Cylindera ( Cylindera ) obliquealba

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 : 136-141

Cylindera ( Cylindera) obliquealba

( Motschulsky, 1864) comb. nov.

( Figs 181–212 )

Cicindosa obliquealba Motschulsky, 1864: 173 .

Cicindela morio syn. obliquealba : FLEUTIAUX (1892: 68); HORN (1915: 405).

Cicindela morio “aberration ” acompsa : HORN (1938: tab. 84, fig. 26).

Cicindosa morio syn. obliquealba : SCHILDER (1953: 561).

Cicindela ( Cylindera) morio syn. obliquealba : FREITAG & BARNES (1989: 320).

Cylindera (s. str.) morio syn. obliquealba : WIESNER (1992: 185) – as a junior synonym of C. morio Klug, 1834 (the synonymy followed by all subsequent authors until the present revision).

Type locality. “Des rives du fl. des Amazones ” [= From the banks of the Amazon River].

Type material. LECTOTYPE (designated here): ♀ ( ZMUM), labelled: “Amaz.” [dark green label, handwritten] // “ Cicindosa / obliquealba / Motsch. / Amazones ” [dark green label, handwritten] // “ Cicindosa / obliquealba / Motsch.” [red label, handwritten] // “ Lectotype / Cicindosa / obliquealba / Motschulsky, 1864 / design.Jiří Moravec 2025 ” [red label, printed] // “ Cylindera (s. str.) obliquealba ( Motschulsky, 1864) / det Jiří Moravec 2025 ” [printed].

Other material examined. HISTORICAL SPECIMENS: 2 JJ 1 ♀ ( MNHN), lacking labels, standing there as C. acompsa . 1 J ( MFNB): “42567” // “v. / acompsa / Chd. Amazon” / “307” // “Hist. - Coll. ( Coleoptera ) / Nr 3719 / Cicindela morio Kl. var. acompsa Chaud. / Amazonia / Coll. Schaum / Zool Mus . Berlin ”. 1 J ( BMNH):“Bowring / 63.47*”.1 J 1 ♀

( BMNH): “ Brazil / Santarem” // “52/96” [on the opposite side of the label]. 1 J ( BMNH), with the same label data and: “ C. morio / v.acompsa / Chaud.” // “named by Dr. W. Horn / G.J.A.”. 1 J ( BMNH): “Santarem” // “53/72” [on opposite side of the label] // “528”. 1 J ( BMNH), “ Amazones ” // “Acompsa / t. Horn” // “F. Bates Coll. / 1911–248”. 1 ♀ ( BMNH): “Amazon” // “F. Bates Coll. / 1911–248”. 1 ♀ [with separately stored female genitalia] ( BMNH): “ Para / acompsa Chd. / t. Horn” // “F. Bates Coll. / 1911–248” // Cicindela morio / acompsa Chd. / det. / R. Freitag, 1984. RECENT SPECIMENS: 1 J ( SDEI): “Est de Para / Santarem / VI. 1922 / H. C. Boy” // “denticulata Kl. ” // “aberrant specimen / with reduced elytral / whitish maculation / det.Jiří Moravec 2025 ”.1 J ( SDEI), with the same locality label.

The examined specimens also labelled: “ Cylindera (s. str.) obliquealba ( Motschulsky, 1864) / det Jiří Moravec 2025 ” // “Provisionally / separated from / Cylindera (C.) acompsa ( Chaudoir, 1852) / det.Jiří Moravec 2025 ”. Differential diagnosis and brief redescription. Adults of Cylindera obliquealba are immediately recognizable from all other taxa of this species-complex due to their mostly conspicuously wide white elytral lateral area consisting of oblique subhumeral band running transverse-obliquely mesad, laterally sometimes dilated and covering also humerus and apex (exceptional characters within the species-complex as all other species entirely lack both humeral and apical maculae); large lateral area almost or entirely connected with the subhumeral (or humeral) band, as well as with anteapical-apical area, and divided in middle into postero-mesad running band ( Figs 181–182 , 188 , 206–211 ) – yet see “Variability” below.

Other characters, including the shape of the pronotum ( Figs 189–191 ) and aedeagus ( Figs 192–198 ) are basically as in Cylindera acompsa .

Cylindera confluentesignata (W. Horn, 1915) possesses rather similar whitish elytral pattern ( Fig. 213 ) as in C. obliquealba , but is clearly distinguished by a complex of other characters, including its four-dentate mandibles with outer subapical lobe on the right terminal tooth in males (recognized within the present revision) and denser setae on its pronotal disc.

Body ( Figs 181 , 188 ) 7.30–8.20 mm long, 2.80–3.10 mm wide. Labrum ( Figs 184 , 199–200, 203–204 ) as in other taxa of the species-complex, similarly variable in shape and number of teeth. Mandibles ( Figs 184 , 201, 203–205 ) with only three teeth (apart from basal molar), no additional rudiment of tooth observed in examined specimens, and with smooth outer margin of right terminal tooth in lateral view ( Fig. 202 ).

Variability. One male specimen (SDEI) possesses reduced elytral maculation consisting of sublateral-median and apical large maculae, while the lateral whitish area is reduced into very thin interrupted lateral band ( Fig. 212 ). Such reduced maculation occurs in other genera of tiger beetles and in this case does not represent an intermediate character towards Cylindera acompsa the adults of which (and of all others of the species-complex) never possess juxtasutural and apical white areas and never have whitish humeri like in some specimens of C. obliquealba ( Figs 209–210 ).

Remarks. Because of the very different, markedly wide white elytral maculation, and lack of exactly intermediate maculation, C. obliquealba ( Motschulsky, 1864) comb. nov. is maintained here as a separate species. Its synonymy with C. acompsa could not be proved not only due to scarcity of specimens with exact locality labels, but also due to the sympatric occurrence of most taxa of this species-complex. The only exception is represented by two males deposited in SDEI, bearing identical locality labels: “Est de Para / Santarem / VI. 1922 ”, the male with the same wide whitish elytral pattern ( Fig. 211 ) as in other examined specimens of C. obliquealba , while the elytral maculation in the second male is exceptionally reduced. However, the male with the reduced, isolate maculae possesses large apical macula and faintly indicated juxtasutural, elongate-interrupted band ( Fig. 212 ), thus possessing maculae which have never been observed in numerous examined adults of C. acompsa (nor in others of the species-complex). Consequently, this reduced maculation pattern is classified here within the variability of C. obliquealba (see also “Variability” above). It is fully in accordance with occurrence of aberrant adults with similarly reduced maculation in some other tiger beetle genera, for instance in the genus Calomera Motschulsky, 1862 as demonstrated by MORAVEC et al. (2025).

At this point it should be remembered that HORN (1938: tab. 84, fig. 26) misleadingly illustrated the same elytral pattern characteristic for the type of C. obliquealba under “ Cicindela morio ab. acompsa ”, thus entirely contrary to the original description of C. acompsa by CHAUDOIR (1852) describing small, isolate whitish maculae as in the holotype ( Fig. 102 ).

It must be mentioned here that (as commonly known) the elytral coloration in some species of some tiger beetle genera may depend on the substrate colour of their habitats, e.g. the adults occurring on light sands are prevailingly whitish (with reduced background black area), while those from dark sand have their background coloration prevailingly or almost entirely black (and white maculation reduced). Nonetheless, this can hardly be the case of adults of the C. morio species-complex, because the recently collected adults with black elytral background, such as those of C. morio from Bolivian Concepción and those of C. amayai sp. nov. from Bolivian Palmarito were never found on black sand, but on paths through the cerrado areas, also with usually reddish or yellowish laterite soil ( Figs 217 , 219 ). The adults of C. obliquealba are explicitly known only from the areas near Santarem where the sandy substrates might be both whitish and dark as it is in some other Amazon riverbank areas, yet no record comes directly from the same sandy beaches where adults of the nocturnal species of the genus Phaeoxantha Chaudoir, 1850 were found (see MORAVEC & DHEURLE 2023). Consequently, it is clear that the adults of this species complex with whitish elytral pattern are not confined to light-sand substrates. Such whitish elytral areas as in C. obliquealba were never found in prevailingly black C. morio despite their sympatric occurrence in Santarem. It is in accordance with PEARSON et al. (1999), who mentioned that all adults of C. morio collected in Bolivia were black and immaculate although found on light sand.

Notwithstanding, the concept of C. obliquealba as a separate species is presented here provisionally (yet with stronger arguments for considering it to be a separate species). Naturally, if some exactly syntopic adults of C. obliquealba bearing evidently intermediate elytral maculation are found in the future, the synonymy with C. acompsa could be confirmed; alternatively, it can be also done by molecular analysis if fresh specimens of these taxa are acquired.

Although unimportant, it is noteworthy that ERWIN & PEARSON (2008) wrongly addressed the original name combinations as Cicindela acompsa and Cicindela obliquealba despite the fact that the two taxa by MOTSCHULSKY (1864) were originally described under the genus-group name Cicindosa .

Figures

Figs 181–187. Cylindera (Cylindera) obliquealba (Motschulsky, 1864), ♀, lectotype of Cicindosa obliquealba (ZMUM). 181 – habitus, 8.2 mm; 182 – elytron; 183 – original labels; 184 – mandibles with labrum; 185–187 – female genitalia: 185 – sternum VIII, ventral view; 186 – syntergum IX–X, dorsal view; 187 – second gonapophyses (stylets), dorsal view. Scale bars = 1 mm. (Image credit A. Matalin and V. Savitsky, ZMUM).

Figs 188–198. Cylindera (Cylindera) obliquealba (Motschulsky, 1864) from Brazil. 188–190 – J, Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB): 188 – habitus, 7.7 mm; 189 – pronotum; 190 – thorax in lateral view, showing proepisternum; 191 – pronotum, J, historical specimen ex collection “Bowring / 63.47” (BMNH); 192–198 – male aedeagus or its apex: 192 – Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB); 193 – its dorsal view; 194 – ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN, as C. acompsa); 195 – its dorsal view; 196 – Santarem (BMNH); 197–198 – its internal sac in left and right lateral aspects. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figs 199–205. Cylindera (Cylindera) obliquealba (Motschulsky,1864) from Brazil. 199–200 – labrum: 199 – J, Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB); 200 – J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN as C. acompsa); 201–202 – J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN): 201 – head; 202 – terminal tooth of right mandible in lateral view; 203–204 – mandibles with labrum, Santarem (BMNH): 203 – J; 204 – ♀; 205 – head, J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN). 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.

Figs 102–105. Cylindera (Cylindera) acompsa (Chaudoir, 1852), ♀, holotype (MNHN). 102 – habitus, 7.5 mm; 103 – mandibles with labrum; 104 – pronotum; 105 – labels. Scale bars = 1 mm (image credit Olivier Montreuil, MNHN).

Figs 217–218. Cylindera amayai sp. nov., biotope and map of Palmarito environs, Bolivia (Fig. 218 acquired from Google Earth 2025).

Fig. 219. Biotope of Cylindera morio Klug, 1834, near Concepción, Bolivia.