A first record of Oplatocera halli Lepesme, 1956 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from western India
H.V. Ghate 1 & Narendra M. Naidu 2
1,2 Post-Graduate Research Centre, Department
of Zoology, Modern College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Shivajinagar,
Pune, Maharashtra 411005, India
1 hemantghate@gmail.com (corresponding
author), 2 narendramnaidu@gmail.com
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3690.5301-4 | ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:545E0992-EFCF-4D9E-8E45-EDE8E49DD7B7
Editor: Eduard Vives,Museu de Ciències Naturals
de Barcelona, Terrassa , Spain. Date of
publication: 26 December 2013 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms #
o3690 | Received 02 July 2013 | Final received 05 December 2013 | Finally
accepted 07 December 2013
Citation: Ghate, H.V. & N.M.
Naidu (2013).A first record of Oplatocera halli Lepesme, 1956 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from western India. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 5(17): 5301–5304; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3690.5301-4
Copyright: © Ghate & Naidu 2013. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 UnportedLicense. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this
article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate
credit to the authors and the source of publication.
Funding: Self-funded.
Competing Interest: The
authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are extremely grateful to Dr. Carolus Holzschuh(Austria), who helped in the identification, to Dr.Norbert Delhaye (France), who helped in getting the
original description by Lepesme, and to Dr. Francesco Vitali(Luxembourg), who provided Gressitt’s paper. Constant
support and encouragement from all these people immensely helps our work on Cerambycidae. Francesco Vitalialso read the first draft of this note and made very useful suggestions that
have improved the contents. We also appreciate the readiness with which Dr. Tatsuya Niisato (Tokyo,
Japan) and Dr. Shigehiko Shiyake (Osaka Museum of Natural History, Japan) responded
on O. khasimontana, and also provided a very
useful photograph. We thank the authorities of Modern College for facilities
and encouragement.
The publication of
this article is supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), a
joint initiative of l’Agence Françaisede Développement, Conservation
International, the European Commission, the Global Environment
Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank.
A cerambycid specimen collected by one of us
(HVG) in Mulshi, Pune, Western Ghats of Maharashtra,
turned out to be a species of the genus Oplatocera White, 1853 but it did not match any of the species described in Gahan (1906). Dr. Carolus Holzschuh, helped us in
identifying it as Oplatocera halli Lepesme, 1956.
A type of this species was collected from the Nilgiri Hills by H.L. Andrewes in 1922 (preserved in British Museum of Natural History, now NHM,
London); the only other report comes from Tamil Nadu (Namboodiri& Thirumalai 2009), but there is neither
description nor an image of this specimen. As this species has not been recorded from any other part of India until
now, the present record considerably extends the range of this species
northward and westward.
Gahan (1906) has given a
detailed description of the genus Oplatocera, though, the original description of O. halli by Lepesme (1956) is
short and is in French. Hence we
are providing salient morphological characters of this beetle for the benefit
of people doing biodiversity assessments in India. Moreover, since there are neither colour
illustrations nor photos of this interesting species anywhere, we provide them
along with a description.
Oplatocera White, 1853
Oplatocera halli Lepesme, 1956
Material: Ceramb 67 and 68, ix.2005, 1 male
and 1 female, Mulshi, Pune, coll. H.V. Ghate, preserved in Modern College.
Body length 29mm; width at humerus8mm (Types: body length 37–41 mm; width at humerus8–11 mm, as per Lepesme).
Body slender, narrowed towards apex, elongate, dorsally pale reddish to
reddish-brown, some area on the prothorax and of the
inter-costal regions of elytra dark brown to black; apex of antennomeres,
femora and tibia almost black (Image 1); ventrally pale brown.
Head almost as long as broad, broadest at the level of the eyes, covered
above with golden pubescence right up to the base of mandibles; mandibles
strong but small, their outer and inner edge dark brown to black; clypeus
distinct; frons short and oblique, genae short. Eyes large, coarsely faceted, deeply emarginate, lower lobe bulging, upper lobes widely
separated above. Antennal tubercles
flattened, the area in between concave and rugulosepunctate with sparse golden pubescence; vertex also slightly concave anteriorly
and flat posteriorly; a thin rusty red furrow runs mid-dorsally throughout the
vertex between the antennal tubercles, right up to the base of the clypeus
(Image 2).
Antennae long, extending beyond the tip of the elytra with at least
three antennomeres in the male, reaching just the elytral apex in the female; covered with a golden
pubescence, black at the apex of each antennomere,
sparse above but dense beneath. Scape somewhat thicker than other antennomeres, broad distally, rugulose-punctate;antennomere III longest, all finely punctate; some
punctures darker in colour.
Prothoraxbroader than long, finely punctate, pubescent, anterior margin sinuate, posterior
margin straight, the deep basal groove extends laterally to the outward
extension of the coxal cavity; with strong lateral
tubercles, which have a broad base and each is slightly turned upward at apex
(Image 3). Scutellum small, broadly rounded.
Elytra about three times as long as wide, wider than the prothorax at the level of the lateral tubercle, broader at
the base, humerus rounded, apex rounded but sutural angle is slightly turned outside on either side and
is somewhat pointed. Disk with four prominent
distinctly raised costae. The first
(sutural) costa starts at the base, slightly away
from scutellum, it is bifurcated near about the
apical third, where it sends a thin costa to the suture and continues towards
the apex without reaching it. The second
costa starts a little behind the humeral region, slightly away from the first
one, it is somewhat curved inward as it runs down to the apex and meets, with a
short connection, with the first costa at the point where it sends the branch
towards the suture then it continues as a separate costa towards the apex. The third costa starts from the basal
fourth and continues down ending a little before the apex; it has a short
connection with the second costa in its middle region. The fourth (humeral) costa starts
laterally from the humeral region where it is dark in colour and continues
laterally along the elytra and ends just before the apex. Surface devoid of
hairs, except lateral margins, covered with golden pubescence. Costae brown, intercostal area dark
brown to black and finely granulate; remaining entire region near to scutellum reddish except a dark brown or blackish V-shaped
area adjoining the scutellum (see Images 1 & 3).
Gula transversely wrinkled
and sparsely punctured; with two small deep oblique
notches, one on either side of the midline of the basal region.
Prosternum is
very narrow between the coxae, not elevated above thecoxal plane. Mesosternum compressed between the coxae distally, flat proximally;part of the area lateral to coxae and adjoining the mesepisternum black. Mesepisternum is densely granular. Metasternumcovered with a long golden pubescence, punctured and with a distinct dark
brown, shallow, median furrow. Metepisternum depressed, black at the inner, distal and
outer margins, also covered with long pubescence (Image 4).
Urosternites pale
yellowish-brown, each ventrite finely punctured
except in the middle and covered with thin golden pubescence arising out of the
punctures; all segments almost equally long, their width gradually decreasing
towards the apex. Urosternite IV with a dark brown half-moon shaped ring at
the margin; pygidium apically sinuate.
Legs moderately long, flattened, finely punctate and
covered with a golden pubescence; apex of coxae,
femora and tibiae dark brown to black. Procoxaeprominent, very close to each other; coxal cavities
angulate on outer side; mesocoxae prominent,
globular, their distal edge brown to black; metacoxaesomewhat depressed, distally black with blackness extending down up to the base
of the trochanter; basal region of trochanter also black. Metafemora not extending beyond the
tip of the abdomen.
Discussion: The original description of the genus
[Type-species O. callidioides from northern
India] by White (1853) is brief and is given verbatim here. Gahan (1906),
however, gave a more elaborate description. “Head with strong, short, wide
mandibles not toothed on the inner edge, the base elevated and covered with
hairs. Antennae with the basal joint thick, the third joint much longer than
the fourth, the others gradually diminishing in length to the end, the third,
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh joints armed with a few short spines on the
outer margin; the spines are at right angles with the joints. Thorax wider than long, sides bulging,
somewhat depressed above. Legs simple, femora slightly compressed”.
Gressitt(1951) divided this genus into two subgenera: Oplatoceras. str. and Epioplatocera, on the basis
of the presence or absence of prothoracic constriction before and behind the
lateral tubercle, nature of the lateral prothoracic tubercle: prominent or
small, and some antennomeres with or without spines.
In O. halli there is a distinct
constriction at anterior and posterior margin of the pronotum,
the lateral tubercle is prominent and no antennomereis spined. Consequently, this species is here formally recognised as belonging to
the subgenus Epioplatocera. The current valid
name is Oplatocera (Epioplatocera)halli Lepesme, 1956
n. status.
Gahan (1906) included Oplatocera callidioidesWhite, 1853 (from northern India) and O. oberthuri Gahan, 1906 (from Darjeeling), as the only two
species present in India, under the “group” (now Tribe) Oeminiof the subfamily Cerambycinae. Gressitt &Rondon (1970) recorded O. callidioidesfrom Laos, including it under the tribe Methiini. Two further species are now known from
India: O. halli (from NilgiriHills) and O. khasimontana Hayashi, 1984 (fromKhasi Hills, northeasternIndia). Hayashi (1984) described
this last species as O. (?Epioplatocera)khasimontana and also placed it in Methiini. There
are problems with these two tribes, namely Oemini andMethiini, and a brief discussion on this topic can be
found in Lingafelter (2010). According to Vitali& Rezbanyai-Reser (2003), Oemini,Methiini and Xystrocerinihave characters that do not allow the distinction of three tribes, and Xystrocerini should be the valid name for this tribe.
Thus, four Oplatocera species are now
known from India. O. hallican be easily distinguished from all other Indian species as it lacks the
distinctive oblique brown bands or spots on the elytra that are almost
invariably present in other species. Besides, in O. oberthuri the elytral costae are weak and less in number, while O. callidioides has weak prothoracic tubercles. O. khasimontana has a pair of spots and prominent
brown bands on the elytra, weak costae, along with a rather densely pubescent prothorax. O.siamensis Hüdepohl, 1994 from Thailand, which is likely to occur in
India, differs from O. halli in having broad
oblique bands on elytra (Hüdepohl 1994).
It is evident from the literature that most Oplatocera-species
are present in northeastern India and south-western Asia. O. halli is perhaps the only southern as well as
western Indian species. Its distribution represents probably the southern and
western limits of the whole genus, since it is unknown from Sri Lanka (Makihara et al. 2008).
Note added in proof: During the time this paper was in press a good
picture of the “type” of this species preserved in Natural History Museum,
London, has been made available on the internet at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhm_beetle_id/10814577524/
References
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