Revision of the Palaearctic species of the genus Plateumaris C. G. Thomson, 1859 (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Donaciinae)
Author
Geiser, Elisabeth
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4536-8938
Natural History Museum, Burgring 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria
elisabeth.geiser@gmx.at
text
ZooKeys
2023
2023-08-30
1177
167
233
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1177.103214
journal article
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1177.103214
1313-2970-1177-167
DF38DD37843C467B9DD598CC7A6290E7
48F5CB6D99365D5AAC536E770168124C
Plateumaris consimilis (Schrank, 1781)
Fig. 5
Leptura consimilis
Schrank, 1781: 155.
Plateumaris consimilis f. aerea
Bechyne
, 1942: 234, 236 [infrasubspecific name].
Leptura assimilis
Schrank, 1781: 156.
Plateumaris consimilis f. coerulea
Bechyne
, 1942: 234, 236 [infrasubspecific name].
Donacia discolor
Hoppe, 1795: 45 [homonym].
Plateumaris consimilis f. flavipes
Bechyne
, 1942: 234, 236 [infrasubspecific name].
Plateumaris consimilis f. nigripes
Bechyne
, 1942: 234, 236 [infrasubspecific name].
Donacia rufipes
Olivier, 1791: 292.
Plateumaris tenuicornis
Balthasar, 1934: 128 [syn. nov.].
Donacia variabilis
Kunze, 1818: 39.
Plateumaris consimilis f. violacea
Bechyne
, 1942: 234, 236 [infrasubspecific name].
Plateumaris consimilis f. viridis
Bechyne
, 1942: 234, 236 [infrasubspecific name].
Type locality.
Plateumaris consimilis
: unknown, but possibly in Austria (the country in 1781 was much larger than today) because the original description is in a book titled 'Enumeratio insectorum Austriae
indigenorum'
.
Type material.
Holotype or type series of
P. consimilis
unknown.
Figure 5.
Plateumaris consimilis
: Variability of colours and of the shape of the median lobe
A, B
habitus
C, D
median lobe (photographs by K. Matsumoto). Scale bars: one unit - 1 mm.
Taxonomic history and synonymies.
Bechyne (1942) detailed statistics about the different colours and subtle structures on the pronotum of
P. consimilis
, but without convincing results. He named colour variations as
"forma"
but conceded that there also existed combinations of colours in between. These names are indicated above for the sake of completeness, but they are irrelevant to systematics.
Schrank de Paula (1781
: 155) described
Leptura consimilis
with bronze and black-golden colouration. On the next page of this publication, he described a new species
Leptura assimilis
. The difference from the former species is indicated as
"black"
and the elytra with nine rows of punctures in contrast to those of
P. consimilis
which he described with ten rows of punctures [both species have elytra with 11 rows of punctures]. In that pioneer period, this species common in central Europe was also described as
Donacia rufipes
by
Olivier (1791)
,
Donacia discolor
by
Hoppe (1795)
, and
Donacia variabilis
by
Kunze (1818)
, who already mentioned the great variability of this species by its specific name.
Donacia discolor
was described by
Hoppe (1795)
. According to
Bousquet (2016)
this was published on [30] April 1795, but a description of a
Donacia discolor
had been already published by Panzer on 14 February 1795 (
Bousquet 2016
). Therefore,
Donacia discolor
Hoppe was immediately a homonym. Later, both species were assigned to
Plateumaris
, therefore
D. discolor
Hoppe remained a homonym.
Plateumaris consimilis orientalis
was described by
Shavrov (1948)
(see
Geiser and Geiser 2023
), which he thought to represent a subspecies of
P. consimilis
, but it resulted in being synonymous with
P. weisei
(see at
P. weisei
below for further explanation).
Diagnosis.
Pronotum cordate, anterior tubercles slightly convex. Upper side with metallic lustre in varying colours, antennae, and legs at least partly reddish brown. Elytra 1.5-1.8
x
longer than wide.
Description.
Size
: 6.0-9.2 mm.
Colour
: Very variable, upper side greenish, bluish, cupreous, bronze, or black with metallic lustre, some black specimens almost without metallic lustre (Fig.
5A, B
).
Head
: Same colour as pronotum. Antennae approximately half the body length or slightly longer, Antennomeres reddish brown at least at the basal part, the apical part can be darkened.
1/2
A1 ≥ A2,
1/2
A3 ≥ A2, A4 ≥ A3, A1 ≈ A4, A5
...
A11 ≈ A4.
Pronotum
: cordate, ahead wider than behind, anterior tubercles only slightly convex, disc uniformly punctate, median line obsolete to fine but distinct.
Elytra
: 1.5-1.8
x
longer than wide, never twice as long as wide, side contours slightly convex, not parallel, elytra rugose and punctulate.
Legs
: Colour variation from completely reddish brown to only reddish at the joints, femora basally very broad, metafemora with sharp or broad tooth.
Aedeagus
: The shape varies between the short, more rounded form in
P. bracata
and the elongated acute form of
P. rustica
(Fig.
5C, D
).
The most similar species are
Plateumaris bracata
and
P. rustica
:
P. bracata
has longer elytra, ~ 2
x
as long as wide and the side contour of the elytra is parallel, not convex (Fig.
4C
).
Plateumaris rustica
has the pronotum not cordate, and disk and tubercles flattened (Fig.
10A
).
Plateumaris weisei
could be mistaken for
P. consimilis
but their distribution areas hardly overlap.
Biology.
Although
P. consimilis
is one of the common
Plateumaris
species, its larva was not described until 2014 by Medvedev and Muravitsky. The larvae and adults feed on
Carex
sp. (
Cyperaceae
). Also,
Juncus articulatus
(
Juncaceae
) and
Caltha
sp. (
Ranunculaceae
) are mentioned as food plants of adults, on which they feed on the pollen (
Rheinheimer and Hassler 2018
).
Plateumaris consimilis
lives in wetlands, fens, near springs, and moor grass meadows. It is more frequent on low calcareous soils, where it is usually the only species of
Donaciinae
. It is site-loyal and cannot be caught in pitfall traps (with rare exceptions) (
Krause 1982
; pers. obs.).
Distribution.
Western Palaearctic: mainly continental Europe up to southern Sweden, very rare in south and east Europe and west Siberia. Records exist for: Europe: Albania [first record], Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein [new in PalCat], Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, North Macedonia [new in PalCat], Poland, Romania, Russia (central part of European Russia), Serbia [new in PalCat], Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine.
Asia: Georgia [first record], Russia (west Siberia), Turkey [new in PalCat].
New country records additional to
Silfverberg (2010)
.
Albania [first records] • 3 ex.; Qarku i
Kukesit
, Kula e
Lumes
, "Albanien Expedition, Kula Ljums"; 18-28 May 1918; H. Goecke 1956 det., E. Geiser 2019 vid.; NHMB [ex coll. Frey] • 1 ex.; Qarku i
Kukesit
, Gjallica e
Lumes
, "Albanien Expedition, Gjalica Ljums"; 17-26 Jun 1918; H. Goecke 1956 det., E. Geiser 2019 vid.; NHMB [ex coll. Frey].
Liechtenstein:
Walter (1990)
.
North Macedonia:
Gruev and Tomov (1984)
.
Serbia: Gavrilovic and Curcic (2011).
Georgia [first record] • 2 ex.; Mtskheta, "Transcaucasia, Mazcheta, pr. Tiblisi"; 4-23 Jun 1987; Wrase and
Schuelke
leg.; E. Geiser 2019 det.; NHMB.
Turkey:
Ekiz et al. (2020)
.
Remarks.
Plateumaris consimilis
does not occur in the East Palaearctic which has also been confirmed recently by
Hayashi (2020)
. Records from Far East and Japan, e.g., in
Goecke (1960)
or
Warchalowski
(2010)
, are due to records of "
Plateumaris consimilis orientalis
Shavrov, 1948" which is synonymous with
P. weisei
(see below). Note that specimens of
P. weisei
misidentified as
P. consimilis
were found in collections (pers. obs.).
Material examined.
More than
200 specimens
from different localities throughout the distribution area.