Attalus (Attalus) miricauda Franzini, Constantin & Valkenburg, 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Franzini, Gabriele
name: Constantin, Robert
name: Valkenburg, Thijs
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Melyridae
Attalus
Attalus miricauda

description: Attalus (Attalus) miricauda sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: F152233C-1BB3-4D44-8F44-C9ED944B0E80
Holotype ♂: Portugal, Algarve, São Brás de Alportel / 26.III.2023 / MHNCUP-ART-41205 / Thijs Valkenburg leg. The holotype will be deposited in the MHNP, institution that maintains a research collection accessible for study, with proper facilities for preserving name-bearing types.
18 Paratypes as below:
1 ♂ Portugal (PT) Algarve / São Brás de Alportel / 26.III.2023, Thijs Valkenburg leg. (CFr); 2 ♀ idem 2.III.2024, Thijs Valkenburg leg. (CCo); 1 ♀ Algarve PT / Castro Marim / 05.III.2023, Thijs Valkenburg leg. (CFr); 1 ♀ Algarve PT / Monchique / 2.IV.2023 / MHNCUP-ART-41206 / Thijs Valkenburg leg. (MHNP); 3 ♀ idem / 10.III.2024, Thijs Valkenburg leg. (CFr); 1 ♂ 5 ♀ Algarve PT Alcoutim / Ribeira da Foupana / 16.III.2024, Thijs Valkenburg leg. (CFr); 1 ♂ Portugal, Algarve / Silves 5 km W / Mira Rio, am Rio Arade / 3.III.2010 leg. Frank Frizlar (CCo); 1 ♂ and 2 ♀, Carrapateira, Amado [Amado surf school] 4.III.2004, Marion Manti č leg. (NMPC).
Short diagnosis
An Attalus of the subgenus Attalus entirely dark metallic green, shiny, frons with retro-antennal bumps, pronotum strongly transverse, elytra with strong punctuation without rugosity, apices in males obliquely excavate, smooth, shiny and separately pointed and inflated. A. (A.) miricauda sp. nov. differs from all other Attalus (Attalus) species for the above mentioned structure of apex of elytra in males.
Description
Male. Habitus as in Fig. 1. Measurements: TL 3, 6 mm; HW 0, 7 mm; IOW 0, 4 mm; AL 1,0 mm; PL 0, 7 mm; PW 0, 8 mm; EL 1, 7 mm; EW 0, 8 mm. Colour: Upper body surface dark green with metallic reflection. Antennae infuscate towards apex, with antennomeres 2–4 more or less brownishtestaceous, especially on underside. Epistoma dark, clypeus brownish-yellow, mandibles, maxillary and labial palpi entirely dark. Legs entirely dark. Integument shiny, covered by short, sparse recumbent grey vestiture and long erected black setae. Ventral surface brown, including mesepimera.
Head with eyes included, slightly narrower than pronotum; frons with transverse retroantennal bumps visible in low-angled light (Fig. 2); vertex slightly depressed with a median recess; last maxillary palpomere spindle-shaped, twice as long as wide; antennae (Fig. 8) reaching basal third of the elytra, antennomere I thickened distally, II short and subglobose, III −X triangular, twice as long as wide, XI longer than X, spindle-shaped and pointed. Pronotum transverse, 1.4 times as wide as long, moderately convex; anterior margin advanced, sides uniformly rounded; base rounded, rimmed and slightly raised. Scutellum transverse. Elytra about 2.5 times longer than pronotum, base as wide as the pronotum in its greatest width; humeral callus prominent; sides subparallel in their first half, then gradually widened; surface strongly and densely punctate, the points as wide as the interval between them. Elytral apices (Fig. 4) separately pointed, each with a mirror-like oblique zone bordered by thickened rear edge; basal surface minutely punctate by few short setae and dense network of microscopic pores, probably related to pheromone secretions. Legs slender, covered with short, fine, uniform whitish pubescence, without long dark setae; pro- and mesotibiae straight, distal part of metatibiae weakly arched. Black comb on protarsomere II very evident (Figs. 6, 7). Abdomen with tergite VIII (Fig. 10) transverse, sub-rectangular, with a pair of long anterior struts, sinuate posteriorly and the middle of the apex extended backwards. Sternite VIII (Figs. 5, 11) strongly emarginate, the notch almost reaching the base of the segment, delimiting two rounded subtriangular lobes joined by a narrow sclerotised link. Median lobe of aedeagus (Figs. 12, 13) slender, angular at mid-length and slightly bent at apex in lateral view; internal sac with small spines assembled in longitudinal groups, two long lateral and one shorter medial, without large sclerites. Tegmen short, attached dorsally to the base of the median lobe, pointed at apex in lateral view. Spicular fork (spiculum gastrale) (Fig. 14) almost as long as median lobe, the two arms S-shaped and distally setose.
Female. Differs from the male by eyes less convex (Fig. 3), by antennae shorter with antennomeres more obtuse (Fig. 9). Elytra with simple apices. Protarsomere II simple, without black combs. Tergite VIII (Fig. 15) twice as wide as long, its apical edge rounded with a short medial triangular emargination. Sternite VIII (Fig. 16) short, crescent-shaped, the median portion thinned and slightly concave. Dimensions of a female paratype: TL 3.5 mm; AL 1.32 mm; HW 0.76 mm; IOW 0.52 mm; PL 0.77 mm; PW 1.33 mm; EL 2.35 mm; EW 1.18 mm. Other females: length 3.3-3.5 mm.
Differential diagnosis
Attalus (Attalus) miricauda n. sp. is similar to the blue Attalus with brown legs from the Iberian Peninsula, in particular Attalus (Attalus) baguenai Escalera, 1942, Attalus (Attalus) rosenhaueri Evers, 1962, Attalus (Attalus) atrocyaneus Uhagon, 1898, Attalus (Attalus) mateui Pardo Alcaide, 1954 and Attalus (Attalus) santiagoi Evers, 1988 (according to Evers, 1988; Plata Negrache & Santiago Hernández, 1990), and two Moroccan species, Attalus (Attalus) viridescens Pic, 1932 and Attalus (Attalus) dasytiformis Abeille de Perrin, 1885 (Evers, 1966; Plata Negrache & Santiago Hernández, 1987). A. (A.) miricauda n. sp. can be distinguished from all these species by the elytral apex of the males showing an oblique excavation with a shiny base, the frons with two retroantennal bumps, the shape of the antennomeres and the body pubescence.
Etymology
The new species is named after the peculiar (latin mirus, strange) structure of apex of elytra in male.
Distribution
All the localities known so far for A. (A.) miricauda n. sp. are in Faro, the southernmost district of Portugal. Future discovery in the adjacent province of Huelva is possible, as a similar female specimen from Almería is present in the collections of SMNS. The discovery of male specimens will however be required to confirm its occurrence in Andalusia.
Ecology
The new species has been collected in Mediterranean broad-leaved mixed vegetation. Some of the specimens were found on Erica arborea and Cistus ladanifer. On the basis of specimens collected and observations deposited in iNaturalist by a co-author (TV), the period of activity is between mid-February and end-March.
Results
The taxonomic position of the new taxon is based on existing literature. Plata Negrache & Santiago Hernández (1987, 1990) are to be credited with recalling and clarifying the characters of the genus Attalus and its recognised subgenera. In his catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera, Mayor (2007) lists more than 220 taxa divided into six subgenera. Attalus (A.) mateui is the closest species to Attalus (A.) miricauda n. sp., but the latter differs in the size of the antennomeres, relief of the frons, the elytral excavation of the males and the apically incised sternite VIII of the females.
Special male structures on the apex of elytra are already known in subtribe Attalina in genus Nepachys C.G. Thomson, 1859, traditionally included in this subtribe, and characterized in males by pectinate antennae and excavate elytral apex bearing spiny appendages. Even more surprisingly, the modification of the elytral apex reappears in the same way in another Western Europe representative of subtribe Malachiina, Clanoptilus (Hypoptilus) barnevillei Puton, 1865, in the form of an oblique impression with a smooth base.
In our opinion, it would be inappropriate to define a new taxon at genus level, despite the presence of these structures. Indeed, the supra-specific taxonomy of the subfamily Malachiinae (Tshernyshev, 2021) is still based on secondary male characters (mainly antennae, tarsi, elytral apex) and shows some unresolved weaknesses; in particular the polyphyletic nature of the genus Attalus has already been noted in two molecular phylogeny studies based on four genes (Bocakova et al., 2012; Gimmel et al., 2019). A revision of the subtribe Attalina based on a larger number of characters and a wider panel of species from all over the world will therefore be of great use.
description: Published as part of Franzini, Gabriele, Constantin, Robert & Valkenburg, Thijs, 2024, A new species of the genus Attalus Erichson, 1840 from Algarve (Portugal) discovered by citizen science (Coleoptera, Melyridae, Malachiinae), pp. 191-197 in Arquivos Entomolóxicos 30 on pages 192-194, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14664698