Pygoluciola nitescens Ho 2019, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Ho, - Z.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lampyridae
Pygoluciola
Pygoluciola nitescens

description: Pygoluciola nitescens (Olivier 1903b) comb. nov.
Figs 422−436
Luciola nitescens Olivier 1903b: 19; 1905: 206. McDermott 1966: 110.
Type. INDIA. Darjeeling (as Dardjilling) not located.
Other specimens examined. MALAYSIA as Borneo: Sabah Ranau 7.v.2006 S. Chew female (NHML) (Figs 433, 434). Borneo, Chaper 1891, male, identified by E. Olivier (Figs 422, 423) (MNHN) (identification label reads 1. Handwritten ‘ Luciola nitescens Ern Oliv. ’; 2. Printed ‘Museum Paris Borneo Chaper 1891’). Sarawak inland Leluan I. Polunin male (ANIC) (Figs 425−432).
Diagnosis. A large heavy bodied species (12.0 mm long) with orange pronotum and black elytra which may be narrowly orange marked across their bases; distinguished from the similarly coloured P. calceata comb. nov. by its size (calceata is 9 mm long) and the outline of the MPP (in nitescens it is short and apically acute; in calceata it is about as long as wide and apically truncated).
Redescription of male. 12.0 mm long. Colour (Figs 422−424): pronotum, MS and MN orange; elytra almost black, having humerus and narrow basal area orange in type; head between eyes, antennae and palpi very dark brown almost black; venter of pro and mesothorax yellowish, of metathorax slightly darker (venter of all thoracic segments light brown in type); legs yellowish (light brown in type) with all tibiae and tarsi dark brown; basal abdominal ventrites yellowish; V6, 7 with whitish LO, V7 LO retracted from all margins in Leluan male, retracted along posterior margin only in type; all abdominal tergites yellowish in Leluan male (colour not observed in type). Pronotum: width subequal to (in type), or slightly wider than humeral width; lateral margins strongly divergent and posterolateral corners rounded and projecting. Elytron: slightly convex sided; interstitial lines not well defined. Head: GHW 6 x SIW: antennal sockets very close but not contiguous. Mouthparts: apical labial palpomere laterally flattened of the form of a broad triangle with inner edge dentate (3 teeth). Antennae:> GHW but not exceeding 2 x GHW; all segments elongate (longer than 2 x width) slender. Abdomen (Figs 423, 425): posterior margin of V7 without PLP and with short broadly rounded MPP; T8 with truncate posterior margin and subparallel sided, anterolateral prolongations long slender expanded vertically. Aedeagal sheath (Figs 427−429): tergite with anterior transverse darkened separate plate associated with but not clearly attached to the anterior margin of the sheath tergite; basal ¾ of sheath sternite with sclerotized margins very narrow, expanding in apical ¼ where it is terminated by broad paired rounded hairy lobes which are united across their bases by a darkened semicircular piece; dark transverse strip of cuticle (outline of lobes arrowed in Fig. 428). Aedeagus (Figs 430−432): slightly more than twice as long as wide and evenly wide along its entire length; BP in two well cuticularised narrow parts; membranous apical section of LL with dense line of long hairs inside their lateral margins, and quite widely expanded in horizontal plane; ML tapering to a rounded narrow apex, not much shorter than LL; darker basal portion of LL with apical 1/3 separated, rest of LL fused at their bases; anterior margin of basal portion of LL asymmetrical, produced and rounded on its left.
Female. Figs 433−436. Assigned on the basis of its size, locality and distinctive colour. 18 mm long. Colour (Figs 433, 434): pronotum dingy yellowish with faint traces of very small median brown markings; underlying fat body is retracted and confuses interpretation of colour; MS, MN dingy yellow; elytra black shiny; head, antennae and palpi black; venter of thorax and abdominal ventrites anterior to LO brown; legs brown except for dark brown tibiae and tarsi; ventrites 2–5 semitransparent and underlying fat body is visible beneath cuticle; LO in V6 creamy white retracted from anterior margin of V6; V7, 8 semitransparent orange yellow; all abdominal tergites orange yellow, semitransparent. Pronotum (Fig. 433): median anterior margin not produced anteriorly; lateral margins strongly divergent; posterolateral corners rounded and produced beyond midposterior margin; width greater than humeral width. Elytron: slightly convex sided; interstitial line 3 irregularly defined. Abdomen (Figs 433, 434): V7 posterior margin broadly emarginated with posterolateral corners rounded; V8 posterior margin emarginated (Fig. 435) with anterior margin well coloured and separated from rest of ventrite by a clear membranous position. Genitalia (Fig. 437): styli with both segments elongated slender, basal segment slightly longer than apical. Reproductive system (Fig. 436): bursa, SDG and spermatheca observed through abdomen soaked for an hour in cold KOH; bursa plates may be present but not clearly observed (white arrow indicates bursa).
Remarks. Olivier (1903b) described this species from India. We are unable to locate Indian specimens. Howev- er we believe the male described here conforms with those external features we have determined from the Bornean male described by Olivier in 1905.
The assignment to Pygoluciola is justified by the general outline of the aedeagal sheath sternite and the aedeagus pattern. This is the first time however that an aedeagal sheath in this genus was found with a separate plate lying presumably anterior to the sheath tergite. This is a feature of several species in Abscondita which our analyses show to be closely related to Pygoluciola. The pronotal outline, with strongly developed posterolateral corners and divergent lateral margins, and the distinctively shaped T8, which is parallel sided with long slender anterolateral prolongations, are more easily recognised features. However there is nothing about the outline of the terminal abdominal ventrite, which has a rounded MPP, which would suggest Pygoluciola, and the shape is more associated with species of Atyphella.
description: Published as part of Ho, - Z., 2019, The Luciolinae of S. E. Asia and the Australopacific region: a revisionary checklist (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) including description of three new genera and 13 new species, pp. 1-174 in Zootaxa 4687 (1) on pages 134-137, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4687.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3508098