An illustrated guide to the lady beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of the Indian Subcontinent. Part II. Tribe Chilocorini Author POORANI, J. text Zootaxa 2023 2023-11-27 5378 1 1 108 https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/download/zootaxa.5378.1.1/52353 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.5378.1.1 1175-5334 10208917 68976F75-EC46-480B-AB8A-061B1441A958 Chilocorus flaviceps (Miyatake) , comb. n. ( Fig. 31 ) Phaenochilus flaviceps Miyatake, 1970b: 111 .— Poorani 2002: 313 ; Giorgi & Vandenberg 2012: 248 . Diagnosis. Length: 4.00 mm; width: 3.70 mm . Form nearly hemispherical, dorsum strongly convex and glabrous. Head and anterior and anterolateral corners of pronotum broadly reddish or yellowish testaceous, elytra black to piceous ( Fig. 31a, c ). Ventral side including legs yellowish testaceous except elytral epipleura largely blackish, inner side lighter. Outwardly similar to the more commonly collected C. nigrita but differs in possessing a narrow frons and divergent eyes, slender terminal maxillary and labial palpomere and elongate basal tooth of tarsal claw, and can be reliably separated mainly by the male genitalia ( Fig. 31e–g ). The holotype male of Phaenochilus flaviceps Miyatake ( Fig. 31a, b ) ( Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore , BPBM ) ( Image courtesy: Hiroyuki Yoshitomi , Ehime University ) and the specimen from Bihar ( BMNH , examined) ( Fig. 31c, d ) are illustrated here . Distribution. India : Bihar ; Kerala ; Tamil Nadu . Notes. This is one of three known Indian species of the erstwhile Phaenochilus (now part of Chilocorus ) with black to piceous elytra ( Giorgi & Vandenberg, 2012 ). Following Li et al . (2020b) , it is transferred to Chilocorus ( comb. n. ). It may have a wider distribution in India , but likely to be misidentified as Chilocorus nigrita , in view of its resemblance to the latter. Miyatake (1970b) described it from South India ( Tamil Nadu ) and it appears to be a rare species and it is also likely that specimens may be mixed up with Chilocorus nigrita , a commonly collected species. Specimens from Bihar (BMNH, examined) identified as Phaenochilus flaviceps by R. G. Booth and P. Łączyński were also examined.