Lucanus niu Wang, He, He et Zhou 2023, sp. n.
Creators: name: Wang, C. - B.
name: He, T. - L.
name: He, L.
name: Zhou, C.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lucanidae
Lucanus
Lucanus niu

description: Lucanus niu Wang, He, He et Zhou, sp. n.
https://zoobank.org/NomenclaturalActs/ EE5B2E96-8327-48CC-A51E-476209B24E2B
Figs 1, 2
MATERIAL EXAMINED. Holotype – ♂, China: Yunnan, Puer City, Zhenyuan County [普洱市镇沅县], 12.VI 2020, 2000 m, Shao-You Huang leg. (MAHU). Paratypes (totally 10 ♂): the same data as holotype, 1♂ (CCZC) and 3♂ (CTLH); the same data as holotype except: 24. VI 2020, 1♂ (CTLH) and 1♂ (CYCX), Yun-Chuan Xu leg.; the same data as holotype except: 2000 m, 5. VI 2021, 3♂ (CTLH) and 1♂ (MYNU), local people leg.
DESCRIPTION. HOLOTYPE MALE. Large size, body 57.4 mm long. Lengths of body parts (mm): head (9.3), mandible (21.2), pronotum (8.3), elytra (23.0); width (mm): head (14.8), pronotum (13.6), elytra (16.6).
Habitus (Fig. 1a–c). Color mostly reddish brown to blackish brown; elytra reddish brown; femora with reddish stripes on ventral surfaces; tibiae with obscure reddish stripes on ventral surfaces; protibiae tinged with reddish on dorsal surfaces. Body mostly clothed with short, sparse, recumbent, yellowish pubescence, similar on metaventrite, much finer and denser on elytra.
Head 1.6 times as wide as long, widest at anterolateral angles; surfaces matt, finely punctate, intervals finely and irregularly granulose. Frons relatively long, fan-like, weakly concave, fused with clypeolabrum. Clypeal ridge strong, medially interrupted, laterally projecting as two ridges. Labrum slenderly subtriangular, rounded at apex. Anterolateral angles acute, strongly protruding laterally, more prominent than eyes. Ocular canthus protruding, shorter than half eye’s diameter. Postocular margin almost oblique, gradually narrowed posteriorly. Posterior margin widely concave. Anterior ridge distinctly and oblongly elevated, substraight at apical margin. Lateral ridges rather strongly elevated, broad, widely subrounded at apical margins. Mandible long and slender, about 2.3 times as long as head; in dorsal view, mandible curved in basal 1/4 and apical 1/5, and almost straight in between; in lateral view, mandible strongly curved in basal 3/5 and almost straight in apical 2/5; surfaces finely punctate, intervals matt and finely granulose at inner side, feebly sheen and microreticulate at outer side. Inner mandibular margin with unarmed carina at base, preceded by diastema, 7–8 small denticles, major inner tooth, and 2–3 distal small denticles. Major inner tooth situated at apical 1/3, strong, digitiform, shorter than mandibular width, tilting forwards and upwards with apex rounded and slightly higher than mandible. Apical fork with upper tooth bent upwards and inwards; lower tooth markedly shorter, conical, slightly directed downwards and inwards. Antennal club 4-segmented; antennomere VII with much thinner lamella, sharply pointing inwards, only pubescent on apical surface; antennomeres VIII–X with strong, long, pubescent lamellae. Mentum wide, inverted trapezoidal; anterior margin almost straight and with obliquely truncated corners; surface matt, finely punctate, intervals finely and irregularly granulose, and transversely depressed near anterior margin.
Pronotum 1.6 times as wide as long, widest at middle. Anterior corners weakly acute; posterior corners obtuse. Surface feebly sheen, finely punctate, intervals finely and irregularly granulose, and with median longitudinal depression rather shallow. Prosternal apophysis strong, distinctly convex ventrally in middle of posterior part, and truncated at posterior margin.
Scutellum linguiform, about 1.8 times as wide as long, rounded at apical margin. Surface feebly sheen, finely punctate, intervals microreticulate.
Elytra oval, 1.4 times as long as wide, widest around basal 4/9, 2.8 times as long as and 1.2 times as wide as pronotum. Humeri rounded. Surface sheen, finely and densely punctate, intervals microreticulate.
Legs slender. Protibia with 5 (left, basal one tiny) or 4 (right, basal one tiny) teeth along outer margin; apex bifurcate with branches narrowly rounded at tips. Except apical spurs and spines, mesotibia with 3 (right) or 4 (left, basal one tiny) small lateral spines and metatibia with 3 lateral spines (basal one tiny). Surfaces finely punctate, intervals matt and finely granulose on femora and tibiae, feebly sheen and microreticulate on tarsi.
Male genitalia. Abdominal tergite VIII (Fig. 2a) with subround lateral angles and with longitudinal, thin, membranous stripe in middle of basal 5/9; sternite VIII (Fig. 2b) with transverse, semielliptical, membranous area in middle of basal half. Abdominal sternite IX (Fig. 2c) with apical expansion relatively slender, and with long, membranous, median stripe in apical 5/8; basal stalk not extended laterally. Aedeagus (Fig. 2f) about 2.3 times as long as wide in ventral view. Basal piece (Fig. 2f–h) constricted in basal part, about 1.8 times as long as parameres, with a pair of sclerotized dorsal plates (Fig. 2h); ventral plate (Fig. 2g) bifurcate at apex of distal end, with relatively deep emargination. Paramere with basal process (Fig. 2g –h); apex strongly upturned in lateral view (Fig. 2i). Penis (Fig. 2f–h) moderately wide, weakly expanded near apex, 0.2 times shorter than parameres. Flagellum relatively short, about 2.2 times as long as parameres, apex distinctly enlarged.
MALE PARATYPES. Body 43.5–58.0 mm long. All male paratypes consistent with holotype except for usual allometric differences (Fig. 1d–i). Large-sized male like holotype with more pronounced morphological characters, while in small-sized male, mandible strongly shorter, apical fork of mandible less opened to vestigial, number of inner teeth fewer, major inner tooth ill-developed, clypeolabrum shorter, anterior and lateral ridges of head weaker.
FEMALE. Unkown.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS. This new species should be assigned to the Lucanus laminifer group (sensu Huang & Chen, 2010). It most resembles Lucanus vitalisi Pouillaude, 1913 (Figs 3, 4), but can be distinguished by the combination of characters shown in Table 1.
DISTRIBUTION. China (Yunnan).
ETYMOLOGY. The specific epithet is from the Chinese Pinyin “niú [牛]”, which means ox, indicating this species was identified as new in 2021, the year of the ox. The name is a noun in apposition.
description: Published as part of Wang, C. - B., He, T. - L., He, L. & Zhou, C., 2023, Two new species of Lucanus Scopoli, 1763 from Yunnan, Southwest China (Coleoptera, Lucanidae, Lucaninae), pp. 8-22 in Far Eastern Entomologist 470 on pages 10-16, DOI: 10.25221/fee.470.2, http://zenodo.org/record/7616385