Triangulara frontoflava Pimpasalee, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Ballantyne, Lesley A.
name: Lambkin, Christine L.
name: Luan, Xin
name: Boontop, Yuvarin
name: Nak-Eiam, Sorasak
name: Pimpasalee, Suttisan
name: Silalom, Sommyot
name: Thancharoen, Anchana
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lampyridae
Triangulara
Triangulara frontoflava

description: Triangulara frontoflava Pimpasalee sp. nov.
Nec Luciola cingulata Olivier. Sensu Ballantyne, 1987b: 180, Fig. 1 (misidentification).
Code name: This species was scored as ‘Species 8’ in Fu et al. (2012: Fig. 7); Ballantyne & Lambkin (2013: 10, Fig. 4); Ballantyne et al. (2013: 6, Fig 1); Ballantyne et al. (2015, Figs 1 a, 2d).
Type. Holotype male. THAILAND: 14.55N 102.05 E, Nakhon Ratchasima province: Mueang district, Pru Yai subdistrict, 11VIII 2010, S. Pimpasalee. (CUMZ).
Paratypes. As for holotype, 5 males, 3 females; 13.iv.2009, A. Lewvanich, 5 males. 14.55N 102.05E Nakhon Ratchasima: Mueang Phutsa Wat subdistrict, Lalopho, 13 IV 2009, A. Lewvanich, 5 males. 16.31N 102.48E Khon Kaen province, Mueang district, 6 VIII 1979, Sanay, male. 19.05N 100.45E Nan Province, Tha Wangpha district, Sila Phet waterfall, 9.v.2008 A. Lewvanich, 2 males 2 females. 18.28N, 99.33E, Lampang province: Mueang district, 8 V 2008, S. Pimpasalee, male, female; 18.52N, 99.40E, Chae Hom district, 24−25.iv.2000 A. Lewvanich, 3 males; 8 I 2008, S. Pimpasalee, 1 female; 9 I 2008, S. Pimpasalee, 1 male. 15.19N, 101.20E, Lop Buri Province: Lam Sonthi district, Sap Langka wildlife sanctuary 18 VII 2009, A. Lewvanich, 3 females; 27 V 2002 (CUMZ).
Diagnosis. Male large, 10.3−13.3 mm long, dorsally yellow with very small black tip to elytra; vertex blackish brown and frons yellow or pale cream.
Male. 10.3−13.3 mm long; 3.4−4.5 mm wide; W/L 0.3. Colour (Figs 139, 140, 144): pronotum pale cream, or light brown (in pinned specimens); anterior and posterior areas semitransparent and often devoid of underlying fat body; MS and MN pale yellowish; elytra yellow or pale cream with suture and lateral margin slightly paler, and with small black area at tip (not visible in Fig. 139); vertex very dark brown, lower area of frons yellow or pale cream (Fig. 144); basal portion of scape pale cream, apical portion and remainder of FS very dark brown; palpi dark brown; venter of thorax yellowish; legs yellow with apices of tibiae, and all of tarsi dark brown; abdomen yellow with dark markings on V5 occupying about half the length of V5 and narrowing slightly in median area. Pronotum: 3.4−4.5 mm wide; 1.8−2.3 mm long; hairy, densely and coarsely punctate, with median groove; midposterior margin slightly indented. Head: GHW 2.4−2.9 mm; SIW 0.4−0.5 mm. Apical labial palpomere with 2−3 teeth.
Female. (Figs 142, 143, 145). 12.1−15.0 mm long; 4.2−5.3 mm wide. Colour. As for male except dark markings across posterior part of V5 narrow in the middle, pale LO in V6 only, and yellowish V7, 8; V 4 often with dark lateral markings.
Remarks. This species was first recognised as distinctive by Ballantyne in collections of Luciola aquatilis Thancharoen at Kasetsart University in 2010. Because of the size and distinctive colour we at first supposed that it would belong to an existing species. However despite extensive investigation of the relevant literature, and also type specimens, we have been unable to assign it to an existing species. In Tables 6–7, 31 species with similar dorsal colouration are listed. We included species with pale dorsum both with and without the black elytral apex. Two of them have fragmentary types which prevented further comparison. For 12 of them, the types were not located and we attempted to work from the original descriptions. Of the remainder, four are assigned here to Sclerotia gen. nov., four are species of Abscondita Ballantyne et al. 2013, and at least six should be assigned to other genera (Ballantyne has made suggestions for placement of several species listed in Table 6 based on observations of type specimens. These suggestions are not yet formalised.) The type of L. deplanata Pic, 1929 was not located but the original description strongly suggests it should belong in Curtos Motsch.). See also Ballantyne et al. (2015: Appendix 3); Ballantyne & Jusoh (2016).
We eliminated from consideration the following seven species described with a pale head (i.e. red or yellow between the eyes). Their identities will be explored further (Ballantyne and Lambkin in prep.). Luciola bicoloriceps Pic, 1924 (based on a 7 mm long specimen from the Philippines) has a fragmentary type and is much smaller than this new species. A type of L. delauneyi Bourgeois, 1980 is without head and prothorax, but the distinctive elytral carina suggests it may be a Curtos (Figs.7, 8). L. flava Pic, 1929 is known only from a female and is entirely very pale brown dorsally. L. nigripes Gorham, 1903 has a LO in V7 which is triangular in outline, is completely black beneath except for the yellow head and white LO and based on its distinctive elytral punctation Ballantyne considers it belongs in Curtos (see Ballantyne et al. 2015: Appendix 3). L. ochracea Gorham, 1895 and L. candezei Olivier, 1902, although both known only from females, are large distinctively coloured species which Olivier, as a note in his collection in MNHN, thinks are the same species (Ballantyne pers. obs. 2013). Both species are about 1.5 cm long, entirely pale yellowish brown dorsally, with yellow head, labrum, venter of thorax and bases of all legs (the tibiae and tarsi are very dark, almost black); basal abdominal ventrites and V7 are almost black, with V6 pale and V8 yellowish. L. recticollis Olivier, 1900 was described as dorsally yellow with elytral apices black, and recorded from Sumatra. Specimens ranged 7.0− 8.5 mm long, and Olivier highlighted three white apical abdominal segments.
Species 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Abscondita anceyi (Olivier) MNHN Abs. chinensis (L.) √
Abs. perplexa (Walker) NHML Abs promelaena (Walker) MCSN Luciola angusticollis Olivier √
L. antennalis Bourgeois √ √
L. atripes Pic √ √ MNHN L. apicalis Eschsch. √
L. bicoloriceps Pic √ √ MNHN L. bicoloripes Pic √ MNHN L. bourgeoisi Olivier √ √ L. candezei Olivier √ √ MNHN L. delauneyi Bourgeois √ MNHN L. deplanata Pic √ √
L. doriae Olivier √ MCSN L. extricans Walker √ NHML L. fissicollis Fairmaire √
L. flava Pic √ MNHN L. incerta Boisduval √
L. infuscata Erichson √
L. intricata Walker NHML L. maculipennis Olivier √
L. nigripes Gorham √ √ NHML L. ochracea Gorham √ √ MNHN L. recticollis Olivier √ IRNSB L. succincta Bourgeois √
L. varia Olivier MNHN Scl. brahmina (Bourgeois) comb. nov. MNHN Scl. cingulata (Olivier) comb. nov. MCSN Scl. flavida (Hope) comb. nov NHML Scl. substriata (Gorham) comb. nov √
Columns: 1. Known only from a female. 2. Type fragmentary. 3. Type not located. 4. Possible Curtos. 5. Possible Asymmetricata. 6. dorsal colouration pale yellow elytral apices pale. 7. Type locations (see Materials section for abbreviations). Opinions on possible placement expressed in columns 4, 5 are those of Ballantyne alone, are not yet formalised, and are the subject of further work by Ballantyne and Lambkin (in prep).
None of the eight species described with a triangular LO in V7 also has a pale head. Four of these eight are assigned to Sclerotia gen. nov. here. Of the remaining four, Luciola bourgeoisi Olivier 1895 has an entire LO in V7 with no apparent retraction from the sides as we see here, and elytral apices are paler than the rest (the type was not located and these comments relate to Ballantyne’s translation of the original description). Examination of types in MNHN in 2013 by Ballantyne reveals L. doriae Olivier 1885 should be assigned to Asymmetricata Ballantyne. (See also Appendix 3 Ballantyne et al. 2015) The L. delauneyi Bourgeois 1890 type is missing head and prothorax but preliminary observations of the elytral punctation indicate it may belong in Curtos (Figs 7−9).
Fu (2014) recognised the distinctiveness of specimens he listed under Luciola sp. which are probably Tri. frontoflava gen. et sp. nov. but the outline of the aedeagal sheath sternite differs from what we depict here.
Ballantyne (1987b: 180 Figs 1 a–c) incorrectly identified a specimen of T. frontoflava gen. et sp. nov. as Luciola cingulata Olivier. Her figure highlighted the depressed area to the sides of the LO in V7, the tendency for the apex of T8 to curve slightly ventrally (although in this diagram it does not envelop the apex of V7 from behind as in the freshly collected specimens described), and the depressed lateral areas on T7 which correspond to the attachment of dorsoventral muscle blocks.
It is possible that larvae of Tri. frontoflava sp. nov. are aquatic (Figs 150, 151). Adults were collected mainly from the rice fields in various parts of Thailand, especially in the north and north-eastern parts. They were observed flying above the rice plantation where the rice is still green and the fields are still under water. The dried pinned specimens can be found in numbers in the insect collections belonging to Kasetsart University and the Department of Agriculture, Thailand. Most of the specimens were collected more than 30 years ago in Bangkhen district in Bangkok. At that time, the vast majority of areas of the Bangkhen district were rice fields (Pimpasalee observations).
description: Published as part of Ballantyne, Lesley A., Lambkin, Christine L., Luan, Xin, Boontop, Yuvarin, Nak-Eiam, Sorasak, Pimpasalee, Suttisan, Silalom, Sommyot & Thancharoen, Anchana, 2016, Further studies on south eastern Asian Luciolinae: 1. Sclerotia Ballantyne, a new genus of fireflies with back swimming larvae 2. Triangulara Pimpasalee, a new genus from Thailand (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), pp. 201-249 in Zootaxa 4170 (2) on pages 242-246, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4170.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/257995