Cylindera (Cylindera) morio (Klug, 1834)

Moravec, Jiří & Šafránek, Ondřej, 2025, Taxonomic revision of the current concept of Cylindera morio and allied taxa (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 65 (1), pp. 105-147 : 107-108

Cylindera (Cylindera) morio species-complex

( Figs 1–10 )

Definition. Body small to medium-sized, generally 6.20–10.20 mm long, 2.50–3.40 mm wide, dorsally black, black-brown, rarely cupreous; setal vesture whitish.

Head normally shaped together with large, bulged eyes notably wider than thorax but distinctly narrower than elytra.

Frons fluently passing into vertex, its surface rather distinctly convex in middle, black-brown or dark coppery extremely finely longitudinally striate, striae irregularly crumbled in middle when passing on vertex; supraantennal plates rather large, flat, basally iridescent reddish-cupreous, apical half mostly violet.

Vertex mostly concolorous with frons, almost flat, or with small, limited median convexity and usually with iridescent ornament of dense circular rugae in middle, surface extremely finely granulate-asperate to finely irregularly rugulose (when passing from frons); juxtaorbital areas densely yet mostly irregularly parallel-striate, striae more regular and distinct on sublateral areas when divergent posteriad as passing onto temples and genae; postero-median and occipital area irregularly rugulose.

Genae entirely glabrous, dark iridescent cupreous or green with faint cupreous lustre or darkened, juxtaorbital and postgenal areas densely parallel-striate.

Clypeus mostly multicoloured, variably deep or iridescent metallic green, green-blue or cupreous, surface finely asperate, median area irregularly rugulose, glabrous.

Labrum with variable number of marginal setae, shorter than wide, but in fact never transverse due to mostly semicircular anterior margin with variably 5–9 anterior teeth which are blunt or subacute, median tooth subacute or acute (usually more protruding in females); dorsal surface yellow to ochraceous, sometimes with darkened basolateral areas, with median convexity and more or less distinct basal impression on either side of the convexity.

Mandibles ( Figs 1–10 ) with arcuate lateral margins, subsymmetrical, in Cylindera (s. str.) morio with four teeth (apart from basal molar), while in other four species with only three teeth (exceptionally with little tooth or its rudiment placed between the second and third one); terminal tooth of right male mandible in its lateral view either smooth and regularly attenuated towards apex ( Figs 8, 10 ), or (in males of two species) with distinct subapical outer lobe ( Figs 2, 4, 6 ).

Palpi normally shaped with elongate terminal palpomeres. Maxillary palpi in both sexes with longest and penultimate palpomere ochre-testaceous (penultimate palpomere in females sometimes darkened or almost metallic); terminal palpomeres metallic black, usually with strong green-blue lustre; labial palpi in both sexes with longest palpomere yellow-testaceous, terminal palpomere metallic black with faint blue-green lustre.

Antennae rather short, slightly surpassing humeri; antennomeres 1–4 metallic-black, usually with faint or strong greenish-blue or reddish-cupreous or violet lustre, scape with long apical seta, antennomeres 3–4 with several stiff setae; antennomere 5, or also 6 brownish-testaceous or ochre-testaceous, antennomeres 7–11 gradually greyish-blackened and with usual micropubescence.

Thorax. Pronotum mostly shorter than wide, either subglobose with lateral margins convex, or with margins more or less attenuated posteriad (notopleural sutures almost parallel-running with proepisternal margins); surface of pronotal disc either extremely finely asperate-granulate lacking striae, or with more or less developed fine parallel striae on areas along median line (alternatively, striae fragmented into fine, irregularly vermicular sculpture); juxtanotopleural and rather wide lateral areas punctate-setose (usually in two irregular rows), setae white, rather short and stiff, appressed or semi-erect and prevailingly mesad-directed, sometimes sparsely passing onto anteromedian area; alternatively (in one species) juxtaepipleural-lateral areas markedly rough due to large iridescent foveae, which are in other species much smaller; proepisterna distinctly and densely or sparsely punctate-setose to foveolate; mesepisterna smooth and glabrous except for few setae at base and adjacent to metepisterna, female coupling sulci in form of longitudinal furrow, yet barely distinguished from surface of male mesepisterna; metepisterna finely punctate-setose; prosternum and mesosternum smooth and almost glabrous; metasternum smooth and glabrous in middle, lateral areas densely setose.

Elytra oblong, subparallel-sided in males, usually moderately dilated below middle in females, humeri rounded, outer anteapical angle elongate-arcuate and more or less distinctly attenuated towards small sutural spine, forming subacute or distinctly acute apex; elytral surface moderately and almost evenly convex with only shallow impressions, shallowly punctate throughout (punctures isodiametric or irregular, greenish, rarely reddish, variably iridescent or dull) and with 5–7 more or less distinct rows of greenish foveae running on elytral disc along sutures from elytral base towards elytral apex; foveae may be distinct, iridescent, or obscure and barely visible (even in syntopic adults of the same species); whole elytral surface with irregularly running characteristic velvety-black streaks which are variably shaped, isolated or partly continuous, simple or branched; whitish elytral maculation either conspicuous, consisting of lateromedian macula (in the new species may be almost connected with subsutural-discal macula), anteapical, or also subsutural-discal and very rarely also little basodiscal spot, but lacking humeral macula, except for Cylindera (s. str.) obliquealba which primarily possesses conspicuously wide white lateral elytral area, consisting of oblique subhumeral band, large lateromedian band obliquely running postero-mesad and almost connected with anteapical-apical band, or white area covering also humerus; exceptionally (in one male, see under that species below) the white maculation is very reduced, isolated, but still possessing apical macula and very thin juxtasutural elongate-interrupted band ( Fig. 212 ). The whitish humeral and apical areas in C. obliquealba are exceptional within the species-complex.

Legs. Coxae metallic black with diffusing green-blue lustre, almost glabrous with only apical seta; metacoxae with sensory seta in middle, while lateral areas fringed with cluster of whitish (easily abraded) setae; trochanters in both sexes black or black-brown with reddish-brown apical area, metatrochanters almost black; pro- and mesotrochanters with indistinct, easily abraded subapical seta; femora dorsally metallic black, often with faint green-blue lustre, in ventral view usually with stronger green-blue or cupreous lustre; profemora densely covered with rows of mostly whitish, semierect setae, which are somewhat sparser but stiffer on metafemora; tibiae with two (easily broken) thorn-like apical setae, brownish-testaceous or ochre-testaceous, their apices often metallic blackened, sometimes with greenish lustre (mostly on apices of profemora), pro- and mesotibiae covered with rows of scattered, rather stiff, semierect or erect setae which are denser and feebler on apical area of mesotibiae; metatibiae with sparser but almost regularly distant, stiff to almost thorn-like rusty setae; tarsi mostly metallic black, usually with strong green-blue lustre; as usual, first three protarsi in males distinctly dilated; claws black-brown.

Abdomen. Ventrites metallic black usually with strong green-blue lustre (depending upon illumination angle), mostly rather sparsely covered with whitish appressed setae, which are densest on first three or four visible ventrites, becoming much sparser posteriad, last ventrite and male pleurite sometimes brownish-lightened.

Male genitalia. Aedeagus in its lateral view normally shaped with normally bent basal portion, then elongated and straight, widest in middle, apical portion either distinctly conically attenuated (in Cylindera (s. str.) morio ), or more abruptly constricted towards rather short and elongate apex that is slightly or more distinctly dorsally emarginated or excised; internal sac widely armed, containing convoluted flagellum with characteristically shaped base; flagelliform portion long, yet never protruding from dorsoapical orifice; other sclerites consisting of stick-like arciform piece (which may have its base somewhat convoluted), downward or upward directed spike, usually with one elongate-voluminous and one semiglobose piece, both with micro-echinate surface; other sclerites of barely defined shapes.

Distribution and biology. The adults of the Cylindera (s. str.) morio species-complex are diurnal and good flyers. The species of the complex are widely dispersed yet obviously with local occurrence. In literature they were recorded from the Brazilian state of Amazon (particularly Manaus area), Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, Tocantins and São Paulo (yet the name on the labels may partly mean São Paulo de Olivença). Records from Brazil were published by FREITAG & BARNES (1989: fig. 156) when the authors treated all the taxa as synonyms of “ Cicindela (Cylindera) morio ” (see below).

The occurrence in Argentina is uncertain. While HORN (1915) mentioned the occurrence in northern Argentina with a question mark, the occurrence was repeated by BLACKWELDER (1944), both authors probably referring to the catalogue by BRUCH (1911), as also SUMLIN (1979) did in his review of Argentinean Cicindelidae , although he had not examined any specimen from Argentina. WIESNER & BANDINELLI (2014) also mentioned the occurrence in N. Argentina referring to BRUCH (1911), but instead of any Argentinean record, the authors illustrated only one specimen from Manaus in Brazilian Amazonia. Therefore, it is possible that the record by BRUCH (1911) was based on misidentification, which is supported by the fact that one female specimen (BMNH) labelled: “ Argentina / O. W. Thomas / 1904–148” examined within this revision proved to be in fact a species of Brasiella Rivalier, 1954 .

It is noteworthy that some other specimens deposited in some collections under the name “ Cylindera morio ” were misidentified with species of other, very different genera, such as three specimens of Mesacanthina punctum ( Klug, 1834) and two specimens of a species of Brasiella Rivalier, 1954 in BMNH, four specimens of Poecilochila (Eupoecilochila) ventralis ( Dejean, 1825) in IRSNB, and eight specimens of Poecilochila (Eupoecilochila) rugipennis (Kollar, 1836) in FCCR-MCZR (thus, the number of specimens listed by CASSOLA (2013) as deposited in the collection FCCR-MZCR, is reduced to three).

Note on phylogeny. FREITAG & BARNES (1989) classified 61 Brazilian and related Neotropical species of Cylindera , its subgenera and the genus Brasiella (all of these and other genus group taxa treated by the authors at the time as subgenera of Cicindela ). Within their well-elaborated piece of work the authors established a reconstructed phylogeny in tables “Phylogenetic – distributional relationships of Cicindela sister lineages” including their table 12 for their “group morio ”. Unfortunately, the authors did not include the shape of mandibles and due to their failure, they inappropriately treated all the taxa of the Cylindera morio species-complex as junior synonyms of Cylindera morio .

Some of the six (mostly very rare) Neotropical species (now in Cylindera s. str.) placed by the authors in their species-group “ morio ” really exhibit similar external characters. Cylindera (s. str.) confluentesignata (W. Horn, 1915) possesses whitish elytral pattern ( Fig. 213 ) resembling Cylindera (s. str.) obliquealba , but is clearly distinguished from it (see under that species here). The other species placed by the authors into their morio species-group were Cylindera (s. str.) kollari ( Gistl, 1837) , Cylindera (s. str.) malaris (W. Horn, 1896) and Cylindera (s. str.) granulipennis ( Bates, 1874) . In addition, Cylindera (s. str.) julietae Šafránek & Amaya, 2021 described quite recently also possesses similar elytral maculation (see ŠAFRÁNEK & AMAYA 2021).

Figures

Figs 1–10. Cylindera (Cylindera) morio species-complex, diagnostic characters on male mandibles. 1–2 – C. (C.) morio (Klug, 1834): 1 – with four teeth; 2 – terminal tooth of right mandible in lateral view. 3–6 – C. (C.) amayai sp. nov.: 3 – with three teeth; 4 – terminal tooth of right mandible in lateral view; 5 – with small additional tooth in right mandible; 6 – terminal tooth of right mandible in lateral view. 7–10 – C. (C.) acompsa (Chaudoir, 1852) (and other two species of the complex): 7 – with tree teeth; 8 – terminal tooth of right mandible in lateral view; 9 – with three teeth and additional rudiment of tooth; 10 – terminal tooth of right mandible in lateral view (its outer margin in the three later species is smooth also in mandibles possessing additional small tooth). Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figs 206–213. Two species of Cylindera. 206–212 – Cylindera obliquealba (Motschulsky, 1864) from Brazil, elytron. 206 – J, Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB); 207 – J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN as C. acompsa); 208–209 – Santarem (BMNH): 208 – J; 209 – ♀; 210 – ex Bowring (BMNH); 211 – J, Santarem (SDEI); 212 – J, Santarem (SDEI), with reduced whitish maculation yet with indicated thin lateral band and well-developed apical macula; 213 – Cylindera confluentesignata (W. Horn, 1915), elytron, J, Paraguay, Salazar (CCJM). Scale bar = 1 mm.