Lethrus (Heteroplistodus) kucerai  Hillert, Kral & Bagaturov 2024, new species
Creators: name: Hillert, Oliver
name: Král, David
name: Bagaturov, Mikhail
name: Chuluunbaatar, Gantigmaa
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Geotrupidae
Lethrus
Lethrus kucerai

description: Lethrus (Heteroplistodus) kucerai Hillert, Král & Bagaturov, new species
(Figs. 1–2, 5–6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 27–28)
Lethrus Potanini Jakovlev, 1889: 261 [partim, populations from Ordos plateau] (original description, type locality: “ China et Mongolia ”).
Type locality. “ China, Shaanxi, Yulin ”.
Type material examined (19 specimens). China, Shaanxi: Holotype, ♂ (ZSMC) (Fig. 1), “China-Shaanxi | Yulin | 14. - 18.7.2009 | leg. E. Kučera || ex. coll. O. Hillert [p]”. Paratypes, allotype, ♀ (ZSMC) (Fig. 2), 2 ♂♂, 5 ♀♀, (ZSMC), 3 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, (NMPC), 1 ♀, (JSCS), 1 ♀, (SJCP) “[same data as holotype]”; 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀, (HBUM), “ 1992-7-20 | Ŕđ省榆µ市 | Ẻ国栋梁 || HBU(E) || Shaanxi, 20.vii.1992 |YULIN | Guodong Ren lgt. [p]”. Lethrus potanini. Paralectotypes, 3 ♂♂, 1 ♀ (ZMAS), (Fig. 27): “[round label, blue-blackish] || Ordos | 1884 | G. Patanin. [p] || Heteroplistodes | typ. potanini Jak. | B. Jakowlew det. [hw, p] || к. В. Яковлева [p] || Cotypus [p, red label] [p]” [all these specimens are not paratypes of L. kucerai new species, e.g. note under L. potanini].
Additional material examined (22 specimens). China, Inner Mongolia: 1 ♀ (NMPC), Dongsheng, Genghis khan-memorial, 18.–22.vii.2007, E. Kučera lgt., 1 ♂ (OHCB) but Peter Schneider lgt.; 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀ (NMPC), Yijin Huoluoqi env., 17.–19.v.2011, J. S. Gull lgt.; 4 ♂♂, 6 ♀♀ (HBUM), Zhungeerqi, Shierliancheng, 9.vi.2013, Sun & Chen lgt.; 1 ♂ (MBCP), Ordos plateau, Boro-Balgasun env. (Chengchuan), 1932; 3 ♀♀ (ZMAS), Ordos, 1884, G. Patanin. China, Shaanxi: 3 ♂♂ (HBUM), Fugu, 4.v.2007, Guodong Ren & Wenjun Hou lgt.
Description of holotype (♂) (Fig. 1). Maximally developed (hyperthelic) male with well developed ventral mandible processes (Fig. 1). Body oblong, length 18 mm, strongly convex; dorsal surface blackish with distinct blue tinge, claws blackish brown, setation brownish; moderately shiny.
Head (Figs. 1, 9). Labrum bilobed, asymmetrical, right lobe remarkably more developed; surface rugose and shiny. Clypeus transverse, trapezoidal with anterior angles rounded, anterior margin strongly bent up at the side of the middle. Frontal impressions vague horseshoe-shaped to v-shaped, frontal tubercles elongate and strongly rounded. Frontoclypeal suture present only laterally only; keels separating eye canthus from frons distinctly, slightly divergent posteriad. Eye canthus exceeding eyes, projecting anterolaterad, almost pointed, lateral margins irregularly divergent anteriad, anterolateral angle moderate pointed and bend upward, oblique keel above eyes absent. Pleurostomal process rounded, not exceeding ventrolateral mandible outline. Punctation of frons coarse, composed of rough irregular indentations; coarse punctures separated by approximately one of their diameters, punctation becoming weakly denser posteriad on occiput; clypeus and eye canthus comparably punctured, weakly less pronounced.
Mandibles approximately symmetrical, external outline more or less parallel, almost semicircular apically (Figs. 1, 9) with maximum width approximately at middle of mandibles length. Dorsal surface of mandible completely flat, without any slanting, transverse carina or hornlike protrusion. Ventral mandible processes (Figs. 5–6, 11) strongly asymmetrical. Left process well developed, long and tapering, obliquely pointed without appendages or keels; directed from base of left mandible lower edge towards apical part of right mandible, not extending mandibular outline in dorsal view, subparallel with mandibles in frontal view. Right process strongly reduced, pointed, as short as thick basally.
Pronotum (Figs. 1, 17) transverse, distinctly broader than base of elytra, broadest just at middle; lateral margin noticeable widened and entire weakly bordered, distinctly crenulate over whole length. Anterior angles broadly rounded, basal margin straight and finely bordered, anterior margin emarginate and entirely punctate. Punctation of dorsal surface coarse, deep and irregularly impressed, punctures separated by approximately their diameters discally; surface near lateral margins roughly punctate.
Scutellum considerably short, almost as long as wide, glabrous.
Elytra (Figs. 1, 15) almost semicircular, apices not prominent, each apex forming independent semicircular tip. Striae visible, weakly indistinct and discontinuous in irregular wrinkled structure of surface. Lateral margin distinctly and broadly elevated in anterior quarter, strongly narrowed apicad. Epipleura distinctly and broadly elevated, reaching elytral apex.
Legs (Figs. 1). Profemora with indistinct transversal edge anteroventrally; protibia with row of nine gradually proximad diminishing exterior denticles and with row of pointed or broadly tuberculate on ventromedial edge. Tip of apical spur of protibia bifurcate (Fig. 23).
Aedeagus (Figs. 19, 21). Parameres broadly rounded apically.
Measurements. Total body length 15–18 mm.
Variability in males. Left mandibular process in medium developed and underdeveloped (hypothelic) males shorter, right process minute or missing.
Female (Fig. 2) differs from male only in the missing processes of mandibles; body length of allotype 16 mm.
Etymology. Patronymic; named in honor of Emil Kučera (Soběslav, Czech Republic), collector of material of the new species.
Distribution. Known from the Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi provinces of China.
Differential diagnosis. Lethrus (Heteroplistodus) kucerai Hillert, Král & Bagaturov, new species is classified in the L. (H.) potanini species group (Bagaturov & Nikolajev 2015) due to the unique shape of mandibular appendices, which is strongly asymmetrical, left long and thin, obliquely pointed and located transversally under the mandibles (cf. Nikolajev 2003: 75, figs. 45: 2–4). The species group comprises two species only, L. (H.) potanini and the newly described species L. (H.) kucerai Hillert, Král & Bagaturov, new species. Both species are morphologically similar, for the differential diagnosis see character matrix on Table 1. The distribution areas seem to be allopatric, close to each other (see map on Fig. 29). Both species are distributed in the northcentral regions of China. Lethrus (H.) kucerai, Hillert, Král & Bagaturov, new species is known from several localities in northwestern Shaanxi and south of Inner Mongolia near the border to Shaanxi. Lethrus (H.) potanini is distributed in southern Mongolia and the Chinese provinces of Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia (see map on Fig. 29).
description: Published as part of Hillert, Oliver, Král, David, Bagaturov, Mikhail & Chuluunbaatar, Gantigmaa, 2024, Lethrus (Heteroplistodus) kucerai (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae: Lethrinae), a new species from China, pp. 123-143 in Zootaxa 5529 (1) on pages 124-126, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5529.1.6, http://zenodo.org/record/14022196