Cycloneda lacrimosa Gonzalez & Vandenberg 2006, new species
Creators: name: González, Guillermo
name: Vandenberg, Natalia J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2006
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Coccinellidae
Cycloneda
Cycloneda lacrimosa

description: Cycloneda lacrimosa González & Vandenberg, new species
(Figs. 1A; 3A, H; 4M–N; 6A; 8A; 9A–C; 10)
Diagnosis: Distinguished from other Cycloneda species by the bicolored or very weakly tricolored elytra with a large ocher­colored teardrop­shaped sutural macula, and by the robust convex oblong body form (Figs. 1A, 3A). This species appears to be closely related to C. disconsolata, new species, but the latter has the elytron distinctly tricolored and the dark discal figure extended obliquely toward the humeral angle. If females of the two species are compared, C. lacrimosa is distinctly broader. Cycloneda lacrimosa is similar in color and convexity to C. eryngii (Mulsant), but the latter has an ovoid body form, with the lateral elytral margin more evenly arcuate (Fig 2A), and the elytron bearing a pair of transverse discal maculae that are separated at the midline, or joined only at the inner edges (Figs. 4A–H). The male genitalia of C. lacrimosa (Fig. 6A) have the basal lobe more strongly dilated in apical 1/4 compared with the other species in this complex (except males not known in C. disconsolata).
Description (Holotype male): Length 3.0 mm, width 2.3 mm. Form shortened oblong, nearly parallel­sided, convex, apically rounded; elytral, pronotal margins very narrowly reflexed. Punctation on dorsal surfaces fine, regular, with each puncture separated by 2.0–3.0X its diameter; surface between punctures shiny, reticulate on head, pronotum, with only faint trace of reticulation visible on elytron.
Dorsal color pattern as follows: Head black with two irregular cream­colored spots, one at inner margin of each eye extending from eye canthus to just below level of upper 1/3 of eye; eye silvery; labrum brown. Pronotum predominantly dark reddish brown, nearly black; lateral margins yellow cream­colored, beginning at posterior angle as narrow band, widened apically to enclose entire anterior angle, continued as broken trace on anterior margin (Fig. 3H). Scutellum black. Elytron with ground color pale ocherous or straw with dark brown irregular figure filling most of disc (Fig. 4N); discal figure with incised borders as follows: outer border with anteromedial triangular emargination pointing toward sutural apex; inner border with large teardrop­shaped emargination followed by smaller semicircular emargination, the latter deeply penetrating the dark zone leaving only a slender dark hook; union of dark, light areas irregular, suffused, somewhat reddish. Each puncture of dorsal surfaces with pinpoint of brown at center, visible only in areas with light to medium background coloration; staggered double row of punctures nearest suture, single to double staggered row along lateral margin beginning just outside of humeral bulge with more pronounced pigmentation. Anterior, lateral margins of pronotum, all margins of elytron narrowly transparent to light amber, sutural margin somewhat darker.
Ground color of ventral surfaces dark brown; elytral epipleuron, pronotal hypomeron except basally at inner margin straw­colored; mesepimeron cream­colored; antenna, mouthparts yellow brown with antennal club slightly darker; legs with coxa brown, femur dark brown to blackish; tibia yellow brown with darker brown narrowly along outer margin; tarsus translucent yellow brown with last tarsomere, base of claw darker. Ventral surfaces including appendages clothed in decumbent silvery pubescence.
Eyes finely facetted, separated by 2½X eye diameter; inner orbits nearly parallel in lower half, diverging at upper level. Antenna of 10 antennomeres (Fig. 9B), combined length slightly greater than distance between eyes; third antennomere elongate, 1½X length of second, subequal to four plus five combined. Pronotum (Fig. 3H) evenly convex except for very narrowly reflexed transparent lateral margin; in outline with basal margin subsinuate, lateral margin strongly evenly arcuate, anterior margin subtrapezoidally emarginate, medially slightly arcuately produced; anterior angles subtriangulate, conspicuous in dorsal view, projecting anteroventrally. Elytron broad (Figs. 4M–N), in dorsal view with humeral angle rounded, weakly arcuate from beyond humeral angle to apical 1/3, broadest near apical 1/3, roundly tapered distally; epipleuron flat, horizontal in anterior half, progressively inwardly sloping in posterior half. Prosternum T­shaped, with lateral arms gently folded back from stem, in cross section forming shallow arc; intercoxal process weakly convex, bearing fine superficial median sulcus on distal 1/4, apex truncate. Mesosternum trapezoidal; anterior border approximately linear with raised margin. Metasternum broad, with postmesocoxal line reaching lateral margin; surface polished, obsoletely rugulose; discrimen present, indistinct. Abdomen shortened semi­oval, broadest between first, second ventrites; posterior margin of ventrites 1–4 linear, of 5 broadly shallowly emarginate, of 6 apically rounded; postmetacoxal line of first abdominal ventrite curved posterolaterad, closely paralleling posterior margin for much of length, not attaining lateral margin. Tarsal claw with shallow subquadrate basal tooth.
Male genitalia as shown (Fig. 6A): basal lobe elongate, roughly parallel­sided in basal half, subapically distinctly swollen with greatest width at apical 1/4; apex tapered, slightly attenuate; parameres slender, reaching three quarters distance to apex of basal lobe.
Female: Similar to male except slightly larger on average and proportionally broader, apex slightly pointed. Abdomen with posterior margin of ventrite 5 nearly linear, apex of ventrite 6 pointed. Female genitalia as in figure 8A.
Variation: Length 3.0 to 3.6 mm. Pale markings on head variable in size but always well separated by dark frons; not gender­specific. Pale anterior margin of pronotum obsolete to narrow but entire. Elytron may have additional dark spot at apex (Fig. 1A), or faint dark spot at humeral bulge; sometimes with hook shaped mark at apex of dark discal figure disconnected (Fig. 4M) or entirely absent; some specimens with suffused creamcolored maculae nested within 3 incised areas of dark discal figure; more commonly with ground color only slightly lighter on disc or apparently unicolorous. Dark areas on dorsal surfaces nearly black in many specimens. Pronotal hypomeron unicolorous or basally darkened as in holotype. Tibia totally yellowish in some. Antenna may have 9, 10 or 11 antennomeres (Figs. 9A–C). Sulcus on prosternal intercoxal process may be less distinct or wavering.
Type material: Holotype (male) “ Agua Verde, Antofagasta, Chile, 25­dic­1986. G. González F.”(MNHN); Allotype (female), “ CHILE, Antofagasta, Agua Verde. 21­ diciembre­1991, leg. G. Gonzalez. ” (MNHN); Paratypes (total=24), 1 with same data as holotype (MNHN), 18 with same data as allotype (4, AMNH; 3, CAS; 7, MNHN; 4, USNM), 4 “ Oruro, Bolivia, 14.1.40 3700 m, W. Wittmer /Brit.Mus., 1945­33.[one paratype mounted along with an incomplete specimen, the latter not designated as a paratype] (BMNH), 1 “ ARGENTINA, SALTA, Nevado de Cachi, 5200 m _ 6m, 6.I­1973, Col: Stephan Halloy /COLECCION, INST.– FUND M. LILLO (4000) – S.M.TUCUMAN, TUCUMAN – ARGENTINA”(IML)
Etymology: From the Latin lacrimosus (adj.) meaning “prone to tears or crying,” the name is a reference to the large teardrop­shaped mark at the elytral suture.
Remarks: The specimens from Agua Verde were collected at an isolated gas station in the Atacama Desert, on plants in flower­pots, about 800 kilometers north of the northern most locality for C. germainii. From this single collection locality specimens were obtained with either nine, ten, or eleven antennomeres. These variants are assumed to be conspecific as they show no other apparent differences. Figure 9A–C suggests one possible interpretation for the observed variation based on fusion in the region between the basal two and distal six antennomeres. This hypothesis is supported by a corresponding increase in the length of antennomere four in specimens with only ten antennomeres, or antennomere three in specimens with only nine antennomeres. Antennal polymorphism was previously reported in the coccinellid species Catana clauseni Chapin (Serangiini). Chapin (1940) distinguished Catana Chapin from other members of the tribe by the possession of only eight antennomeres, but he noted that the fifth antennomere sometimes shows the beginning of a division and is therefore morphologically equivalent to the fourth and fifth combined. Miyatake (1961) subsequently discovered a specimen of C. clauseni with a complete division resulting in nine distinct antennomeres as in the related genus Serangium.
It is probable that Weise was familiar with the new species described here, but regarded it as a variation of C. eryngii. The Smithsonian Entomology Library has a copy of Crotch (1874) that was signed by Weise and apparently extensively annotated by him. In the left hand margin of page 107, below the caption for Coccinella eryngii, is a handpenned figure (left half of pronotum, left elytron) of a specimen with a pattern identical to the example illustrated in figure 4N. The sketch is labeled with the female symbol and the words “var. Moreno, Argentin. Mus. [illegible word]”.
Data from specimens examined (Map, Fig. 10): see “ Type material,” above.
description: Published as part of González, Guillermo & Vandenberg, Natalia J., 2006, Review of lady beetles in the Cycloneda germainii species complex (Coleoptera; Coccinellidae: Coccinellinae: Coccinellini) with descriptions of new and unusual species from Chile and surrounding countries, pp. 13-50 in Zootaxa 1311 on pages 20-23, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.173868