Lachnaia gallaeca Baselga & Ruiz-Garcia, new species
Creators: name: Ruiz-García, Andrés Baselga And Javier
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2007
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Chrysomelidae
Lachnaia
Lachnaia gallaeca

description: Lachnaia gallaeca Baselga & Ruiz-García, new species (Figs. 1–2, 9, 17)
Lachnaia tristigma: Baselga & Novoa, 2006
Type material: HOLOTYPE MALE: SPAIN: Lugo, Sierra de Ancares, Liber [29TPH5648], 23 May 1998 (A. Baselga). Holotype is deposited in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain (Type Catalogue No. 9918). PARATYPES: SPAIN: Lugo, Sierra de Ancares, Catro Ventos [29TPH6244], 5 July 1998, 1 female (Baselga, MNCN); Lugo, Sierra de Ancares, Liber, same data as holotype, 2 males (Baselga, BASC); Lugo, O Corgo, Manán [29TPH2355], 16 May 1993, 1 female (G. Cerviño, BASC); Ourense, Baltar, San Martiño [29TPG0240], 22 May 1999, 7 males and 3 females (Baselga, BASC); Ourense, Manzaneda, Prada [29TPG4479], 20 June 2003, 1 male and 3 females; Ourense, Os Blancos, Nocedo [29TPG0749], 22 May 1999, 3 males and 1 female (Baselga, BASC); Ourense, Piñor [29TNH8006], 12 June 1996, 3 females (Baselga, BASC); Ourense, Vilariño de Conso, Pradoalbar [29TPG4071], 8 July 2003, 2 females (Baselga, BASC); Ourense, Vilariño de Conso, San Cristobo [29TPG5072], 23 May 2003, 3 males and 2 females (Baselga, BASC).
Etymology. The specific epithet is the adjective gallaecus, the Latin demonym for the Roman province of Gallaecia, the northwestern region of the Iberian peninsula currently named Galicia.
Description. Length = 6.5–9.0 mm (n = 33). Body strongly convex, about 2.2 times longer than wide. Colour black with blue metallic shimmer, with exception of elytra which are orange with one humeral and two post-median black dots. Head: Unicoloured black, including antennae and mouth parts, covered with whitish setae. Clypeus with a subtriangular median notch and covered with a coarse and strongly wrinkled punctuation, as well as frons. Vertex covered with a finer punctuation and not wrinkled. Antennae dentate from fourth joint to the apex. First antennomere cylindrical, as long as second and third together. Fourth to tenth antennomeres subtriangular and very slightly wider than long. Eleventh antennomere ovoid, 1.3 times longer than wide. Pronotum: 1.7 times wider than long, slightly emarginated in the anterior side. Lateral sides broadly margined, basal side narrowly margined. Surface covered with large punctures bearing whitish hairs, the space between punctures shiny with some micro-punctures. Elytra: strongly convex, 2.3 times longer than wide, widest behind middle. Lateral sides constricted behind humeral callus, which is well developed. Lateral margins narrowly explanate, apex rounded. Surface glabrous, punctation completely disordered. Punctures large, effacing to the apex. Space between punctures dull and covered with micro-punctures. Median lobe of aedeagus: strongly deflexed in lateral view (Figs. 1 a, 2a), enlarged apically in dorsal view (Figs. 1 b, 2b). Apex bearing a dorsal operculum comprised by two lateral arms and a central large mushroom-shaped piece, which is not wider than the lateral arms. Below the mushroom-shaped piece appear two elongate pieces protruding from the sclerotized structure of the endophallus (Fig. 9). Endophallus with two lateral arms enlarged apically, one unpaired central sclerite located, approximately as broad as long and wider apically than basally, located in front of two ear-shaped pieces. Spermatheca: receptacle and hooked pump not delimited, duct extraordinarily long and thin, forming no small loops (Fig. 17).
Diagnosis. Length = 6.5–9.0 mm. Among the species belonging to the L. tristigma species group, the new taxon can be separated by the large size of the median lobe of aedeagus (3.5–4.0 mm, n = 9) (Figs. 1 a, 2a), which has a mushroom-shaped piece in the operculum, large but not wider than the lateral arms (Fig. 1 b, 2b); the shape of the sclerites of the endophallus (Fig. 9), with two lateral pieces enlarged apically and the unpaired central sclerite approximately as long as broad and wider apically than basally; spermathecal duct extraordinarily long and not curled in small loops (Fig. 17).
Distribution. The new species is known from the Galician provinces of Lugo and Ourense (northwest Spain). Its presence in the neighbour provinces of Pontevedra and León, as well as in North Portugal, is quite probable due to the position of some currently known localities near the boundaries of these regions.
Ecology. No determinant information is available regarding the host-plant of the new species. Several specimens were captured on flowers of Halimium alyssoides (Lam.) C. Koch. [Cistaceae] or spikes of Poaceae, always near oak forests.
description: Published as part of Ruiz-García, Andrés Baselga And Javier, 2007, Revision of the Lachnaia tristigma (Lacordaire, 1848) species-group (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and description of a new species, pp. 39-46 in Zootaxa 1630 on pages 40-41, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.179407