Phytoecia (Pilemia) kruszelnickii Szczepański & Karpiński, 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Szczepański, Wojciech T.
name: Karpiński, Lech
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cerambycidae
Phytoecia
Phytoecia kruszelnickii

description: Phytoecia (Pilemia) kruszelnickii sp. nov.
(Fig. 1 A–1B)
Type material. Holotype: male (Fig. 1 A): GREECE, Thessaly: Vlachava (39°46'17.2"N, 21°39'27.5"E) on leaves of Phlomis samia, 0 6.06.2016, 1200 m, Wojciech T. Szczepański leg. Paratypes: 7 males, 2 females: same collecting data as the holotype; 24 males, 6 females: GREECE, Thessaly: 2 km SE Vlachava (39°46'08"N, 21°39'27"E), 0 6.06.2016, Lech Kruszelnicki leg.; 9 males, 5 females: GREECE Thessaly: 2 km SE Vlachava (39°46'08"N, 21°39'27"E), 0 6.06.2016, Marcin Walczak leg.; 2 males, 1 female: GREECE, Thessaly: 2 km SE Vlachava (39°46'14.2"N 21°39'22.5"E), 0 6.06.2016, Lech Karpiński leg.; 3 males, 1 female: GREECE, Thessaly: 2 km N Kalambaka (39°43'59"N, 21°38'52"E), 0 1.06.2016, Lech Kruszelnicki leg.; 1 male: GREECE, Thessaly: Ossae Mts., 10.06.2012, Lech Kruszelnicki leg.; 2 males, 1 female: GREECE, Thessaly: Ossae Mts. (39°50’06.7”N, 22°41’07.6”E), 31.05.2016, Lech Kruszelnicki leg.; 1 male, 1 female: GREECE, Thessaly: Ossae Mts. (39°50’06.7”N, 22°41’07.6”E), 31.05.2016, Wojciech T. Szczepański leg.
Additional material examined: Phytoecia (P.) hirsutula hirsutula (Fig. 1 C–D): 1 male: SLOVAKIA, Nitriansky kraj: Štúrovo, 26.05.1995; 1 male: SLOVAKIA, Nitriansky kraj: Štúrovo, 6–7.05.1993, Martinů leg.; 1 male: SLOVAKIA, Nitriansky kraj: Štúrovo, 25.05.1996, Martinů leg.; 1 female: SLOVAKIA, Nitriansky kraj: Štúrovo, 0 8.05.1993, Habarta leg.; 3 males, 1 female: SLOVAKIA, Nitriansky kraj: Štúrovo, 6– 29.05.1995, Habarta leg.
Phytoecia (P.) moreana stat. nov. (Fig. 1 E–F): 3 males, 4 females: GREECE, Peloponnese: 34 km S from Tripoli close to the road from Tripoli to Sparti, 4.06.2011, Marcin Walczak leg.
Description. Morphology. External morphology of new species is most similar to P. hirsutula. Habitus of male holotype is presented in Fig. 1 A. Body length from 10 to 14 mm (holotype 12 mm), width from 3.1 to 4.0 mm; females wider and more massive (Fig. 1 B). Integument of whole body black, covered by dense recumbent mainly silver-grey and locally (mostly head and stripes on pronotum) by a cream-yellowish pubescence. Population from Ossae Mountain appears to be slightly more yellowish. Additionally, dorsal side of body has individual, long erect dark brown hairs, while ventral side and legs have silver-white hairs. Head, pronotum and elytra are heavily dotted. Shape of male pronotum is subquadrate, slightly wider than higher, while female is more rectangular and transverse. Pronotum has three condensed yellowish longitudinal stripes: one at centre and two on margins of disc. Male antennae are almost as long as elytra, reach ca. to 9/10 of length of elytra; female antennae are shorter, reach ca. to 7/10 of length of elytra. In some places, antennae have single, long erect brown hairs. Scutellum in most cases has a condensed white-yellowish pubescence. Elytra have a rather dense recumbent pubescence, although sometimes locally with hairless areas. Elytra are elongated – in males they taper rearwards from humeri, while in females elytra are more parallel-sided; they expressly start to taper at 2/3 of length of elytra.
Male genitalia. Aedeagus (Figs. 2, 3 B): approx. 2 mm long, nearly L-shaped in lateral view; median lobe is relatively slender and parallel-sided, suddenly narrows towards apex; Lateral lobes (Fig. 4 B): approx. 1.6 mm long; the apex of paramere is separated medially along inner margin and rounded; long yellow-brown hairs are concentrated at top of parameres and shorter ones on sides; tegmen slightly narrows towards base, whereas manubrium appears to be relatively wide.
Differential diagnosis. Although the new species is most similar to two related species: Ph. hirsutula and P. moreana, P. kruszelnickii has a considerably larger body size (ca. 1.5 times longer). The body length of the examined species of P. moreana and P. hirsutula did not exceed 9 mm while the length of P. kruszelnickii ranged from 10 to 14 mm. Furthermore, P. kruszelnickii has a brighter pubescence compared to the other species. There is also a difference in the length of the antennae of P. moreana, which are noticeably longer in both sexes. Therefore, this species can be easily distinguished from the related taxa. The antennae of the males of P. hirsutula and P. kruszelnickii do not reach the end of the elytra, whereas in the males of P. moreana, the antennae usually reach its ends.
Moreover, there are clear differences in the morphology of the lateral lobes. Primarily, P. kruszelnickii definitely has the widest base of the manubrium (Fig. 4). The apex of the paramere is also different; compared to the two other species, its external lateral margins are gently rounded toward the tip, while in P. hirsutula and P. moreana the ends are flatter. The hairs on the parameres are similar to P. hirsutula, but are much longer than in the case of P. moreana (Fig. 4). The apex of the median lobe is the narrowest (Fig. 3).
Based on the morphology of the genitalia, P. kruszelnickii as well as P. moreana stat. nov. should be treated as separate species. Moreover, the taxonomic division and distribution range of P. hirsutula, especially the specimens that are known from the Asia region, require further research.
Distribution. This species is so far only known from the type material localities in Greece, Thessaly. Biology. All of the collected specimens where observed on Phlomis samia L. (Fig. 5).
Etymology. We are pleased to dedicate this species to our close friend Lech Kruszelnicki who collected most of the type material of the new species and provided some specimens of related species for comparison.
description: Published as part of Szczepański, Wojciech T. & Karpiński, Lech, 2017, A new species of the genus Phytoecia Dejean, 1835 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Greece, pp. 141-146 in Zootaxa 4268 (1) on pages 142-144, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4268.1.9, http://zenodo.org/record/579968