Limonius sapphirus Arimoto & Suzuki 2020, sp. n.
Creators: name: Arimoto, Kôichi
name: Suzuki, Wataru
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Elateridae
Limonius
Limonius sapphirus

description: Limonius sapphirus Arimoto & Suzuki, sp. n.
(Figures 1–4, 7A)
Etymology. In reference to the body shining in blue and green like sapphire jewelry.
Type material. Holotype. Male (LSA001), near Mt. Lala, Taoyuan City to Taipei City, Taiwan, 1 V 1978, Toshio Kobayashi leg. Paratype. Female (LSA002), Mt. Lala, Taiwan, 20–24 V 1980, Hiroshi Makihara leg.
Diagnosis. Body surface with metallic luster; elytra interspaces between punctures larger than puncture diameter. Body light blue, but elytra darker in male; body light blue, but head and prothorax light green in female. Frons in profile weakly depressed apically; supra-antennal carina in dorsal view broadly rounded, but almost straight apically. Antennae extending beyond the posterior apices of pronotum by apical three antennomeres in male, by apical antennomere in female; antennomere III slightly longer than II; IV distinctly longer than wide, longer than II–III combined, longer than V. Prothorax widening posteriad; lateral carina of prothorax weakly prominent just behind anterior angles. Anterior lobe of prosternum in profile weakly inclined. Mesial edge of hypomeron carinate anterolaterad. Prosternal spine with subapical tooth; sides at ventral view roundly expanded and anteriorly strongly prominent. Scutellum almost as long as wide or slightly shorter than wide, strongly convex; posterior margin broadly rounded, but apex almost transverse. Mesepisternum not reaching mesocoxal cavity.
Measurements. Male. BL: 8.35, BW: 2.39, MIE: 0.90, MAE: 1.24, OI: 139, PL: 2.30, PML: 2.18, PW: 2.07, PI: 111, EL: 5.44, EW: 2.39, EI: 228, BI: 237. Female. BL: 9.35, BW: 2.87, MIE: 1.00, MAE: 1.35, OI: 135, PL: 2.60, PML: 2.50; PW: 2.34, PI: 111, EL: 6.09, EW: 2.87, EI: 212, BI: 234.
Description. Body surface generally with metallic luster and smooth, but ventral side of prosternal spine with micro-structure (Fig. 2A), elytra partly rough; interspaces between punctures generally larger than puncture diameter, but head depression and scutellum interspaces between punctures smaller than puncture diameter (Figs. 1D, 2B, C). Color. Male. Body light blue, but elytra darker (Fig. 1A, C). Female. Body light blue, but head and prothorax light green (Fig. 1B). Labrum black. Antennae black, but external part of antennomeres IV–XI brown. Mandible black, but apical and internal parts orange. Maxilally palpomeres black, with brown tinge. Anterior edges of head and pronotum, mesial margin and posterior part of hypomeron, anterior lobe of prosternum, prosternal spine, mesothorax, posterior margins of each abdominal segment black. Scutellum black with blue tinge. Legs black, partly orange; claws orange. Tergites and sternites VIII‒X and aedeagus yellow-brown. Pubescence. Body covered with intermixed white and orange setae dorsally, with white setae ventrally. Antennae with yellow to brown setae. Setae of legs white becoming yellow apically.
Head depressed longitudinally medially; the depression becoming narrow and shallow posteriad (Fig. 1D, E). Frons in profile weakly depressed apically (Fig. 1F: green line); supra-antennal carina in dorsal view broadly round- ed, but almost transverse apically (Fig. 1D), in profile strongly prominent anteriad (Fig. 1F: arrow). Antennomeres I and IV–XI longer than wide; II globular, shortest; III obconical, slightly longer than II; IV–X serrate; IV longer than II–III combined, longer than V. Male. Antennae extending beyond pronotum posterior lateral apices by apical three antennomeres (Fig. 1A); antennomere IV 1.31 x as long as wide, 1.98 x as long as III; XI 2.70 x as long as wide. Female. Antennae extending beyond pronotum posterior lateral apices by apical antennomere (Fig. 1B); antennomere IV 1.19 x as long as wide, 1.76 x as long as III; XI 2.01 x as long as wide. Mandible bidentate.
Prothorax trapezoidal, longer than wide, widening posteriad; side weakly rounded; lateral carina extending from anterior angles to hind angles of prothorax, weakly prominent just behind anterior angles (Fig. 1E: arrow). Pronotum posteriorly with a shallow median longitudinal depression; hind angles broad, rounded, unicarinate; the carina short, extending to the base. Hypomeron: mesial edge with elevated impunctate ridge next to pronotosternal suture, carinate anterolaterad (Fig. 1G: black arrow); posterior margin without large emargination, weakly sinuate. Anterior lobe of prosternum exceeding anterior angles of prothorax (Fig. 1C), in profile weakly inclined (at 15 degrees against prosternal horizontal line, Fig. 1F: red line). Prosternal spine in profile weakly inclined (at 9–10 degrees against prosternal horizontal line, Fig. 1H, I: red line), with subapical tooth; lateral lobe in profile with ventral margin almost straight to weakly emarginate (Fig. 1H, I: yellow line), at ventral view with sides roundly expanded and anteriorly strongly prominent (Fig. 2A: arrows); apical margin at ventral view rounded, with weakly prominent apex (Fig. 2A). Pronotosternal sutures not grooved, anteriorly opened and appearing double (Fig. 1G: white arrow). Scutellum 0.95–1.00 x as long as wide (Fig. 2B, C), widening posteriad, widest near posterior 1/5, strongly convex above (Fig. 1H: arrow), strongly inclined anterior-downwards; anterior margin almost transverse or shallowly emarginate; posterior margin broadly rounded, but apex almost transverse. Mesosternum with a median longitudinal carina posterior to mesosternal cavity; borders of mesosternal cavity weakly sinuate followed by strongly declivous (Fig. 1H, I: green line). Mesepisternum not reaching mesocoxal cavity (Fig. 2D). Mesepimeron with deep depression for reception of femora of mid-legs (Fig. 2D). Metasternum sulcate medially and behind mesocoxae. Elytral striae I and II weakly grooved; remaining striae not grooved and defined only by rows of punctures. Tarsomeres simple.
Abdomen with external margin micro-serrated (Fig. 2E); ventrite V 0.54–0.55 x as long as wide. Male. Tergite VIII 0.81 x as long as wide (Fig.3A). Sternite VIII with median notch rounded (Fig. 3B). Tergite IX almost as long as length of tergite X (Fig.3C). Tergite X 2.1 x as long as wide (Fig.3C). Sternite IX rounded apically (Fig.3D). Female. Terigite VIII 0.98 x as long as wide (Fig. 4B). Sternite VIII with side almost parallel on basal half (Fig. 4C); spiculum ventrale 1.9 x as long as sternite VIII (Fig. 4A), curved twice apically (Fig. 4A: arrows).
Genitalia. Male. Aedeagus (Fig. 3E, F). Basal piece 0.38 x total length of aedeagus. Median lobe exceeding apices of parameres; basal struts 0.31 x total length of median lobe. Parameres separated ventrally; apex beyond lateral subapical barb longer sub-triangular (Fig. 7A), rounded apically, 0.11 x length of dorsal side of parameres, without setae dorsally, with some long setae ventrally. Female. Coxites two segmented at ventral side (Fig. 4F: arrow), with some setae; stylus with setae near apex. Vagina long; uterus with dome-shaped sac at each dorsal and ventral side (Fig. 4D: white arrow; Fig. 4E: white triangles), with two dome-shaped bulges at right side (Fig. 4D: black arrow; Fig. 4E: black triangles); bursa copulatrix thick tubular, without sclerotized structures, with two short thin sacs (Fig. 4D: white triangles), with a long thin sac extending from apex of bursa copulatrix (Fig. 4D: double white triangles).
Comparative notes. This species is distinct from the congeners by the whole blue to green body with metallic luster. It is relatively similar to Limonius ignicollis Lewis, 1894 in having the following characters: frons in profile weakly depressed apically; supra-antennal carina in profile strongly prominent anteriad above clypeus; antennomere III slightly longer than II; antennomere IV longer than II–III combined and longer than V; prothorax widening posteriad; prosternal spine with subapical tooth; mesial edge of hypomeron carinate anterolaterad; sides of prosternal spine at ventral view anteriorly strongly prominent; scutellum strongly convex. However it is distinguished by the following contrasting characters (L. ignicollis in parentheses), except for body color: elytra interspaces between punctures lager than puncture diameter (elytra interspaces between punctures smaller than puncture diameter); supra-antennal carina in dorsal view broadly rounded but almost straight apically (supra-antennal carina in dorsal view broadly rounded but weakly emarginate apically); antennae extending beyond posterior apices of pronotum by apical three antennomeres in male and by apical antennomere in female (antennae extending beyond posterior apices of pronotum by apical two antennomeres in male and by apical antennomere in female); antennomere IV distinctly longer than wide (antennomere IV almost as long as wide); lateral carina of prothorax weakly prominent just behind anterior angles (lateral carina of prothorax strongly prominent just behind anterior angles); anterior lobe of prosternum in profile weakly inclined (anterior lobe of prosternum in profile strongly inclined); scutellum almost as long as wide or slightly shorter than wide (scutellum distinctly longer than wide); posterior margin of scutellum broadly rounded, but apex almost transverse (posterior margin of scutellum broadly rounded, but apex often shallowly emarginate).
Distribution. Taiwan: around Mt. Lala, located between Taoyuan and Taipei Cities.
description: Published as part of Arimoto, Kôichi & Suzuki, Wataru, 2020, First record and two new species of the genus Limonius Eschscholtz (Coleoptera Elateridae, Dendrometrinae) from Taiwan, pp. 89-104 in Zootaxa 4742 (1) on pages 92-96, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4742.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/3674493