Odontocheila tawahka Johnson 1996
Creators: name: Moravec, Jiří
name: Brzoska, David
name: Huber, Ronald
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Carabidae
Odontocheila
Odontocheila tawahka

description: Odontocheila tawahka Johnson, 1996
(Figs 122–131, 208).
Odontocheila tawahka Johnson, 1996: 38, 39, fig. 1, 40.
Type locality. Honduras: Krausirpi, Gracias a Dios, 15°03´N, 84°52´W.
Type material. Holotype ♂ and allotype ♀ in CMNC (not examined). Paratypes. Of the 41 type specimens listed by Johnson (1996), following paratypes examined: 1 ♂ in FCCR, 2 ♂♂ in DBCN, 1 ♂, 1 ♀ in RLHC: “ Honduras, Krausirpi, Gracias a Dios, 15°03´N, 84°52´W, 23 May 1994, RD Cave Collector ”[printed]; “ Paratype, Odontocheila tawahka, W. Johhnson ” [yellow, printed]. 1 ♀ in NHMW with same labels except for: “ 21– 24.V.1994, B. D. Gill”.
Differential diagnosis. O. tawahka has the apex of its aedeagus very similar to the aedeagi of O. mexicana, O. potosiana sp. nov. and O. iodopleura.
It can be distinguished from the closely related O. iodopleura by its almost uniformly bright green or violaceous-blue elytra (except for the purple-violet juxtaepipleural stripe usual in all species). Moreover, the labrum and particularly the mandibles, penultimate and terminal palpomeres of maxillary palpi and legs are in O. tawahka notably paler.
For the differences of O. mexicana and O. potosiana sp. nov. see under O. iodopleura.
O. ignita and O. exilis can be immediately distinguished by their predominantly reddish-cupreous elytra and very different aedeagi.
Redescription (based on the examined paratypes, and with comparison to O. iodopleura).
Body (Fig 122) 8.80–9.90 mm long, 2.60–3.00 mm wide.
Head (Fig. 123) 2.65–2.90 mm wide, all head portions basically as in O. iodopleura.
Labrum basically shaped as in O. iodopleura, but generally paler; male labrum (Figs 124–125) 0.70–0.75 mm long, 1.05–1.15 mm wide; female labrum (Fig. 126) 1.10 mm long, 1.15 mm wide.
Palpi (Fig. 123) as in O. iodopleura, but generally paler.
Mandibles (Fig. 123) as in O. iodopleura, but notably paler.
Antennae (Figs 121, 123) rather short, in male reaching only elytral third, scape with only apical seta, together with antennomeres 2–4 metallic (Fig. 123) blue or violaceous, antennomeres 5–11 smoky black.
Pronotum (Fig. 127) shaped and with surface sculpture as in O. iodopleura, metallic-green with blue or violaceous lateral areas, mostly as long as wide, length 1.75–1.85 mm, width 1.80–1.85 mm.
Elytra (Figs 129–131) shaped as in O. iodopleura, 5.30–5.80 mm long, almost uniformly coloured (except for the common, violaceous juxtaepipleural area), metallic-green or green-blue, sometimes with extended purpleviolaceous lateral area, pattern of punctation and whitish elytral maculae as in O. iodopleura.
Legs as in O. iodopleura, but notably paler.
Aedeagus (Fig. 128) as in O. iodopleura and other species of this species-complex, 3.20 mm long, 0.85 mm wide.
Variability. The examined paratypes of O. tawahka possessed only indistinct variability.
Biology and distribution (map Fig. 208). Odontocheila tawahka is known only from the type series caught in Honduras. The village of Krausirpi lies on the banks of the Patuca River in the municipality of Wampusirpi, department of Gracias a Dios, a centre of indigenous Tawahka people. According to Johnson (1996), the adults were caught along a trail within relatively undisturbed tropical forest.
Remarks. In the original description of O. tawahka, Johnson (1996) did not describe aedeagus of his new species, and probably for that reason he considered O. ignita and O. exilis as its closest relatives, despite the very different shape of the apex of their aedeagi; in fact, O. tawahka is morphologically similar to O. iodopleura (see under that species above).
description: Published as part of Moravec, Jiří, Brzoska, David & Huber, Ronald, 2017, Taxonomic and nomenclatorial revision within the Neotropical genera of the subtribe Odontocheilina W. Horn in a new sense — 18. Six Mexican and Central American species related to Odontocheila mexicana Laporte de Castelnau and O. ignita Chaudoir, with a description of O. potosiana sp. nov., pp. 451-499 in Zootaxa 4231 (4) on pages 480-482, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4231.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/292697