Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October
2019 | 11(13): 14780–14783
First record of longhorn beetle
Calothyrza margaritifera
(Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Phrynetini) from western India
Vishwas Deshpande 1 &
Hemant V. Ghate 2
1 Department of
Zoology, Yeshwantrao Chavan Institute of
Science, Behind Collector Office, Sadar Bazar, Satara, Maharashtra
415001, India.
2 Post-Graduate
Research Centre, Department of Zoology, Modern College of Arts, Science&
Commerce, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411005, India.
1 vydzoo@gmail.com,
2 hemantghate@gmail.com (corresponding author)
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5194.11.13.14780-14783
|
ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B425760C-B705-4B54-9019-82D122C40966
Editor: Eduard Vives,
Museu de Ciències Naturals
de Barcelona, Terrassa, Spain. Date of publication: 26
October 2019 (online & print)
Manuscript details: #5194 | Received 01 July 2019 |
Finally accepted 07 October 2019
Citation: Deshpande, V. & H.V. Ghate (2019). First record of longhorn beetle Calothyrza
margaritifera (Cerambycidae:
Lamiinae: Phrynetini) from
western India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(13): 14780–14783. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5194.11.13.14780-14783
Copyright: © Deshpande & Ghate 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Self funded.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing
interests.
Acknowledgements: Authors are thankful to Dan Heffern
(USA), Norbert Delahaye (France) and Francesco Vitali
(Luxembourg) for constant support, comments on images and for providing useful
literature on Cerambycidae. We thank Swapnil Boyane
for help in photography and preparation of image plates. We are grateful to the authorities of our
respective institutions for encouragement and facilities for research work.
A specimen of a
beautiful cerambycid beetle, intact but in moribund state, was collected in
Konkan area (Chiplun, Maharashtra, date 25.vii.2018) during monsoon of 2018, by
the first author. A similar specimen was
only photographed, some 200km north, in Pen, Maharashtra a few years earlier
(please see
https://thebutterflydiaries.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dsc04976.jpg), but it
was not collected; a blog on this species, Calothyrza
margaritifera, was also floated on the
internet. Presence of the same species
again in Western Ghats indicated presence of a viable population of this Cerambycidae member in Konkan area. The purpose of this short note is to provide
the first illustrated record of this species from western part of India. Since the original description of the species
is quite good, we are only adding some salient points and additional
illustrations in support.
The beetle was studied under Leica SMZ 6 and
photographed using Canon Powershot S50 as described
by Sarode et al. (2018).
The recent specimen was identified as a member of the Lamiinae tribe Phrynetini (claws
divaricate, scape without cicatrix, metasternum of
normal length, metepisterna short) based on
classification by von Breuning (1950). It was further identified as Calothyrza margaritifera
(Westwood, 1848) based on keys to the genera / species of Phrynetini
by von Breuning (1937).
Original description of this beetle by Westwood
(1848), under the genus Phryneta, is short but
sufficient to identify this species as the colour illustration provided is
equally perfect. Westwood’s original
diagnosis and description is given below verbatim.
In the words of Westwood: “Diagnosis: Phryneta of a velvety brown colour; the sides of the
pronotum with two white lines and the elytra with six large irregular-shaped
patches of a pearly white colour; the legs incrassated. Length of the body one
and fourth of an inch. Breadth of the
base of the elytra one half inch.
Inhabits Nepal”.
Description: “The entire insect is clothed with a fine
velvety pile, with the base of the elytra rather coarsely punctured. The parts of the mouth are very short, the
eyes strongly incised at the base of the antennae, which are rather short and
thick, as are also the spines at the sides of the pronotum. This part of the body has two white lateral
lines on each side, and the elytra have six large pearly-white spots, of
irregular form, besides two minute white dots. The sterna are simple; and the
legs (especially the femora) are thickened.
The tips of the elytra are unarmed.
The specimens in my collection, presented to me by the Rev. F.W. Hope,
are smaller than the one figured, and have the sides of the pronotum occupied
by a large white oblong patch instead of two lines, as in Mr. Melly’s specimen”.
Description of our Chiplun specimen (female):
All measurements are in mm. Total length 34; breadth at humeral angles
12; breadth of prothorax at spine 11; foreleg: femur 8, tibia, 8, tarsus 6.5;
midleg: femur 8.5, tibia 9, tarsus 7; hindleg: femur 9, tibia 9, tarsus 8;
antennal segments 1 to 11: 5, 1.5, 5.1, 4.6, 3, 2.5, 2.5, 2.4, 2,1.5, 1.7
Robust, medium size beetle with thick antennal
segments and strong, incrassate femora.
Overall colour dark brown to blackish with a bilaterally symmetrical
pattern of thick, yellowish white or white patches of pubescence dorsally; this
includes lateral white lines on pronotum and large patches on elytra, which do
not extend to lateral margin (Image 1 A, C; Image 2A). Entire other body, dorsally and ventrally
(Image 1B), uniformly dark brown and thickly covered with pubescence.
Head vertical, typical of Lamiinae;
vertex convex above with a fine sulcus that extends up to base of
antennae; eyes large, deeply emarginated
with lower lobe much large and more than twice long as gena
(Image 1C,D,E), one of the character that separates this species from similar
looking C. sehestedti (Fabricius). Frons squarish, lower lobe of eye partly
visible from front. Mandibles strong,
curved at tip; labium setose; clypeus leathery and pale brown. Antenniferous tubercles strong, elevated, slightly
divergent, with shallow groove in between.
Antennae shorter than body, antennomeres moderately thick, scape without
cicatrix.
In thorax pronotum broader than long, with maximum
breadth only slightly less than base of elytra; distinct transverse grooves
present near anterior and posterior boders; disc
elevated, slightly convex above; lateral spine strong with broad base and blunt
apex; a median longitudinal, smooth and shining sulcus present (Image 1C).
Prosternum narrow, with rugulose, smooth and shining
area near anterior margin; prosternal process
slightly elevated between procoxae, flat in middle
but its lateral borders elevated. Prosternal process dilated behind procoxae
with its distal part almost vertical. Mesosternum with anterior border shining and smooth, with
half-moon shaped shining and sunken area without pubescence; lateral parts rugulose punctate. Mesosternal process broad, raised between mesocoxae and bifid at distal tip. Metasternum broad,
long, with median shining smooth sulcus (Image 1B). Elytra elongate, slightly narrowed
posteriorly, rounded at apex; each elytron sparsely but coarsely punctured near
base but punctures very sparse and indistinct in posterior half, thick
pubescence masking all punctures. All
legs rather short and robust; all femora incrassate or ‘claviform’, as stated
by von Breuning.
Tarsal segments distinct, apical one more deeply cleft dorsally, with
dense light brown setae underside; claws dark brown, divaricate (Image 2 B,C,D)
Abdomen, as seen ventrally, with first segment longest
and broad, its anterior tip projecting forward between metacoxae.
The type locality of C. margaritifera
is Nepal; von Breuning (1937) mentions ‘Cochinchina’ (sometimes spelled Cochin-China, a
colony of former French Indochina, encompassing the Cochinchina region
of present southern Vietnam); a recent checklist of longicorn beetles of India
(Kariyanna et al. 2017) notes only C. sehestedtii (Fabricius, 1798)
but not C. margaritifera. A website on Cerambycidae,
namely ‘Worldwide Cerambycoidea Photo Gallery’ Vitali
(2019), however records ‘India, Nepal, Myanmar and Thailand’ as distribution of
C. margartifera. ‘ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural
Insect Resources’ website also lists this beetle and an image (probably of
other species) on their website, without locality data, (see ICAR 2013). Apparently, there seems to be no published
record of C. margaritifera from India. C. sehestdtii has,
however, been recently recorded from Madhya Pradesh (Majumder et al. 2015) and
the distribution was stated as present in ‘Himalayas, Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur)
within India and Sri Lanka’.
This illustrated record should, therefore, be treated
as the first authentic report of Calothyrza
margaritifera from India. It remains to be seen if this species has
recently invaded or is present for a long time but was overlooked so far.
References
ICAR (2013). National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources.
Insects in Indian Agroecosystems
http://www.nbair.res.in/insectpests/Calothyrza-margaritifera.php. Accessed October 2019
Kariyanna, B., M. Mohan, R. Gupta & F. Vitali (2017). The checklist of longhorn beetles (Coleoptera:
Cerambycidae) from India. Zootaxa
4345 (1): 1–317
Majumder, A., A. Raha, B. Mitra & K. Chandra (2015). New records of Cerambycidae
(Insecta: Coleoptera) from
Madhya Pradesh, India. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 7(15): 8242–8249. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2465.7.15.8242-8249
Sarode, B.V., N.S. Joshi, P.P. Pansare & H.V. Ghate (2018). A record after 52 years, and additional description of
the emesine assassin bug Emesopsis nubila (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae) from
western India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(9): 12282–12285; https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3956.10.9.12282-12285
von Breuning, S. (1937). Études sur
les Lamiaires. Cinquième Tribu : Phrynetini Thomson. Novitates
Entomologicæ, 3ème sup. (46–49): 271–302.
Vitali, F. (2019). Worldwide Cerambycoidea
Photo Gallery. http://www.cerambycoidea.com/specie.asp?Id=43&Tipo=T.
Accessed Oct 2019
von Breuning, S. (1950). Considérations Préliminaires sur
le classification des Lamiares. Longicornia
1: 25–28.
Westwood, J.O. (1848). The Cabinet of Oriental Entomology,
William Smith, London, 88pp, Plates XLII.