Rhagonycha acutiapicis Y. Yang, Liu & X. Yang 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Xiao, Yun-Feng
name: Liu, Hao-Yu
name: Yang, Xing-Ke
name: Yang, Yu-Xia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cantharidae
Rhagonycha
Rhagonycha acutiapicis

description: Rhagonycha (s.str.) acutiapicis Y. Yang, Liu & X. Yang, sp. nov.
(Figs 33A, 34A‒C, 39)
Type material. HOLOTYPE: ♂ (IZAS), CHINA, Yunnan: Weixi, Pantiange, 2500 m, 24.VII.1981, leg. S.Y. Wang.
Differential diagnosis. It looks similar to Rh. tibetanimima sp. nov. in the appearance, but can be distinguished from the latter by the characteristic aedeagus: ventral processes of parameres long and abruptly thinned near apices, with apices acutely hooked in ventral view, while short and abruptly thinned near bases, with apices triangularly expanded in Rh. tibetanimima sp. nov. (Fig. 28D); conjoint dorsal plate of parameres deeply emarginate in middle of apical margin in dorsal view, while moderately in Rh. tibetanimima sp. nov. (Fig. 28E).
Description. Body length: 6.4 mm in holotype; width: 1.7 mm in holotype.
Male (Fig. 33A). Coloration. Body black except for head and pronotum yellowish orange. Surface sparsely and finely yellow pubescent, anterior margin of clypeus fringed with pale bristles.
Head rounded, surface densely and finely punctate; eyes moderately protruding, head width across eyes as wide as anterior margin of pronotum; terminal maxillary palpomeres subtriangular, widest at apical third; antennae extending to basal 3/4 length of elytra when reclined, antennomeres II shortest, about twice as long as wide at apices, III about 2.4 times longer than II, VII longest, XI feebly longer than X and pointed at apices.
Pronotum transverse, about 1.1 times as long as wide, anterior margin rounded, anterior angles subrounded, lateral margins feebly diverging posteriorly, posterior margin nearly straight, posterior angles sub-rectangular, disc strongly convex on posterolateral parts, surface finely and sparsely punctate.
Elytra nearly parallel-sided, about 3.2 times as long as humeral width, 5.5 times longer than pronotum, surface finely rugulose-lacunose, almost lustrous at basal parts.
Aedeagus feebly swollen laterally in middle (Fig. 34A); ventral processes of parameres abruptly thinned apically near apices, largely hooked and acute at apices, directing to each other in ventral view (Fig. 34A), and almost straight in lateral view (Fig. 34C); conjoint dorsal plate of parameres nearly as long as ventral process (Fig. 34A, C), with apical margin roundly and deeply emarginate in middle, lateral margins distinctly diverging apically, latero-apical angles narrowly rounded in dorsal view (Fig. 34B), and strongly inclined ventrally in lateral view (Fig. 34C); emargination between ventral process and conjoint dorsal plate about 2/5 length of aedeagus (Fig. 34C).
Female. Unknown.
Etymology. The specific name is derived from the Latin acutus (acute), and apices (tips), and referring to its ventral processes of parameres of male genitalia being acute at its apex.
Distribution (Fig. 39). China (Yunnan).
description: Published as part of Xiao, Yun-Feng, Liu, Hao-Yu, Yang, Xing-Ke & Yang, Yu-Xia, 2024, Taxonomic review of the Rhagonycha flava species group (Coleoptera, Cantharidae), with descriptions of fourteen new species from China, pp. 1-69 in Zootaxa 5534 (1) on pages 53-56, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5534.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14023514