wide, strongly narrowed posteriorly. Wings fully developed.
Metatarsus slender, slightly shorter than HWmin, in both sexes moderately densely setose ventrally. Male proand mesotarsomeres 1–4 only slightly dilated, each with adhesive vestiture.
Apex of abdominal sternite subtruncate or slightly concave in male and widely rounded in female, in both sexes with two pairs of marginal setigerous pores.
Female genitalia (Figs. 63, 64): laterotergite with angulate apex and with one apical seta; distal mesal angle of gonosubcoxite not prominent, with a long seta at apex; gonocoxite narrow, about as long as gonosubcoxite, with one short and thin seta on dorsal ridge of outer side.
Aedeagus (Figs. 54–56): median lobe in lateral view slightly arcuate, with ventral margin almost straight medially; apex angularly bent ventrally, without a ventroapical denticle; in dorsal view median lobe almost straight, narrowed basally and apically; terminal lamella triangular, about as long as wide, blunted apically; internal sac without spines and spiny patches.
Comparison. Platymetopus figuratus pictus is readily distinguished from all other Asian species by brown elytra with an elongate yellow stripe on intervals 6–8 along their entire or almost entire length and with yellow apices of other intervals; in addition, in contrast to other congeners, its mandibles are more elongate and curved apically. The intervals 7 and 8 in some specimens, very rarely also the interval 6 (as, for example, in the holotype of P. indicus) are darkened in short distance behind middle.
Distribution (Fig. 73). Platymetopus figuratus pictus ranges over East Africa (Eritrea, Djibouti), Yemen (including Socotra), Saudi Arabia, Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, North-West Frontier, and Balochistan), India (Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu), and Sri Lanka (Andrewes 1930, Kataev & Wrase 2016, Abdel-Dayen et al. 2018). The nominotypical subspecies is widely distributed in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Remarks. The photographs of the holotype of P. pictus is available on the site of BMNH (https://data.nhm. ac.uk/dataset/56e711e6-c847-4f99-915a-6894bb5c5dea/resource/05ff2255-c38a-40c9-b657-4ccb55ab2feb/ record/9311204).
Kataev & Wrase (2016) discussed the status of this taxon and listed the main differences of it from the nominotypical subspecies. As additional characteristics of P. figuratus pictus, the longer mandibles and sinuate basally pronotal sides should also be indicated (see Figs. 68, 69 and Figs. 70, 71). Given these features, especially given the probable uniqueness for the genus of such a character as elongated mandibles, P. figuratus pictus may deserve to be returned to its species rank. The study of additional material from Eastern Africa is necessary to completely determine the status of this taxon.
description: Published as part of Kataev, Boris M., 2023, A review of Asian species of the genus Platymetopus (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Harpalini), pp. 501-536 in Zootaxa 5306 (5) on pages 530-533, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5306.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/8073166