A new species of Notomulciber (Micromulciber) Aurivillius, 1913, from the southern Western Ghats of India (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae: Homonoeini)
Author
Hiremath, S. R.
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-11-23
4524
4
440
452
journal article
27917
10.11646/zootaxa.4524.4.2
a9c1db8a-7089-400a-bf62-cfc671e3b70c
1175-5326
2610648
1B25A4E7-34DA-4D8E-A57E-7A7AF8147956
Notes on
N. decemmaculatus
and
N. travancorensis
Notomulciber decemmaculatus
was described by
Breuning (1942)
based on a single specimen from the erstwhile princely state of Travancore comprising the present day central and south Kerala and Kanyakumari District in Tamil Nadu. There is no recent record of this species except for
Nair
et al
. (1986)
, who reported it as a leaf feeder on
Lagerstroemia microcarpa
Wight (Lythraceae)
.
Lingafelter
et al.
(2014)
published photos of the
holotype
deposited in the
National Museum of Natural History
(Smithsonian)
Washington
, D.C.,
United States
.
In
the original description,
Breuning (1942)
mentions the presence of a short whitish band in the middle of the pronotal base.
However
, such band is not discernible on the photograph of the
holotype
.
Notomulciber travancorensis
was also described by
Breuning (1958)
based on a single specimen from Travancore. He provided a very brief description in French, which is translated verbatim as: “
Very close to
decemmaculatus
Breun.
,
which shares the locality and which could form a morph, but the marginal angle of the elytral apex only slightly prominent and rounded
(
not stretched into lobe
)
and different ornamentation. Pronotum without whitish basal band. On each elytron, only four white circular spots: a small post-humeral, sublateral; a slightly larger sublateral postmedian; a very small just behind the second in the middle of the disc and a small lateral at the beginning of the apical quarter
”. However, the species was not illustrated in the original description. Photographs of the
holotype
(
Figs. 7–9
) held in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) Paris,
France
are furnished here.