Mylabris (Mylabris) cernyi Pan & Bologna, sp. n.
Creators: name: Pan, Zhao
name: Bologna, Marco A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mylabris
Mylabris cernyi

description: Mylabris (Mylabris) cernyi Pan & Bologna sp. n.
Figs. 1 G, 10A–G
Type locality. “ Turecko [= Turkey] (Adana) Hamidia near Pozanti”.
Type specimens. Holotype male with the following label: “ Turecko [= Turkey] (Adana) Hamidia near Pozanti, Šobotnik lgt. 23.7.1998 ” (MAB, 1 CC); 5 male paratypes with the same label of the holotype; 6 male paratypes labelled: “ Turchia [= Turkey] v. [= province] Antakya, 17. Topboǧazi, m 1110, 11.6.1986 M. Bologna” (MAB, 1 CC); 8 male paratypes labelled: “ Turchia [= Turkey] v. [= province] Adiyaman, 21. Gölbasi dint. [= env.], m 500, 14.6.1986, M. Bologna” (MAB); 3 male paratypes labelled: “ Turkey: Vil. [= province], Içel, m 700, 29.vi.1999, Çamliyayla-Gülek, N37.15750° – E34.77396°, M. & M. Bologna, F. Turco” (MAB); 1 male paratype labelled: “ Turkey, Vil. Adana, 15 km W Bahce, m 500, N37.16694° – E36.43947°, 25.vi.2005, M. & M. Bologna, F. Turco” (MAB); 2 male paratypes labelled: “ Turchia, Içel, dint. di Mut, 3/ 6.6.2011, Padovani Malmusi leg.” (MAB); 1 male paratype labelled: “Antalya, 18.6.86 Y. Ot” (MAB); 2 male paratypes labelled: “ Turquie [= Turkey] Antalya, Cirali, 195 m, 21.5.1995 tige de Senecio, L. Casset ” (MAB); 2 male paratypes labelled: “ Turchia, Manavgat, 6.90, Rauchenstrach” (MAB). Types have an additional label “ Holotypus ♂ (and paratypus ♂, respectively) Mylabris (Myl.) cernyi n. sp. Z. Pan & M. Bologna det. 2013” (red, rectangular, printed and handwritten).
Other material examined. Turkey: 1 ex. Çanakkale, 10 km S Çanakkale (MAB); 1 ex. Çanakkale, Truva (MAB); 2 exx. Adana, Amanus Mts., Yarpuz (MAB); Adana, Nurdaği geç. (MSNM). Lebanon: 1 ex. Chouf, Ain Zhalta (MAB). Israel-Palestine: 1 ex. Mevo Shilo (MUH); 1 ex. Nahariya (CP); 1 ex. Kfar Shmu’el (TAU); 1 ex. Jerusalem, Mishor Adummim (MAB). Jordan: 2 ex. Jarash, Burma env., Al Huna (CC; MAB); 2 exx. Al Karak, Sarfa env. (CC; MAB). Pakistan: 2 exx. Gilgit-Baltistan, Dassu (CC; MAB); the last locality is very doubtful and need to confirm, even if the validity of record was confirmed by the collector.
Description. Male: body black, but elytra brown-reddish with the following black pattern completely similar to that of M. quadripunctata (Fig. 10 B): two irregular spots on basal third, rarely fused to form a fascia, only in one case extended along the suture to the base; one middle transverse fascia with fore margin almost straight, posterior margin sinuate in the middle, in few specimens divided to two spots; one wide apical fascia sinuate on fore margin. Setation uniformly black, but ventral side of foretibiae and foretarsi with golden setae, forming a small pad under the pro- and mesotarsomeres; length of setation on dorsum subequal to that on venter; setae denser on head and pronotum, sparser on elytra. Body length: 14.0–21.0 mm.
Head evidently longer than wide at temple level, width at eyes and temple levels subequal; punctures dense, small, relatively deep, surface among punctures shiny on vertex, wrinkled on frons; head capsule subrectangular, temple largely curved posteriorly and subequal in length to the longitudinal length of eye; frons almost flat, with one shallow depression on center, sometimes with one posteriorly bilobed red spot in the middle; clypeus transverse, convex, with slightly rounded anterior and lateral margins, anteriorly depressed and smooth, frontoclypeal suture clearly visible; labrum only slightly shorter and narrower than clypeus, anterior margin slightly emarginate, longitudinally depressed in the middle; mandibles robust, almost straight at base, turned suddenly anteriorly in dorsal view, and little longer than clypeus and labrum together; maxillary palpomere II with long setae on the posterior side, last maxillary palpomere apically thickened and truncate at apex; antennae (Fig. 10 A) relatively long, clearly extending over the posterior margin of pronotum, antennomere I approximately twice as long as II, which is semi-globular; antennomere III elongate, ca. 1.5 times as long as IV, IV and V similar in length and width, VI similar in length to IV and V, but widened apically, VII–X similar in length but progressively more apically widened, X subcylindrical, last antennomere elongate and sub-lanceolate, slightly less than twice as long as wide.
Pronotum slightly longer than wide, narrowed anteriad, convex, widest at middle; with a shallow anterior transverse depression and a small basal middle depression; posterior margin straight; punctures relatively wider and denser than on head, not confluent on anterior third, surface among punctures shiny. Elytral black pattern as in Fig. 10 B; setae shorter and sparser than on head and pronotum, erect on anterior third, recumbent and shorter on the remaining surface. Mesosternum longitudinally elevated in the middle, with a clearly modified anterior section (“scutum”), with a slightly depressed triangular area with dense and slightly long setae (Fig. 10 C); mesepisterna depressed along the anterior margin, which consequently appears to be raised. Legs black, pro- and mesotibial spurs all similar in shape and pointed, both metatibial spurs stick-like; femora with mixed short and long setae, setae robust and more elongate on tibiae and tarsi; foretibiae ventrally with mixed golden and black short and dense setae; pro- and mesotarsomeres with ventral golden setae forming tarsal pads, those of mesotarsomeres smaller.
Posterior margin of sternite VIII deeply emarginated in the middle. Male genitalia as in Figs. 10 D–G: in lateral view (Fig. 10 E) the basal part of gonoforceps wide, apical lobe of gonoforceps very short, evidently shorter than half length of the whole gonoforceps; gonoforceps (Fig. 10 D) fused ventrally in basal third; aedeagus (Fig. 10 F) with two big similar dorsal hooks, distal hook closed to the apex, the proximal one slightly bigger and more curved, endophallic hook relatively small; apodeme of the spiculum gastrale and 10th sternum completely approached and without an intermediate membranous tissue, as in Fig. 10 G.
Female. Similar to male, but with relatively shorter antennae; setae on external side of protibiae and protarsomeres I–IV mixed short, much longer than on innner side; posterior margin of sternite VIII almost straight.
Etymology. This species is named after Ladislav (Lada) Černý, a skillful Czech entomologist, who pointed out this new species to one of us some years ago and who supported our revision by sending us rich and very interesting material, including also other new species.
Taxonomic remarks. This species is phenetically very similar to M. quadripunctata, and only males are easily to distinguish according to the genitalia structure: apical lobe of gonoforceps very short and not curved forward (Fig. 10 E), gonoforceps slightly sloping in both lateral and ventral views (Figs. 10 D, E); distal hook of aedeagus similar in size and inclination to the proximal one (Fig. 10 F). Another character distinct in male of these species (even if some specimens have overlapping measures) is the ratio between antennomeres III and IV: in M. cernyi (n = 32) it is 1.432; in M. quadripunctata (n = 15) it is 1.548. Females of M. cernyi are almost impossible to distinguish from those of M. quadripunctata of the Turkish phenotypes with intermediate elytral fascia. For this reason we did not tested the antennomeres ratio in this sex.
The elytral pattern is variable but specimens with middle fascia are more common than those with this fascia divided into two spots; in one specimen are present only one inner spot on basal third and the apical fascia. The variation of elytral black pattern is represented in Fig. 10 B.
The new species is sympatric and locally syntopic with M. quadripunctata along the Mediterranean areas of Turkey and in the Levant; and surely in the museum collections, some specimens were erroneously identified. We examined one specimen from southern Turkey, Toros Dağlari, Sertavul geçidi, which is probably a hybrid with M. quadripunctata, due to the intermediate characters of male genitalia.
Distribution. Mediterranean Turkey, Israel and Palestine, Jordan. One record from northern Pakistan (Dessu) needs to be confirmed.
description: Published as part of Pan, Zhao & Bologna, Marco A., 2014, Taxonomy, Bionomics and Faunistics of the Nominate Subgenus of Mylabris Fabricius, 1775, with the description of five new species (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Mylabrini), pp. 1-78 in Zootaxa 3806 (1) on pages 22-24, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3806.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286141