Ptycholaemus Chevrolat, 1858

Vitali, Francesco, 2025, Notes, transfers, new combinations, and new taxa of some African genera of the tribe Cerambycini (Coleoptera Cerambycidae), Zootaxa 5620 (1), pp. 20-28 : 21

Ptycholaemus Chevrolat, 1858

Figs 1–5

= Striatoptycholaemus Lepesme & Breuning, 1956 n. syn.

Material examined

Ptycholaemus maculipes Thomson, 1858: 2 ♀♀, Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, coll. A. Kuntgen, MNHNL138234–1238235 .

Ptycholaemus signaticollis (Hope, 1843) : 4♂♂, 9♀♀, Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, Ptycholaemus simplicicollis Thoms. det. E. Hintz, 3336a–g, MNHNL138251–138263 ; 1♂, ditto, Ptycholaemus maculipes Thoms. det. E. Hintz, 3337a, MNHNL138264 ; 1♂, Cameroun, Centre , Nyong e So, Obout, II.2014. B. Evouna leg., CFV.

Striatoptycholaemus striaticollis (Boppe, 1912) : 1♂, Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, 3337b, MNHNL138236 ; 2♀♀, ditto, Ptycholaemus Troberti Chevr. det. E. Hintz, 3338c,f, MNHNL138237–138238 ; 1♀, Congo belge, Ituri, Princesse Hilda de Schwarzenberg , [don.] 1934, MNHNL138239 .

Striatoptycholaemus longicollis (Schwarzer, 1931) : 8♂♂, 3♀♀, Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, Ptycholaemus Troberti Chevr. det. E. Hintz, 3338a,d,e,g, MNHNL138240–138250 ; 1♂, Cameroun, Centre , Méfou-et-Akono, Akok Bikoé, VI.2011, CFV.

Striatoptycholaemus bouakensis Lepesme & Breuning, 1956: 1 ♀, Côte-d'Ivoire, Lagunes, Agnéby-Tiassa, Tiassalé, 1988, CFV.

Remarks. Lepesme & Breuning (1956) established the genus Striatoptycholaemus based on Ptycholaemus striaticollis Boppe, 1912 , based on the transversally wrinkled pronotum of this species. Adlbauer (2006a) remarked that, in contrast to the genus Ptycholaemus , the pronotum is not completely smooth, especially the sides are more or less wavy, and the surface is generally less shiny than in this genus.

Considering that the pronotum is completely wrinkled in Striatoptycholaemus striaticollis ( Fig. 1 ), is indistinctly wrinkled in S. bouakensis ( Fig. 3 ), shows only 2–3 basal wrinkles in S. longicollis ( Fig. 2 ), is often completely smooth in S. variecollis (Schwarzer, 1931) and it is sometimes wrinkled even in Ptycholaemus maculipes ( Fig. 4 ), this character constitutes a gradation without forming a clear separation with Ptycholaemus , where the pronotum is uniformly smooth ( Fig. 5 ).

The brightness of the integuments is a subjective character ( P. murinus Boppe, 1912 is not shiny), which cannot be considered at the genus level. The pronotal shape is unrelated to the current taxonomy, since P. signaticollis ( Fig. 5 ) is more similar to S. bouakensis ( Fig. 3 ) and S. striaticollis ( Fig. 1 ) than to P. maculipes ( Fig. 4 ). In addition, these taxa often show the same coloration, and no other morphological characters can be found to separate them. Consequently, Striatoptycholaemus is considered here as a junior synonym of Ptycholaemus and the following taxonomy is proposed:

Ptycholaemus bouakensis (Lepesme & Breuning, 1956) n. comb.

Ptycholaemus longicollis Schwarzer, 1931 rest. comb.

Ptycholaemus striaticollis Boppe, 1912 rest. comb.

Ptycholaemus variecollis Schwarzer, 1931 rest. comb.

Adlbauer (2006a) correctly remarked that Ptycholaemus and Striatoptycholaemus form an aberrant lateral line with many similarities with the genus Derolus and that their characters (finely faceted eyes, shiny surface with golden-yellow longitudinal bands) are typical of diurnal species. It can be added that analogue characters are also present in the Philippine genus Lachnopterus Thomson, 1864 , which shows shining orange elytra.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. 1. Ptycholaemus striaticollis Boppe, 1912, pronotum. 2. Ptycholaemus longicollis Schwarzer, 1931, pronotum. 3. Ptycholaemus bouakensis (Lepesme & Breuning, 1956), pronotum. 4. Ptycholaemus maculipes Thomson, 1858, pronotum. 5. Ptycholaemus signaticollis (Hope, 1843), pronotum.6. Margites aspericollis (Fairmaire, 1887), mesonotum (size of photographs not proportional to sizes of specimens).