Lemodes (Lagriomorpha) sulcata Young, 2011, NEW SPECIES
Creators: name: Young, Daniel K.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Anthicidae
Lemodes
Lemodes sulcata

description: Lemodes (Lagriomorpha) sulcata, NEW SPECIES
(Figs. 17–19)
Description. Length 6.6 mm (n=1). Dorsal and ventral surfaces, legs, and antennae moderately densely covered with short, mostly decumbent setae, dorsum and elytra also with a few, longer, semierect to erect setae.
Adult male (Dorsal habitus: Fig. 17). Head and mouthparts coppery-orange; mandibles rufopiceous, at least in part. Dorsal surface of head (Fig. 18) confusedly, shallowly, moderately coarsely punctate, lateral and ventral aspects with punctures less coarse, cranial neck more coarsely punctate. Compound eyes small, finely-faceted, scarcely protruding. Tempora slightly less than 1/2 the dorso-longitudinal length of compound eye. Antennae with segments 1–2 coppery-orange, distal 1/2 of antennomere 3 rufopiceous, antennomeres 4–10 largely black, antennomeres 4–7 rufopiceous at proximal ends; antennomere 11 black in proximal 1/2, yellowish-orange distally; antennae densely covered with stout, semierect and erect setae; antennomeres 2–10 each gradually wider distally, 8–10 more conspicuously so; 11th antennomere 1/2 again as long as antennomere 10, bluntly acuminate distally. Terminal segment of maxillary palpus strongly securiform. Visible dorsal and ventral surfaces of thorax copperyorange; pronotum (Figs. 17, 19) with disk broadly oval, widest in anterior 1/3, hind angles expanded below disk, giving the impression of a modified campanulate shape, densely covered with coppery-orange setae, coarsely punctate except along the midline of the disk; meson shallowly, narrowly sulcate; prothoracic coxal cavities widely open externally; scutellum coppery-orange, subquadrate, convex, coarsely punctate densely clothed in retrorsely decumbent, coppery-orange setae; mesosternum, metasternum and mesothoracic episterna with scattered, large, shallow punctures; mesothoracic episterna meeting anteromesad the mesosternum. Legs coppery-orange proximally, femoral apices, most of tibiae, and tarsi darker, suffused with rufopiceous to black pigmentation; mesothoracic and metathoracic tibiae darker than those of prothorax; paired, dorsal tibial carinae developed, only; tibial spurs very short, stout; penultimate tarsomere slightly dilated, bilobed; tarsal claws simple. Elytra copperyorange in basal 1/4, metallic blue-black to metallic blue-purple in apical 3/4, with anterior margin of dark pigmentation nearly straight across elytra, receding slightly along sutures; each elytron bearing a patch of white setae in distal 1/2 which does not attain the suture; elytra elongate, 2.5X longer than width across sub-basal humeral area, covering abdomen, margins subparallel along much of length; elytral surface rather coarsely, somewhat deeply, confusedly punctate, surface between punctures smooth to sparsely punctulate. Metathoracic wings appearing to be fully developed. Ventral surface of abdomen rufopiceous to black.
Adult female. Unknown.
Types. Holotype (ɗ, SMNS) [card-mounted] [First label]: [NEW GUINEA]: Irian Jaya: Merauke// Senggo, trail to Abau// ca. 100m. 15.–17. VI. // A. RIEDEL leg. 1994; [Second label]: Auto-Montaged// digital image(s)// per D. K. Young; [Third label]: HOLOTYPE:// Lemodes // (Lagriomorpha)// sulcata // Young.
Distribution. As detailed above, L. sulcata is presently known only from the holotype and type locality, presumably north by northeast of Senggo (per label elevation, presumably near - 5.982219° S, 139.364471° E in the Merauke district, Province of West Papua, Indonesian New Guinea).
Diagnosis. The distinctly bicolored elytra of L. sulcata with orange pigmentation restricted to the basal 1/4 to 1/2 (Fig. 17) is similar to L. albertisi (Fig. 26), L. bicolora (Fig. 28), L. elegans (Figs. 1–2), L. finisterrensis (Fig. 29), L. rugosa (Fig. 8), and L. semicoerulea (Fig. 30). The pronotal shape and antennal expansion are also similar to those of L. semicoerulea. However, the white, elytral setal patches within the metallic blue-violet to metallic blue-purple area are only seen in L. sulcata, L. albertisi (Fig. 26), and, L. elegans (Figs. 1–2). Among these species, only L. sulcata possesses a mesal, longitudinal, impunctate, shallow pronotal sulcus (Fig. 19).
Etymology. The specific epithet, sulcata, comes from the Latin root, “ sulca- ”: a furrow, groove, or trench. The epithet is in reference to the mesal, pronotal sulcus that is diagnostic for the species.
description: Published as part of Young, Daniel K., 2011, Eight new species of Lemodes (Lagriomorpha) (Coleoptera: Anthicidae: Lemodinae) from Indonesian New Guinea, with a revised key to the species, pp. 1-20 in Zootaxa 2824 on pages 10-11, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.207426