Prismognathus siniaevi Ikeda 1997
Creators: name: Huang, Hao
name: Chen, Chang-Chin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lucanidae
Prismognathus
Prismognathus siniaevi

description: Prismognathus siniaevi Ikeda, 1997
(Figs. 25–26, 34, 73–74, 76, 131, 164–165, 185, 221, 235)
Prismognathus siniaevi Ikeda 1997: 29 [type locality: Sapa, northern Vietnam], Fig. 3, male holotype; Fujita 2010: 165, plate 99, Figs. 493 (1–3), males and female, from northern Vietnam.
Prismognathus siniaevi rattakiti Nagai, 2005: 32 [type locality: Chudo Razi, northeastern Kachin, northern Myanmar], Fig. 3, male holotype; Fujita 2010: 165, plate 99, Fig. 493-4, holotype male. Questionable subspecies.
Material examined. CHINA: Yunnan: 1 3, 2 ƤƤ, Nujiang, Gongshan County, Qiqi station of the nature reserve, 1900m, VII.2010, X.-D. Yang & W.-X. Bi leg.; 2 3, 1 Ƥ (CLYB), Nujiang, Gongshan County, VII.2011, Y.-B. Li leg.; 1 3, Honghe, Jinping, Fenshuiling Nature Reserve, VI.2010, X.-D. Yang & W.-X. Lin leg.
Identification. Two subspecies have been described, both with male holotypes illustrated. They are characterized by the mandible nearly of the same width from apex to base (different from P. dauricus, P. davidis, P. alessandrae and P. prossi), the absence of the subbasal teeth along the dorsal ridge of the male mandible (different from P. klapperichi, P. alessandrae and P. davidis), a large gap between the ventral subbasal teeth and the median teeth of the mandible (different from P. davidis, P. prossi, P. alessandrae and P. dauricus), and the straight preocular margins (different from P. prossi and P. alessandrae). Specimens from Yunnan examined by us match the above-mentioned characters of P. siniaevi. Moreover, we found that the underside of the body of P. siniaevi shows a pubescence that is not present in the other species.
The two subspecies are not easily distinguishable, as only a single male of P. siniaevi rattakiti is known from Myanmar. The male specimen from Gongshan, northwestern Yunnan does not match with the characters of P. siniaevi rattakiti from the adjacent area in northern Myanmar. For a more precise subspecific definition of P. siniaevi, more specimens need to be examined.
The females were unknown until Fujita (2010) illustrated a female specimen from Vietnam identified as this species without any discussion. One of the male specimens examined by us was collected from decayed wood alongside two female specimens, thus these females can be considered as the females of P. s i n i a e v i. A close examination shows that the female specimens have the peculiar pubescence on the ventral surface of the body as in male which is not found in the other species.
Taxonomic notes. This species is well separated from all of the other species by the marked pubescence on ventral surface of the body which is not shared by any other species.
Distribution. Yunnan (Nujiang, Jinping); northern Vietnam, northeastern Myanmar.
description: Published as part of Huang, Hao & Chen, Chang-Chin, 2012, A review of the genera Prismognathus Motschulsky and Cladophyllus Houlbert (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Lucanidae) from China, with the description of two new species, pp. 1-36 in Zootaxa 3255 on page 12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.280626