New taxa of the subfamily Cantharinae (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) from south-eastern Asia, with notes on other species III
Author
Švihla, Vladimír
text
Zootaxa
2011
2895
1
34
journal article
46811
10.5281/zenodo.277686
c7e66d5a-1a9f-4e1c-bbc2-5531943c5339
1175-5326
277686
Taiwanocantharis
Wittmer, 1984
stat. nov.
Cantharis
subgenus
Taiwanocantharis
Wittmer, 1984
: 147
.
Type
species:
Cantharis
(
Taiwanocantharis
)
tripunctata
Wittmer, 1984
, original designation.
Comments.
Wittmer (1984)
described the subgenus
Taiwanocantharis
on the basis of sexual dimorphism of the tarsal claws in both sexes. The males possess rounded basal appendages on outer claws of all legs, while claws in females are without any appendages. Such a definition is unhelpful for genus level classification, because the definitions of species in
Cantharidae
are based predominantly on males and, when the female of a given species is not available, the species cannot be assigned with certainly to a genus. Many other taxa at the genus level group have been defined in the past by such a sexual differences of shape of the claws, however such a concept of classification seems to be discouraged today, not only for the practical reason, but also because such taxa were found to be frequently polyphyletic (cf. e.g.
Okushima 2005
). Nevertheless, when species of
Cantharis
Linnaeus, 1758
from southeastern Asia were examined, it was found, that they belong to a monophyletic lineage, for which the name
Taiwanocantharis
can be used. Species of this genus as redefined here differ from
Cantharis
by the metallic green elytra (yellow, brown or black in the
Cantharis
); they are distributed in mountain systems around the border between the Palaearctic and the Oriental regions from
Nepal
to
Taiwan
and they only overlap with
Cantharis
-species in the Chinese provinces of Shaanxi and Sichuan.
Distribution.
Nepal
,
India
: Assam; northern
Myanmar
, northern
Thailand
, northern
Laos
, northern
Vietnam
,
Taiwan
,
China
: Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Guanxi and Guangdong.
List of species.
The species can be divided into three groups defined as follows:
1.
T. tripunctata
species-group.
Parameres wide and flat, apex of dorsal part of the aedeagus with at most very slight lateroapical teeth, not emarginate apically, sometimes with slight middle tooth, claws of female simple. For determination see
Wittmer (1984)
,
Švihla (2004)
and
Kopetz (2008)
. Group includes:
Taiwanocantharis chumbiensis
(Champion, 1926)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
subgen.
Cyrtomoptila
)
Taiwanocantharis drahuska
(
Švihla, 2004
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cordicantharis
)
When describing this species, only one male was available. Later, examination of other males shows that the laterophyses are not fused apically as in the genus
Cordicantharis
Švihla, 1999
.
Taiwanocantharis gansosichuana
(Kazantsev, 2010)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
). Possibly synonym of preceding species.
Taiwanocantharis pallidithorax
(
Wittmer, 1984
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
subgen.
Taiwanocantharis
)
Taiwanocantharis tripunctata
(
Wittmer, 1984
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
subgen.
Taiwanocantharis
).
2.
T. malaisei
species-group.
Parameres narrower than in the preceding group, dorsal part of the aedeagus with at most moderate lateroapical teeth, with apex often more or less emarginate, pronotum mostly with one central and several smaller prebasal dark spots, rarely fused with the central spot, claws of females with basal appendages as in males. For the determination see
Wittmer (1989
,
1997a
) and
Švihla (2005)
. Group includes:
Taiwanocantharis dedicata
(
Švihla, 2005
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis inthanonensis
(Wittmer, 1997)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis kambaitiensis
(
Wittmer, 1989
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis malaisei
(
Wittmer, 1989
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis metallipennis
(Wittmer, 1997)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis quinquenotatithorax
(
Pic, 1914
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis seinghukuensis
(
Wittmer, 1989
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis shergaoensis
(
Wittmer, 1989
)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
).
3.
T. thibetana
species group.
Dorsal part of the aedeagus with strongly developed lateroapical teeth curved inwards. For the determination see
Wittmer (1997a
,
b
). Group includes:
Taiwanocantharis satoi
(Wittmer, 1997)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis thibetana
(Gorham, 1889)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
)
Taiwanocantharis thibetanomima
(Wittmer, 1997)
comb. nov.
(from
Cantharis
s. str.
).