Mylabris (Mylabris) pseudoemiliae Pan & Bologna, sp. n.
Creators: name: Pan, Zhao
name: Bologna, Marco A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Mylabris
Mylabris pseudoemiliae

description: Mylabris (Mylabris) pseudoemiliae Pan & Bologna sp. n.
Figs. 1 T, 23A–G
Type locality. “ Iran, Zagros Mts., Fereidun Shar”.
Type specimens. Holotype male (IRSNB) and 6 male and 1 female Paratypes with the following labels: “ Holotypus (and Paratypus respectively) Mylabris (Myl.) pseudoemiliae n.sp. Z. Pan and M. Bologna det. 2013” (red, rectangular, printed and handwritten); “Esfahan, Zagros Mts., Fereidun Shar, 3000 m, N32°54.43’ – E50°06.40’, 15/ 17.6.2010 ” (5 IRSNB, 2 MAB).
Description. Male: body uniformly black, but elytra brown-ochre with the following black pattern (Fig. 23 B): one fascia on fore third, not extended to the external margin, but to the scutellum along the inner suture; one middle transverse wide and slightly sinuate fascia, and one quite wide apical fascia sinuate anteriorly. Ventral and dorsal setation uniformly black, but ventral side of foretibiae and foretarsi with golden setae, forming a small pad under the pro- and mesotarsomeres; setae denser on head and pronotum, sparser on elytra, where they are erect on the basal third and recumbent on the remaining surface. Body length: 15.0– 18.5 mm.
Head slightly longer than wide at temple level, width at eyes level and temple subequal; punctures relatively small, shallow and dense, surface among punctures shiny on vertex, wrinkled on frons; head capsule subrectangular, temple widely curved posteriorly and subequal in length to the longitudinal length of eye; frons flat, on center with one dark red spot, bilobed posteriorly; clypeus transverse, convex, with slightly rounded anterior and lateral margins, anteriorly depressed and smooth, fronto-clypeal suture clearly visible; labrum only slightly shorter and narrower than clypeus, anterior margin slightly emarginate, longitudinally slightly depressed in the middle; mandibles robust, almost straight at base, curved suddenly after the middle, slightly longer than clypeus and labrum together; maxillary palpomere II with long setae on the posterior side, last maxillary palpomere apically thickened and truncate at apex; antennae (Fig. 23 A) relatively long, extending over the posterior margin of pronotum, antennomere I approximately twice as long as II, which is semi-globular; antennomere III elongate, slightly less than 1.5 times as long as IV, IV and V similar in length and width, VI similar in length to IV and V, but widened apically, VII–X similar in length but progressively more widened apically, X subcylindrical, last antennomere ca. twice as long as wide, elongate and narrowed in apical half, one side almost straight.
Pronotum almost as long as wide, convex, sides on basal half almost parallel, anteriorly widely curved; anteriorly not evidently depressed, but with a shallow transverse depression in the middle of base; posterior margin straight; punctures relatively wide, denser than on head, not distinctly confluent on anterior third, surface among punctures shiny; elytral black pattern as in Fig. 23 B (see above); mesosternum longitudinally elevated in the middle, with a clearly modified anterior section (“scutum”), with a slightly depressed triangular area with dense and slightly long setae (Fig. 23 C); mesepisterna depressed along the anterior margin, which consequently appears to be raised; legs black, pro- and mesotibial spurs pointed, similar in shape, both metatibial spurs stick-like; femora with mixed short and long setae, setae robust and more elongate on tibiae and tarsi; foretibiae ventrally with mixed golden and black short and dense setae; pro- and mesotarsomeres with ventral golden setae forming tarsal pads, those of mesotarsomeres smaller.
Posterior margin of sternite VIII deeply emarginated in the middle. Male genitalia as in Figs. 23 D–G: in lateral view (Fig. 23 E) the basal part of gonoforceps slender, apical lobe of gonoforceps very short, evidently shorter than 0.5 the total length of gonoforceps; gonoforceps fused ventrally in basal two-fifths (Fig. 23 D); aedeagus (Fig. 23 F) with two dorsal hooks both positioned very close to apex and with same inclination, distal hook small and straight, almost at apex, the proximal one longer and more curved; endophallic hook relatively large, subrectangularly inclined. The apodeme of the spiculum gastrale slender, with relatively wide lateral arms, as in Fig. 23 G.
Female. Similar to male, but with relatively shorter antennae, setation on external side of protibiae and protarsomeres I–IV with mixed short and long setae, much longer than that on internal side, and the posterior margin of sternite VIII almost straight.
Etymology. The name of the new species refers to its great similarity with M. emiliae.
Taxonomic remarks. This species is very close and similar to M. emiliae. It differs because of the shape of male gonoforceps: slender in both ventral and lateral view, the apical lobe shorter and slightly curved (Fig. 23 D, E), and the aedeagus more slender and with distinct distal hook (Fig. 23 F).
To date, only few specimens of both specis are known, and the variability of aedeagal characters cannot be tested. Moreover the distribution of these species seems vicariant, M. emiliae distributed in central and eastern Anatolia and the Caucasian area, and M. pseudoemiliae in the Iranian Zagros Mts. For these reasons we prefer to consider these two Mylabris as distinct species, while awaiting new available material and molecular research to support their taxonomic status.
Distribution. W Iran.
description: Published as part of Pan, Zhao & Bologna, Marco A., 2014, Taxonomy, Bionomics and Faunistics of the Nominate Subgenus of Mylabris Fabricius, 1775, with the description of five new species (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Mylabrini), pp. 1-78 in Zootaxa 3806 (1) on pages 37-39, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3806.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286141