Cardiophorus carinatus (Coleoptera: Elateridae), an unusual new species from the Lake Wales Ridge (Florida, USA) and rediscovery of Cardiophorus robustus LeConte, 1853
Author
Douglas, Hume B.
Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa, Ontario, K 1 A 0 C 6, CANADA; E-mail: hume. douglas @ canada. ca (H. B. D.)
hume.douglas@canada.ca
Author
Mathison, Blaine A.
150 E. First Ave., Unit 104, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84103, USA; E-mail: bmathison 1972 @ gmail. com (B. A. M.)
bmathison1972@gmail.com
text
Florida Entomologist
2018
2018-06-30
101
1
311
314
http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.1653/024.101.0223
journal article
298208
10.1653/024.101.0223
b5e274d7-049f-49db-9b2e-c51b646ea774
1938-5102
11493650
Cardiophorus carinatus
Mathison and Douglas
sp. nov.
(
Figs. 1–3
)
TYPE
MATERIAL
HOLOTYPE
male:
Labelled
“Lake Wales /
Polk Co.
FL /
12 Jan 1988
/
J. Cronin
,” “Scout Camp Scrub,” and with the authors’ red designation label “HOLOTYPE /
Cardiophorus
/
carinatus
/ Mathison &
Douglas 2017
.”
Paratype
male: labelled “Lake Wales /
Polk Co.
FL /
19 Jan 1988
/
J. Cronin
,” “Scout Camp Scrub,” and with the authors’ yellow label “PARATYPE /
Cardiophorus
/
carinatus
/ Mathison &
Douglas 2017
.”
Both
types deposited in the Florida State
Collection of Arthropods
,
Gainesville
,
Florida
. Type locality:
United States of America
, Florida,
Polk Co.
,
Lake Wales
27.9000°N
,
81.4500°W
DESCRIPTION
Diagnosis: Males of this species are distinguished by the combination of the medially depressed supra-antennal carinae and costate elytral intervals.
Body: Length
4.9 mm
. Integument with strong reticulate microsculpture throughout; head, prothorax, metaventrite brown-black; pronotal hind angles, elytra, and ventrites red-brown; pronotum convex, elytra narrowed from anterior third (
Fig. 1
). Vestiture yellow-white throughout, longest setae about 1.5 times longer than width of antennomere 2.
Head: Antennae with sensory elements beginning on antennomere 3; antennomere 3 is 2.3 times longer than antennomere 2; antennae extending to metacoxae; mandibles with apices bidentate. Labrum convex; area between antennal fossa and eye without carinae or pits. Frons with supra-antennal carinae (frontal carina of
Douglas [2003]
) lowered toward labrum mesad, undivided at juncture with compound eye; frons with supra-orbital groove present.
1
Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 960 Carling Ave., Ottawa,
Ontario
, K1A 0C6,
CANADA
; E-mail:
hume.douglas@canada.ca
(H. B. D.)
2
150 E. First Ave., Unit 104, Salt Lake City,
Utah
, 84103,
USA
; E-mail:
bmathison1972@gmail.com
(B. A. M.)
*Corresponding author; E-mail: hume.douglas@canada.ca
Figs. 1–3.
Cardiophorus carinatus
sp. nov.
holotype male. 1, 2, habitus; 3, aedeagus, dorsal view. Scale bar = 1 mm.
Prothorax: Pronotum with hind angles abruptly divergent, not truncate dorsally; length of sublateral longitudinal carinae 0.5 times distance from base of carinae to side margin. Hypomeron with obtuse notch on hind margin (
Fig. 2
); pronotal lateral carina (submarginal carina of
Douglas [2003]
) restricted to posterior half, and not reaching hind angle carina; smaller pronotal punctures separated by 0.5 to 2.0 diam on disc, with intermixed punctures 2 times larger than smaller ones. Prosternum with anterior lobe short, directed ventrad; prosternal process with ventral surface directed dorsad at 45°, not carinate laterally.
Metathorax: Coxal plates small, covering 1/4 of femora when retracted. Elytra immaculate, with interval 8 carinate on apical half, intervals 3 to 7 somewhat carinate on apical 4th. Upper edge of elytral epipleuron and ventrite edges not minutely serrate. Hind wings apparently capable of flight.
Abdomen: Urosternites 3 to 6 without lateral bulges; punctures difficult to measure accurately due to strong microsculpture; pubescence similar in density to and somewhat shorter than on elytra.
Genitalia: Aedeagus with parameres narrowed somewhat evenly from articulation to point, each with 2 setae; lateral expansions tiny, apical (
Fig. 3
).
Female: unknown.
ETYMOLOGY
The species epithet
carinatus
is in reference to the strongly costate elytral intervals 3 to 6.
REMARKS
The costate elytral intervals and long antennae both distinguish this from all other New World
Cardiophorus
. The key to species of eastern
USA
and
Canada
by
Douglas (2003)
directs this species to couplet 6, where the users may find that aedeagal and habitus characters direct them down diverging paths. Here users can separate
C. carinatus
from all other New World
Cardiophorus
by its carinate elytra and long antennae. This species somewhat resembles the cardiophorine
Horistonotus uhlerii
Horn
(
Coleoptera
:
Elateridae
) (also present in southeastern
USA
), but the scutellum of that species is not anteriorly emarginate. On a world basis, the carinate elytral intervals, medially depressed supra-antennal sutures, ascendant prosternal process, reduced metacoxal plates, small apically positioned paramere expansions make
C. carinatus
species similar to
Cardiophorus
(
Perrinellus
)
reitteri
(Schwarz)
(
Coleoptera
:
Elateridae
) from
Israel
and
Syria
. However, the present species differs from
C. reitteri
in its shorter body length, wider and rounder prothorax, smaller eyes (ocular index 74 vs. 61), visible pronotal lateral carina, non-serrate epipleura and ventrites, and narrower aedeagus.
Specimens were collected in the Lake Wales Ridge ecosystem, a low ridge extending 241 kilometers south to north in central
Florida
in Highlands, Polk, Osceola, and Lake counties (with the majority of the ridge in the former 2). The ridge originated as a series of Pleistocene epoch sand islands, later uplifed by isostatic rebound of the crust beneath the
Florida
Platform (
Florida
Forest Service 2005
). Remaining native vegetation areas of the Lake Wales Ridge mainly are scrub, and are habitat for endemic vertebrates, including the
Florida
scrub jay and the sand skink (
FNAI
2010). Arthropods endemic to the Lake Wales Ridge (
Deyrup 1989
) include:
Floridobolus penneri
Causey
(
Spirobolidae
:
Floridobolidae
);
Zelotes florodes
Platnick & Shadab
(
Araneae
:
Gnaphosidae
);
Sosippus placidus
Brady
(
Araneae
:
Lycosidae
);
Geolycosa xera archboldi
McCrone
(
Araneae
:
Lycosidae
);
Cicindela highlandensis
Choate
(
Coleoptera
:
Carabidae
);
Phyllophaga panorpa
Sanderson
(
Coleoptera
:
Melolonthidae
);
Serica frosti
Dawson
(
Coleoptera
:
Melolonthidae
);
Anomala eximia
Potts
(
Coleoptera
: Rutellidae);
Dasymutilla archboldi
Schmidt & Mickel
(
Hymenoptera
:
Mutillidae
); and
Dorymyrmex elegans
(Trager)
(
Hymenoptera
:
Formicidae
). In addition,
Deyrup (1989)
listed 24 other arthropods that are endemic to multiple ridges in
Florida
, including the Lake Wales Ridge ecosystem. We hypothesize that
C. carinatus
is endemic to the Lake Wales Ridge area because it has not been detected elsewhere despite Douglas’ (2003) examination of over 6,000
Cardiophorus
specimens from all states of eastern
USA
.
Little is known about the biology of
C. carinatus
, including the habits of the female or larva. The hind wings appear capable of flight in the male, but the female (although currently unknown) may be flightless and display the reduced morphologic features observed in some psammophilous elaterids from
Florida
(e.g.,
Selonodon
spp.
and
Floridelater americanus
[Horn]). The
holotype
was collected in a protected area for the sand skink, so pitfall trapping was not permitted (Mark Deyrup, personal communication 2013). These collecting restrictions may add to the rarity of this species in collections. Discovery of more specimens from this site may require ultraviolet light trapping or visual nocturnal searching of the soil surface with a headlamp.