Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2021 | 13(7): 18947–18948

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5799.13.7.18947-18948

#5799 | Received 23 February 2020 | Final received 27 October 2020 | Finally accepted 28 May 2021

 

 

The tribe Cnodalonini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Stenochiinae) from Maharashtra with two new records

 

V.D. Hegde 1  & D. Vasanthakumar 2

 

1 North Eastern Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Risa Colony, Shillong, Meghalaya 793003, India.

2 Western Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Vidyanagar, Ravet Road, Akurdi, Pune, Maharashtra 411044, India.

1 hegde67@yahoo.co.in (corresponding author), 2 duraivasanthakumar@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Editor: Anonymity requested.   Date of publication: 26 June 2021 (online & print)

 

Citation: Hegde, V.D. & D. Vasanthakumar (2021). The tribe Cnodalonini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Stenochiinae) from Maharashtra with two new records.  Journal of Threatened Taxa 13(7): 18947–18948. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5799.13.7.18947-18948

 

Copyright: © Hegde & Vasanthakumar 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: Based on the Annual Programme of Research, Zoological Survey of India under the Ministry of Environment,

 Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: We are thankful to Dr. Kailash Chandra, ex director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for the facilities and Maharashtra State Forest Department for granting the permission to survey the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary. We are very  grateful to Otto Merkl, Natural History Museum, Hungary for the confirmation of the species. We are indebted to all the staff of Western Regional Centre, ZSI, Pune for their constant encouragement.

 

 

 

The tenebrionids belonging to the tribe Cnodalonini Gistel, 1856 are small to very large (5–45 mm), of diverse shape and colour, apterous or winged. Antennae incrassate or weakly capitate, with stellate sensoria on apical 5 or 6 antennomere. Tarsi with ventral surface almost always flattened, bearing pads of yellowish, usually pilose setae; inner margins of tibiae frequently pilose, especially near apices; tarsomeres 3 and 4 subequal (Aalbu et al. 2002). As per the literature, only one species, Bradymerus cucullatus Fairmaire, 1897 from the tribe Cnodalonini was reported from Mumbai, Maharashtra State (Schawaller 2006). While studying the recent collections from Western Ghats survey of Maharashtra State, the two species identified as Promethis brevicornis (Westwood, 1842) and Gebienocamaria girardi Masumoto, 1993 belonging to the same tribe constitute two new records to Maharashtra.  The number of species under Cnodalonini raised to three from Maharashtra. The specimens are photographed using a Nikon D300s DSLR camera and deposited in the national zoological collections of Western Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Pune.

 

Promethis brevicornis (Westwood, 1842)

Nyctobates brevieornis Westwood 1842: Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 10: 119 

Nyctobates brevicornis. Westwood, 1843: Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., 11: 534. 

Nyctobates brevieornis. Westwood, 1849: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond., 3: 226. 

Setenis brevieornis. Waterhouse, 1876: Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., (4) 17: 289.

Nyctobates indosinicus Fairmaire, 1896, nec Fairmaire, 1893: Annls Soc. ent. Belg., 40: 27.

Systematic Position: as per Bouchard et al. 2005

Subfamily: Stenochiinae Kirby, 1837

Tribe: Cnodalonini Oken, 1843

Genus: Promethis Pascoe, 1869

Species: brevicornis (Westwood, 1842)

Diagnostic characters: P. brevicornis can easily be differentiated by the presence of hair fringe in the apical half of male protibia, the separate strial punctures of the elytra and the unmargined last ventrite as described by Fairmaire, 1896. 

Body length: 26 mm; Maximum body width: 8.6 mm.

Material examined: Ent-1/3099, 25.i.2018, 07 ex. Kalundhra, Sangli District, Maharashtra, under bark of the mango tree infested by unidentified fungus, coll. V.D. Hegde.

Distribution: INDIA: Karnataka, Maharashtra (Sangli District).

                               

Gebienocamaria girardi Masumoto, 1993

Gebienocamaria girardi Masumoto, 1993, Jpn. J. Ent., 61(2): 224.

  Systematic Position: as per Bouchard et al. 2005

Subfamily: Stenochiinae Kirby, 1837

Tribe: Cnodalonini Oken, 1843

Genus: Gebienocamaria Masumoto, 1993

Species: girardi Masumoto, 1993

Diagnostic Characters: G. girardi can easily be differentiated by its pronotum which is rectangular, 1.4 times as wide as long, irregularly punctuate, with the corners projected and slightly reflexed; elytra a little more than 2.2 times as long as wide, 5.6 times the length and 1.7 times the width of pronotum as described by Masumoto (1993).

Body length: 27 mm; maximum body width: 9.6 mm.

Material examined: Ent-1/3100, 18.x.2016, 01 ex., Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary, Satara District, Maharashtra, (at light), coll. P.S. Bhatnagar.

Distribution: India: Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra (Satara District). 

 

 

For images - - click here

 

 

References

 

Aalbu, R.L., C.A. Triplehorn, J.M. Campbell, K.W. Brown, R. Somerby & D.B. Thomas (2002). 106. Tenebrionidae, pp. 463–509. In: Arnett, R.H. Jr. (ed.). The Beetles of the United States. CRC press, New York, 1024pp.

Bouchard, P., J.F. Lawrence, A.E. Davies & A.F. Newton (2005). Synoptic classification of the world Tenebrionidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) with a review of family - group names. Annales Zoologici 55: 499–530.

Fairmaire L. (1896). Heteromeres de l’Inde (Rekukillis par M. Andrews.). Annales de la Société entomologique de Belgique 40: 6–62.

Masumoto, K. (1993). Larger flattened species of Camariine genera from Asia (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae, Cnodalonini) (Par 2t). Japanese Journal of Entomology 61(2): 217–234.

Schawaller, W. (2006). Revision of the Oriental species of the genus Bradymerus Perroud, with descriptions of 29 new species (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde A, (Biologie) 694: 1–64.