Giesberticus Wappes and Santos-Silva 2019, new genus
Creators: name: Wappes, James E.
name: Santos-Silva, Antonio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cerambycidae
Giesberticus

description: Giesberticus Wappes and Santos-Silva, new genus
Etymology. Giesberticus is named to honor and recognize Edmund Giesbert (Giesbert + Latin suffix “-icus”, meaning “belonging to”), who was one of the early cerambycid collectors to venture into Bolivia. After discovering its mostly unknown and wonderfully diverse Cerambycidae fauna he shared knowledge of his discoveries and eagerly encouraged others to follow. Some did, and in the next 20 years more than 1,300 new or unrecorded species were formally added to Bolivia’s cerambycid fauna. Masculine gender.
Type species. Giesberticus longiventris new species, here designated.
Description. Male. Moderate size; body slender. Head in dorsal view transverse, almost as wide as prothoracic width, slightly prolonged behind eyes (posterior edge of eyes barely separated from edge of prothorax), lacking distinct rostrum. Antennal tubercles basally removed from each other. Eyes large; lower eye lobe occupying most of side and front of head; in frontal view, lower eye lobes nearly contiguous medially. Galea longer than maxillary palpus. Antennae short, not reaching apex of metathorax; scape shorter than antennomere III; antennomere III cylindrical; remaining antennomeres widened, especially from VI, almost clavate. Prothorax slightly longer than wide; anterior and posterior margins with similar width; anterior and posterior constrictions well-marked; sides rounded between constrictions. Pronotum coarsely, densely punctate between constrictions (punctures nearly reticulate); without gibbosities or sulci. Procoxal cavities closed behind; mesocoxal cavities closed laterally, but apex of metaventrite not touching apex of mesoventrite. Prosternal process noticeably narrow centrally, pentagonal posteriorly. Mesoventral process strongly inclined from mesoventrite. Metanepisternum large, subtriangular. Elytra long, distinctly gradually narrowed from humerus to near apex of anterior third, then narrow, parallelsided toward apex; apex obliquely truncate; vitreous area only distinct in basal half, gradually becoming slightly translucent toward apex; sutural margins slightly divergent near apex; when viewed dorsally, humerus nearly obscuring sides of mesothorax. Procoxae conical, roundly projected at apex of inner side, with inner margins parallel-sided or nearly so, with their apices distinctly higher than prosternal process. Mesocoxae with blunt projections at apex of inner side, with their apices distinctly higher than mesoventral process, which reaches only about middle of coxae. Profemora slightly pedunculate-clavate (almost fusiform); metafemora distinctly pedunculate-clavate, with distinct acute tubercles at ventral side of club; metafemora pedunculate-clavate, with club slightly and gradually widened, apex slightly surpassing elytral apex. Metatibiae without brush of setae. Metatarsomere I about as long as II–III together. Abdomen noticeably longer, pedunculate-clavate, with elytra not covering the last three segments.
Female. Unknown.
Remarks. Giesberticus gen. nov. differs from Sphecomorpha Newman, 1838 as follows: Elytra with distal area not distinctly narrowed and rounded; abdomen noticeably long, with last three segments not covered by elytra; sutural margins of elytra diverging near apex; metafemoral club slender. In Sphecomorpha the elytra are gradually narrowed toward their rounded apex, the abdomen in the male is shorter, with the elytra exposing at most the two last segments, the sutural margins of the elytra are strongly divergent from at least the midlength toward the apices, and the metafemoral club is not slender. The new genus differs from Acyphoderes Audinet-Serville, 1833 by the distinctly longer and more slender body (shorter and stouter in Acyphoderes), pronotum without longitudinal depression bordered medially by strong calli (this kind of structure is not found in Acyphoderes), metafemoral club distinctly slender (stouter in Acyphoderes), and the abdomen in males is distinctly longer (shorter in Acyphoderes). The general appearance of Giesberticus is much like that of Monneus Magno, 2001, differing by the longer elytra not acuminate toward apex and not strongly divergent at the sutural margins (elytra shorter, acuminate toward apex, and strongly divergent at sutural margins in Monneus), abdomen in male pedunculate-clavate (cylindrical in Monneus), and antennae shorter, distinctly not reaching elytral apex and widened in distal segments (surpassing elytral apex, slender and not distinctly widened in distal segments in Monneus). Giesberticus differs from Odontogracilis Clarke, 2015 by the pronotum without distinct gibbosities and disk not irregular (with gibbosities and irregular in Odontogracilis), elytra obliquely truncate at apex (subacuminate in Odontogracilis), and metafemoral club longer and not abruptly widened (shorter and abruptly widened in Odontogracilis). It can be separated from Ameriphoderes Clarke, 2015 by the pronotum not longitudinally sulcate (in Ameriphoderes, similar to that in Acyphoderes), metafemoral club slender and not abruptly clavate (somewhat stouter and more abruptly clavate in Ameriphoderes), and elytra obliquely truncate at apex (gradually narrowed, and rounded or nearly so in Ameriphoderes). Although it is not possible to clearly define differences between Giesberticus and Odontocera Audinet-Serville, 1833, due to the chaotic situation of the latter, it differs from all other species currently placed in Odontocera by the visibly much longer abdomen in the male.
description: Published as part of Wappes, James E. & Santos-Silva, Antonio, 2019, Descriptions of one new genus and seven new species of Rhinotragini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Cerambycinae), pp. 1-19 in Insecta Mundi 695 on page 12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3670526