Physodactylus costae Chassain 2005
Creators: name: Rosa, Simone Policena
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Elateridae
Physodactylus
Physodactylus costae

description: Physodactylus costae Chassain, 2005   
 (Fig. 35D)   
 Physodactylus costae Chassain, 2005: 69.   
 Redescription (male, Fig. 35D): Integument dark brown with pronotum, sutural elytral interstice and borders of elytra lighter and legs brown; pilosity yellow. Total length 12.0 mm; elytral base 1.0-1.1x wider than prothorax, elytra 3.3x longer than pronotum. Frons concave, frontal carina not or slightly produced; antenna reaching the anterior third of pronotum. IEP 0.30. Antennomere IV 1.4x wider than long, V-X 1.7x wider than long, XI 1.1x as long as wide. Maxilla with galea covered with fine and spiniform setae. Pronotum convex 1.3x wider than long, parallel on posterior third then straight convergent to anterior margin; anteromedian margin slightly produced anteriad; posterior angles short, convex, parallel; lateral carina evenly prominent to anterior margin; dorsally visible only on posterior third; disc with punctures medium size homogenously distributed 2.0-3.0 diameters apart, smaller and denser on lateral and posterior borders; prosternal process without subapical tooth. Lamellae of pro- and mesotarsomere I very small, absent on metatarsomere I. Elytra parallel-sided on anterior half then tapering to apex; apex conjointly rounded; striae deeply impressed, with three rows of punctures, punctures glabrous on the median row, smaller and bearing a small seta on the lateral row; interstices weakly convex on posterior half, flattened on anterior part, smooth and glabrous; apical striae with punctures smaller than those of pronotal lateral border and as large as those of elytral base. Ventral abdomen evenly convex, ventrites 1-5 evenly pilose with short decumbent setae. Pregenitalic segments and aedeagus covered with stout yellow setae. Sternite IX tapered to apex.   
 Aedeagus: Phallobase 0.5x total length of aedeagus, 1.5x longer than wide, length ratio between lateroposterior and median parts 5.5; ventral surface of paramere with the lateral half sclerotized; penis with basal strut 0.3x its total length, articulated to the parameres by a strongly sclerotized process; ventral sclerite parallel-sided.   
 Holotype: [Brésil, Mato Grosso, 14°15’50.80”S, 59°13’02.05”W, Chapada dos Parecis, 30 km N d’Uirapuru], [01 au 15-12-2000, A. Foucart leg.]. [Holotype], [Physodactylus costae, Holotype, J. Chassain det. 04], male (MNHN).   
 Distribution: BRAZIL. Mato Grosso: Campo Novo dos Parecis.   
 Remarks: Sternite VIII was not examined. Physodactylus costae (Fig. 35D) and P. fleutiauxi (Fig. 35G) are sympatric species from Chapada dos Parecis (Mato Grosso state) and were described by Chassain (2005). They are most similar to P. sulcatus in the antennal length: this do not surpass the anterior third of pronotum. The habitus illustrations in Chassain (2005) show P. fleutiauxi with lamella of meso- and metatarsomere I as large as the other ones and P. costae without any lamella in all legs. Actually, as described by Chassain (2005), the lamellae of the tarsomeres I are very small on the pro- and mesothoracic legs and absent on the metathoracic leg in both species. Physodactylus costae is most similar to Physodactylus fleutiauxi, from which can be separated by the features cited in the key proposed herein. Physodactylus costae has aedeagus similar to that of P. latithorax, however the later has penis wider at apex and narrower at base of the basal struts.
description: Published as part of Rosa, Simone Policena, 2014, Phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Physodactylinae (Coleoptera, Elateridae), pp. 217-292 in Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (São Paulo) (São Paulo) 54 (18) on pages 261-262, DOI: 10.1590/0031-1049.2014.54.18, http://zenodo.org/record/12641367