Two new species of Phyllocladus (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae: Pyrochroinae) from China, with a key to males of the Chinese species
Author
Young, Daniel K.
text
Zootaxa
2013
3669
1
journal volume
10.11646/zootaxa.3669.1.6
df8591ff-8071-4f99-8cb0-d33bc72de107
1175-5326
216644
E50AC2ED-4D5F-4FFE-9BD7-6C4872052D1C
Characterization of
Phyllocladus
Blair
Like males of
Dendroides
, those of
Phyllocladus
sometimes have large compound eyes, more closely approximate dorsally than some other pyrochroine genera (e.g., Fig. 12). However, in cranial structure and form of the abdominal apex and male genitalia,
Phyllocladus
is more closely related to the Asian endemic,
Pseudodendroides
Blair (Young 1999)
.
In proposing the generic name
Phyllocladus
(from the Greek root,
phyllo
- meaning “a leaf” and the Greek,
cladus
, “a branch”), Blair was clearly struck by the unusual form of the antennae of males. However, this feature alone is not diagnostic, as a similar modification is exhibited by males of
Pseudopyrochroa antennalis
(Blair)
.
Phyllocladus
was also characterized by its head (Blair 1914:315): “… elongate with the frontal sculpture of the 3 of a different
type
from that usual in the family, taking the form of two longitudinal subcontinuous depressions.” He also noted that the antennal pedicel is elongate.
Young (1999, 2004a, 2005) observed that the parameres of
Phyllocladus
, like those of
Pseudodendroides
Blair
,
Neopyrochroa
Blair
, and
Himalapyrochroa
Young
are short and widely separated for approximately half their length. Males of
Phyllocladus
,
Pseudodendroides
and
Himalapyrochroa
also have the apical margin of the sixth abdominal ventrite widely emarginate and conspicuously concave. The cranial apparatus exhibited by males of
Phyllocladus
is unlike that of
Himalapyrochroa
, but the complex is fairly similar between males of some
Phyllocladus
and males of
Pseudodendroides
. Both genera also have similarly elongate antennal scapes and pedicels. However, males of
Pseudodendroides
do not have lamelliform antennal flagellomeres.