Australoluciola pharusaurea Ballantyne &amp; Lambkin 2013, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Ballantyne, Lesley A.
name: Lambkin, Christine L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lampyridae
Australoluciola
Australoluciola pharusaurea

description: <i>Australoluciola pharusaurea</i> sp. nov. [Figs 83–91] <b>Holotype.</b> Male. <b>NEW GUINEA</b>: 4.12S, 152.11E, New Britain, Gazelle Pen., 8.2 miles S. Rabaul, Nov. 23, 1969, J.E. Lloyd (G642) (ANIC). <b>Paratype</b> s (8). Same locality as holotype, 4 males, female Nov. 23 1969 (G638, 639, 640, 643, 645) (JELC); Rabaul, Nov. 24 1969 J.E. Lloyd 3 males, female (G648) (ANIC). Kerevat, 19.Xi.1969, J. Buck 2 females (Tube KE /31 #31/III/21) (ANIC). <b>Code Name.</b> <i>Luciola</i> 4 (Lloyd, 1973a). <b>Diagnosis.</b> Pronotum orange, elytra dull reddish brown; head between eyes yellow; posterolateral corners of V7 rounded, not appearing produced in dried pinned specimens. <b>Male.</b> 5.5––6.8 mm long. Colour (Figs 83–86): pronotum dull deep orange; retraction of fat body beneath cuticle leaving irregularly shaped darker areas; pronotal punctures margined in deeper orange; MS and MN yellow; elytra deep reddish brown, dusky brown on humeral angle, basal 1/4 of epipleuron and basal 1/8 of sutural ridge narrowly dusky orange; (pubescence of dorsal body appears golden yellow under high illumination; if not so illuminated elytral surface appears dull); head between eyes pale clear yellow, semitransparent (Fig. 85); labrum light brown; apices of palpi dark brown; scape and pedicel dark red brown, shiny, FS dull dark brown; pro and mesosterna and pleura yellow; coxae, trochanters 1, 2 and femora 1, 2 yellow; tibiae, tarsi and apices of femora 1, 2 dark brown; ventral surface of metathorax medium brown; coxae 3 brown; anterior face trochanters 3 brown, posterior face yellow; femora 3 yellow except for brown apical fourth; remainder of legs 3 brown; basal abdominal ventrites dark brown; V5 dark brown, with irregular white markings across posterior margin (Fig. 87); V6 and 7 white; basal abdominal tergites dark brown; terminal 3 tergites very pale brown, semitransparent, T8 narrowly brown along lateral and posterior margins (Figs 88, 90); dorsally uprolled lateral margins of V6 and 7 creamy white (Fig. 88). Pronotum (Fig. 84): 1.6 mm wide, 1.2 mm long; W/L = 1.3; midanterior margin broadly rounded, projecting considerably beyond angulate anterolateral corners; lateral margins subparallel; punctures contiguous over most of disc. Elytra (Fig. 83): dull, with dense subcontiguous punctures. Head: GHW 1.3–1.4 mm; SIW 0.2 mm; ASD &lt;ASW. Abdomen (Figs87, 88): posterior margin of V7 not trisinuate, posterolateral corners appearing rounded and not produced posteriorly in pinned specimens, and slightly angulate in ethanol preserved specimens; LOs occupying most of V7, reaching sides but not posterior margin; MPP medianly shallowly emarginated or truncate, L=W. T8 (Fig. 90): Ventral surface with well developed lateral ridges and short, wide rounded flanges. Aedeagus: prolongation of ML short and wide; lateral margins of LL straight, not expanded along outer ½; apices obliquely truncate; L/W=6.0. Aedeagal sheath (Fig. 89). <b>Female.</b> 4.5 mm long; coloured as for male except for narrowly white posterior margin of V5; white LO in V6 only; V7 pale in median area (due to fat body), dark laterally and along posterior margin; V8 brown. Bursa plates (Fig. 91). <b>Etymology.</b> The specific name, <i>pharusaurea</i> [pharus (Greek) = lighthouse and aureus (Latin) = golden] emphasizes the pattern of light production observed for one male which "emitted 40 consecutive flashes without an omission" (Lloyd, 1973a), as well as the golden colour of the head and pronotum. <b>Remarks.</b> McDermott (1966) recorded only <i>Luciola leucura</i> Olivier from New Britain, but listed six New Guinea species having orange pronotum, and uniformly dark elytra. All were described with a trisinuate posterior margin to V7, inconsistent with this species. Of these <i>Luciola venusta</i> and <i>L. timida</i> may not be from New Guinea and are discussed; <i>Aus. foveicollis</i> and <i>M. pupilla</i> are characterised here. Olivier (1885) based <i>Luciola anthracina</i> on a female; male specimens assigned subsequently (Olivier, 1913b) were described with trilobed V7 and the ventral surface of the abdomen black except for the white V6 and 7 and white posterior margin of V5 (males are redescribed here). <i>Aus. pharusaurea</i> differs from <i>Aus. anthracina</i> in its distribution, ventral colouration, and non trisinuate posterior margin of V7. <i>Luciola ruficollis</i> was described with black head, V7 trilobed, ventral thorax reddish and ventral abdomen yellow [Guérin-Méneville (1838)]. McDermott's (1966) reference to Plate XXXV in Girard (1873) for <i>L. ruficollis</i> is to a species with lateral prolongations of the antennal FS, inconsistent with any known Luciolinae. Ballantyne (1987a) considered <i>Pteroptyx antennata</i> and <i>L. ruficollis</i> could be conspecific. <i>Aus. pharusaurea</i> differs from <i>L. ruficollis</i> in its darker ventral colouration and presently known distribution. The latter is not identifiable in collections, and is treated under <i>Species Incertae.</i> Lloyd (1973a) observed that no more than two males of this species were seen flying at any one time, and that these "emitted series of single short flashes... with a period of about 0.5 seconds", and he described the pursuit of a flying female by a male. <i>Aus. pharusaurea</i> is sympatric in New Britain with the orange head <i>Medeopteroptyx effulgens,</i> males of which flashed "single short flashes at a flash period of about 1.2 secs", contrasting with a flash period of 0.5 secs for <i>Aus. pharusaurea</i>. These two orange headed species from New Britain are morphologically distinctive, differing in colour, punctation of pronotum and elytra, pronotal outline, and possession of the deflexed elytral apex.
description: Published as part of <i>Ballantyne, Lesley A. &amp; Lambkin, Christine L., 2013, Systematics and Phylogenetics of Indo-Pacific Luciolinae Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) and the Description of new Genera, pp. 1-162 in Zootaxa 3653 (1)</i> on pages 58-60, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3653.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5265340
description: {"references": ["Lloyd, J. E. (1973 a) Fireflies of Melanesia: Bioluminescence, Mating Behavior, and Synchronous flashing. Environmental Entomology, 2 (no. 6), 991 - 1008.", "McDermott, F. A. (1966) Lampyridae Pars. 9. Coleopterorum Catalogus (Junk-Schenkling) (Ed. Sec), 1 - 149 (Luciolini, 98 - 118).", "Olivier, E. (1885) Catalogue des Lampyrides faisant partie des collections du Musee Civique de Genes. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, (2 a) 2, 333 - 374.", "Olivier, E. (1913 b) Lampyridae. Resultats de L'Expedition Scientifique Neerlandaise a la Nouvelle-Guinee en 1907 et 1909 sous les auspices de Dr H. R. Lorentz. Zoologie Livraison III. Nova Guinea, 9, 417 - 422.", "Guerin-Meneville, F. E. (1838) Insectes. In: Lesson, M. (Ed.) Voyage autour du monde, execute par ordre du roi, sur la corvette de sa majeste, La Coquille, pendant les annees 1822, 1823, 1824, et 1825 etc. Zool. 2, Pt. 2, Div. 1, Ch. xiii. Bertrand: Paris, pp. 57 - 302.", "Girard, M. (1873) Les Insectes. Traite elementaire d'entomologie. Introduction. Coleopteres. Tome 3. Paris.", "Ballantyne, L. A. (1987 a) Further Revisional Studies on the firefly genus Pteroptyx Olivier (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 113, 117 - 170."]}