Anthelephila mutillaria Saunders 1834
Creators: name: Kejval, Zbyněk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Anthicidae
Anthelephila
Anthelephila mutillaria

description: Anthelephila mutillaria Saunders, 1834
(Figs 1–7, 14–16)
Anthelephila mutillaria Saunders, 1834: 66, Pl. 7, Fig. 9: CHANDLER et al. (2008): 423 (catalogue, distribution).
Formicomus mutillarius: LAFERTÉ- SÉNECTÈRE (1849b): 3 (redescription, rec. Myanmar); PIC (1907): 339 (rec. Myanmar); BONADONA (1978): 72 (rec. Bangladesh).
Formicomus mutillarius var. tonkineus Pic, 1899a: 105, syn. nov.
Formicomus mutillarius var. inapicalis Pic, 1899a: 106, syn. nov.
Formicomus mutillarius var. innotatipennis Pic, 1913: 155, syn. nov.
Hirticomus fascifer Uhmann, 1983: 200, Fig. 33, syn. nov.
Formicomus fascifer: TELNOV (1999a): 64, Figs 1–5 (new comb., redescription, rec. Vietnam).
Anthelephila fascifer: TELNOV (2003): 293 (rec. Nepal).
Type localities. Anthelephila mutillaria: India, West Bengal, S of Calcutta, banks of Hooghly River. Formicomus mutillarius tonkineus: Northern Vietnam (‘Tonkin’). Formicomus mutillarius inapicalis: ‘ India Orientalis’ [probably southern Myanmar, Tanintharyi Region]. Formicomus mutillarius innotatipennis: ‘Indes Orientales:?Tenasserim’ [probably southern Myanmar, Tanintharyi Region]. Hirticomus fascifer: Vietnam, ‘River Chay’ [probably in the Hà Giang Province].
Type material. Anthelephila mutillaria: SYNTYPE: ♀, ‘Anthel: mutillaria W.W.S. Bengal [h] // Coll.(1830-73) W W Saunders Wx coll. H. E. Cox. dd. 1916 Mrs Cox [p] // Syntype Anthelephila mutillaria Saunders, W. W., 1834 Trans Ent Soc. Lon. 1: 66, pl. 7 fig. 9 teste. D.J. Mann, viii.2003 [p] // TYPE COLE 2137 Anthelephila mutillaria Saunders, W. W., 1834 HOPE ENT COLL., OUMNH [p]’ (OXUM).
Formicomus mutillarius var. innotatipennis: SYNTYPE: ♀, ‘Museum Prag, Hinter-Jndien, Tenasserim? [sic!; p] // Coll. Helfer [p] // type [h] // TYPE [p, red label] // [female symbol]’ (coll. Pic, MNHN).
Formicomus mutillarius var. tonkineus: SYNTYPE: ♀, bearing red, printed ‘TYPE’ label (coll. Pic, MNHN).
Additional material. BANGLADESH: RANGPUR DIVISION: 1 ♂, Dinajpur, x.1969, Barbe lgt. (MNHN, coll. Bonadona). CHINA: YUNNAN: 1 ♂ 6 ♀♀, 5 km NE Yuanxian, 24°27′45.1′′N 100°10′37.8′′E, 1053 m, sandy river bank, flood debris, 12.ix.2009, D. W. Wrase lgt. (ZKDC). INDIA: ANDHRA PRADESH: 2 ♂♂ 3 ♀♀, 35 km SE of Rajahmundry, Kottipale, bank of Godavari River, 23.–24.ii.1994, Z. Kejval lgt. (ZKDC). ASSAM: 1 ♀, Haflong Hills, 18.–25.v.1991, S. Jakl lgt. (ZKDC). ORISSA: 3 ♂♂ 5 ♀♀, 30 km NE of Balasore, Jaleswar env., bank of river, 13.ii.1994, Z. Kejval lgt. (ZKDC). UTTARAKHAND: 1 ♂, Rishikesh, 450 m, viii.1988, Werner lgt. (ZKDC). LAOS: 1 ♀, Vientiane city, 17°57′N 102°36′E, shore of Mekong, 160 m, 4.v.2009, M. Geiser lgt. (NHMB). MYANMAR: 2 ♀♀, ‘ Ind. or. // Helfer [lgt.]’ (NMPC). BAGO REGION: 1♂, Toungoo, 29.–31.v.2003, M. Klícha lgt. (ZKDC). YANGON REGION: 1 ♂ 2 ♀♀, Hlegu-Goygon, iv.1997, M. Klícha lgt. (ZKDC). NEPAL: BHERI ZONE: 1 ♀, ca. 10 km E of Nepalganj, banks of Rapti River, 28°03′43′′N 81°43′14′′E, 120 m, 12.vi.2009, A. Kopetz lgt. (ZKDC). JANAKPUR ZONE: 1 ♀, Tamba-Koshi-Khola, SE Charikot, 900–1200 m, 5.–10.vi.1987, C. Holzschuh lgt. (ZKDC); 1 ♀, Pokhara, 3.vi.1992, I. Jeniš lgt. (ZKDC); 1 ♂ 3 ♀♀, Annapurna Pokhara, Phewa river + lake, 800–850 m, 14.–15. ix.2003, J. Schmidt lgt. (NKME). NARAYANI ZONE: 3 ♂♂, Sauraha-Thati-Bagh Mara, 17.–21.v.1996, P. Čechovský lgt. (ZKDC); 1 ♂, Sauraha-Thati-Bagh Mara, Chitwan National Park, 200–500 m, 2.–3.v.2000, J. & J. Dalihod lgt. (ZKDC); 2 ♀♀, same locality, 4.–6.vi.1999, P. Kresl lgt. (ZKDC); 1 ♂, Sauraha, Chitwan Nat. Park, at light, 3.–6.vi.1983 [no collector] (BMNH). RAPTI ZONE: 1 ♀, 2 km S of Lamahi, Rapati River, 27°50′07′′N 82°32′23′′E, riverbank + fields, 13.vii.2001, A. Kopetz lgt. (NKME). PAKISTAN: KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA PROVINCE: 1 ♂, 80 km E of Peshavar, Indus River valley, viii.2005 [no collector] (ZKDC). THAILAND: MAE HONG SON PROVINCE: 9 ♂♂ 10 ♀♀, Soppong env., 600 m, 28.v.–2.vi.1999, M. Říha lgt. (ZKDC). VIETNAM: HA NOI PROVINCE: 1 ♂ 3 ♀♀, Hanoi, 15.iv.1918, Jeanvoine [lgt.] (MNHN).
Redescription (male, Kottipale, ZKDC). Body length 5.2 mm. Head black, pronotum dark reddish to red, elytra largely black with reddish basal third; legs black, basal portion of femora reddish, antennae black, basal antennomeres with reddish tinge.
Head 1.1 times as long as wide, including eyes; base rather widely rounded, its outline moderately convex medially in dorsal view, tempora moderately narrowing posteriorly, posterior temporal angles rounded but distinct. Eyes medium-sized, strongly convex. Surface distinctly and rather evenly punctured dorsally; punctures conspicuously large, shallow, mostly rounded and narrowly spaced, at places (postero-laterally) contiguous, angular and forming cell-like sculpture. Setation conspicuous, with shorter, suberect and numerous longer erect bristly setae.Antennae moderately long, at most slightly enlarged in distal third; antennomere X 2.1 times, XI 2.9 times as long as wide.
Pronotum robust, 1.3 times as long as wide, moderately narrower than head including eyes, somewhat unevenly rounded anteriorly, only moderately impressed laterally in posterior half; pronotal disc evenly shaped, its outline rather evenly convex in lateral view. Surface very distinctly punctate, including lateral sides (finer and sparser only near procoxal cavities); punctures on pronotal disc somewhat smaller and mostly distinctly sparser than those on head, somewhat unevenly spaced; latero-basal impressions unwrinkled. Setation as on head, with numerous long bristly tactile setae.
Mesoventrite with moderately convex, laterally sharply delimited median bulge; metaventrite simple.
Elytra 1.8 times as long as wide, conjointly rounded apically; humeri moderately protruding, omoplates and postbasal impression slightly indicated. Surface distinctly punctate; basal half punctures much smaller and largely sparser than those of head and pronotal disc, dot-like, somewhat unevenly spaced, slightly sparser in basal third, with 2–3 small paired patches of dense punctures near borderline of reddish basal and black middle third. Setation conspicuous, dense and coarse, mostly suberect, with numerous longer erect setae; setae mostly dark coloured, blackish, with contrastingly whitish setae scattered latero-basally, especially on humeri, and forming two transverse bands, anterior band narrow and somewhat uneven (nearly subdecumbent setae originating from patches of dense punctures), posterior band much wider and sparser, situated in apical third.
Legs rather robust, conspicuously setose, with numerous long erect setae (especially on tibiae); profemora nearly simple, with slight edge on inner side; protibiae enlarged at mid-length and with smooth, moderately projecting lobe in distal half (Fig. 1); penultimate tarsomere widened / flattened distally, with terminal tarsomere dorsally articulated in all tarsi.
Abdominal characters as in Figs 2–7; sternum VIII shallowly impressed medially, its median process simple, curved, projecting from dorsal side close before margin of sternum; tergum VII with conspicuous apical notch; prongs of sternite VIII somewhat laterally flattened, each with two lobes dorsally near base, small ventral process, and two lobules on inner side of apical widened portion, margins of prongs medially with dense short, stiff setation; paired sclerites of tergite VIII with narrow median connection; aedeagus with apical portion of tegmen 0.4 times as long as basal piece.
Variation. Body length 3.7–5.2 mm. Most specimens from Nepal, Vietnam and Yunnan with both, basal and apical, thirds of the elytra reddish (typical form, Fig. 14); most specimens from Myanmar and Thailand (Soppong) with elytra largely or entirely black (Fig. 15); a specimen from Yunnan generally dark coloured, including brown black pronotum (Fig. 16). Base of the head in specimens from the Southeast Asia nearly evenly rounded, with indistinct posterior temporal angles and eyes somewhat less convex. The ventral process of prongs in males always well- developed, but less protruding in the specimen from Vietnam.
Female sternum VII simple, moderately produced postero-medially and rounded apically; female tergum VII nearly triangular, rounded apically.
Differential diagnosis. Anthelephila mutillaria is a very conspicuous, robust species, which can be easily recognized by the following combination of external characters: head and pronotum very coarsely punctate, body setation conspicuous, long and erect (including legs), elytra with setose bands. It differs clearly from all Oriental species in the morphology of male sternite VIII.
Distribution. Bangladesh, China (Yunnan), India (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Orissa, Uttarakhand, West Bengal), Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam. New species to Pakistan.
Remarks. Anthelephila mutillaria varies considerably in colouration and thus PIC (1899a, 1913 a) described: var. tonkineus from northern Vietnam (body entirely dark, including pronotum), var. inapicalis from Myanmar (elytra black, with reddish basal third / fourth, pronotum reddish), and var. innotatipennis from Myanmar (elytra entirely black, pronotum reddish). In the case of the variety inapicalis, PIC (1899a) just named ‘var. β’ of Formicomus mutillarius that had been decribed by LAFERTÉ (1849b). Its type material is thus of the same origin as that of var. innotatipennis – probably southern Myanmar, Tanintharyi Region (formerly Tenasserim), from the collection of J. V. Helfer.
Although darker specimens of A. mutillaria are known only from the southern part of its range, they do not seem to be confined to any particular geographical region and may occur together with typically coloured specimens (series from Soppong and Yuanxian). The newly proposed synonymy is based mainly on the examination of male characters that were found rather stable (including setation and the finer structures of sternite VIII) within the examined material.
UHMANN (1983) described Hirticomus fascifer from a single female specimen collected in northern Vietnam (‘River Chay’ probably Hà Giang Province). TELNOV (1999) examined the holotype, proposed the new combination and provided a redescription as Formicomus fascifer, based on an additional male specimen from Hanoi. The male characters presented by TELNOV (1999) fully agree with those of A. mutillaria. The newly proposed synonymy is further confirmed by examination of another male specimen from Vietnam (listed above).
description: Published as part of Kejval, Zbyněk, 2015, Studies of the genus Anthelephila (Coleoptera: Anthicidae) 13. The species described by W. W. Saunders from India, pp. 249-260 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 55 (1) on pages 250-254, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5319048