Cypturus zappii Vienna & Penati, 2024

Vienna, Pierpaolo & Penati, Fabio, 2024, Description of Cypturus zappii n. sp. from Sri Lanka (Coleoptera: Histeridae), Natural History Sciences 11 (2), pp. 3-8 : 4-8

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.4081/nhs.2024.770
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15631186
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/4D127B15-FFD8-FFBC-A552-ECB29A0CA741
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Cypturus zappii Vienna & Penati
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Cypturus zappii Vienna & Penati n. sp.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:BA3F2457-229A-4102-BCEC-A8BA49BEF0BF ( Figs. 1-8 View Fig View Fig View Fig View Fig View Fig View Fig View Fig View Fig )

Holotype ♂: SRI LANKA, North W / prov., Puttalam dist., / Eluwankulama env., 9 m / 8°16’06”N 79°52’06”E / 14.VII.2017 leg. I. Zappi // ♂ // Cypturus / aenescens Erichson / P. Vienna det., 2019 // HOLOTYPUS / Cypturus zappii n. sp. / Vienna & Penati des. ( MSNM). GoogleMaps

Allotype ♀: same data as holotype ( MSNM).

Paratypes: 2 ♂♂ & 1 ♀, same data as holotype ( IZCI); GoogleMaps 1 ♂ & 1 ♀, same data as holotype ( PVVI); GoogleMaps 1 ♀, same data as holotype ( FPMI); GoogleMaps 1 ♀, Polonnaruwa / 25.iii.1973 / sous pierre // M. Tronquet // CEYLAN // Collection / Y. GOMY ( ZMS-YG); 1 ♂, Horowapothana [= Horowupotana ] / Ceylon G. Horn // G. Lewis Coll. / B.M. 1926-369. // Cypturus / aenescens / Er. ( NHM); 1 ♀, Colombo, / Ceylon. / V.’89. / H.P. Green. / 1916−157 // Cypturus / aenescens Er. / H. Desbordes det. 1923 ( NHM).

Description. Body elongate oval, slightly convex. Black, moderately shiny, entirely clothed with shallow but dense punctation ( Fig. 1 View Fig ). PEL (length between anterior angles of pronotum and apices of elytra): ♂♂ 3.8-4.1 mm, ♀♀ 4.1-4.7 mm; EW (maximal width between outer margins of elytra): ♂♂ 3.2-3.5 mm, ♀♀ 3.2-3.4 mm.

Head ( Fig. 3 a,b View Fig ). Frontal stria complete, well impressed, in middle faint and slightly arcuate backward, laterally joint to supraorbital striae basally hamate, occipital stria absent. Front punctulate, with punctures small and dense above the eyes and in the occipital area, larger and deeper, sometimes confluent, on the disk, where they form an approximately Y-shaped impression. Antennal scape slightly arcuate, as long as the other antennal segments taken together.Antennal club rusty-brown.

Pronotum. Marginal stria complete, not interrupted behind the head, lateral striae absent. Punctation double: at the anterolateral angles and along sides the punctures are deep, coarse, disorderly arranged in bands somewhat distant from marginal stria, and separated by 1-3 their own diameter (intermingled with very fine punctures), becoming smaller and denser anteriorly and posteriorly; on the disk the punctures are fine and separated by about 1-2 their own diameter. The basal margin, from posterolateral angles to the correspondence with the 3 rd dorsal striae and in front of the scutellum, is marked with a few scattered large punctures.

Elytra. Disk entirely and evenly clothed with small punctures of variable size. External subhumeral stria less impressed than dorsal striae 1 st- 3 rd, present only on medial 3/4. Oblique humeral stria lightly impressed on basal 1/3. Internal subhumeral stria absent. First dorsal stria deeply impressed on basal 1/2 or more, then fine and irregular up to apical 3/4 (in some specimens oblique innerwards). Second and 3 rd dorsal striae deeply impressed and slightly crenulated (due to the presence of punctures along the internal side), slightly shortened apically. First to 3 rd dorsal striae not reaching the basal margin of elytra, which is marked by short striolae. Fourth dorsal stria variable, shallowly impressed, fragmented, abbreviated basally and apically (so to be present between 1/2 and 2/3 of elytral length) or completely absent. Fifth dorsal stria absent. At elytral base, in correspondence with the 4 th and 5 th dorsal striae, there can be two deep punctures. Sutural stria present on about apical 2/3, fragmented and faint basally, reaching the apical margin (sometimes joint to a rudiment of the apical stria). Marginal stria present on basal 1/2 or 2/3. Only one epipleural stria, present in the humeral region.

Propygidium. Entirely and densely clothed with punctures, larger at the base and at the sides, separated by 0.5-1 their own diameter, intermingled with small punctures. In some specimens, the punctures are so close and deep to resemble striolae.

Pygidium. Large, not visible from above, characterized by an evident sexual dimorphism: ♂, pygidium covered with punctures smaller and fainter than those of propygidium, slightly deeper along sides on basal 1/2; ♀, pygidium with two deep and large longitudinal impressions, separated by a very narrow smooth keel, each joint to a rotundate impression present near the base halfway between the angle and the middle, both roughly tuberculate and opaque inside; apical margin of the pygidium contoured by a deep sulcus, shortly emarginated in the middle to receive a small rectangular projection present on the apical margin of the last visible sternite ( Figs. 4a,b View Fig ).

Prosternum ( Fig. 5 a,b View Fig ). Prosternal lobe with complete marginal stria and disk coarsely punctate (punctures separated by 0.5−1 their own diameter). Prosternal keel with complete carinal striae, shortly divergent basally, then parallel and somewhat distant from each other, not united apically, or slightly convergent and united at the apex; surface between carinal striae clothed with punctures smaller, shallower and denser than those of prosternal lobe, separated by about 1−2 their own diameter; base deeply incised to receive the mesosternal projection.

Mesosternum ( Fig. 5 a,b View Fig ). Anterior margin with triangular projection in the middle; marginal stria complete in front, laterally interrupted halfway down the mesocoxae; disk with the same punctation of prosternal keel or smaller and sparser; meso-metasternal suture almost straight.

Metasternum. Disk with punctation smaller and sparser than mesosternum, marked with a median longitudinal stria; inner lateral stria oblique, almost straight, connected to its recurrent arm near the metacoxae (sometimes almost imperceptibly interrupted); postmesocoxal striae faint, irregular and slightly bent.

First visible abdominal sternite. Disk with even thinner and sparser punctation, visible almost only laterally; lateral striae complete, more impressed on basal 1/2.

Legs. Forelegs with femurs punctulate on the lower surface and somewhat narrow tibias ( Figs. 6 View Fig and 7 View Fig ) with 6-7 large teeth on the outer margin, topped by stout denticles, and 2−3 smaller denticles on apical margin, decreasing in size inward; tarsal claws unequal, the inner being strongly stouter than the outer. Median and posterior femora with very small and sparse punctures on the lower surface; median and posterior tibiae with two complete striae on the lower surface and a double row of long denticles on outer margin.

Male genitalia as shown in Fig. 8 View Fig .

Differential diagnosis. Cypturus zappii can be easily distinguished from C. perroti and C. thugi for the body longer and entirely punctulate and the external subhumeral stria present only on medial 3/4, while in the other two species the body is shorter and smooth, and the external subhumeral stria is complete. Moreover, it differs from C. assamensis in elytral punctation, for the latter described as “ fine ” and “ sometimes scarcely perceptible ” ( Lewis, 1894: 177), and in dorsal elytral striation, i.e. assamensis has 1 st- 4 th striae complete (“ fourth one occasionally shortened ”) and 5 th present on apical 1/2.

It seems more difficult to separate C. zappii from the remaining two species ( aenescens and bengalensis ), also them characterized by dense dorsal punctation and reduced 4 th- 5 th dorsal striae ( Erichson, 1834; Lewis, 1901), as proved by a first attribution to C. aenescens of the specimens collected by Iuri Zappi and by the old identifications of the two specimens housed at NHM. Nevertheless, a more careful study of the type series made it possible to ascertain that C. zappii can be distinguished for the body shinier (due to the less coarse and dense elytral punctation, never rugose) and above all for the 1 st dorsal elytral stria always shortened (marked only on basal 1/2 or little more) and the 5 th absent, while in the other two species the 1 st stria is always complete and the 5 th is present although sometimes evanescent.

Male genitalia of assamensis , bengalensis and thugi are undescribed, so no comparison with the aedeagus of zappii is possible. On the other hand, the drawing of the aedeagus of aenescens given by Hongzhang et al. (2022: 126) shows an apex with acute preapical teeth like in the genus Epitoxus Lewis 1900 , while that of perroti given by Cooman (1941: 332) shows an apex bent at 90° forming almost a hook, then both completely different from the aedeagus of our new species ( Fig. 8 d,e View Fig ).

Unfortunately, at the current state of the knowledge, also the sexual dimorphism of female pygidium has no differential value. In fact, although it has been firstly noted by Marseul (1853: 294) in specimens by himself identified as C. aenescens Erichson (note that he did not examine the types and this character is not reported in the original diagnosis) and subsequently also by Lewis for assamensis ( Lewis, 1894: 177) , then for bengalensis and aenescens ( Lewis, 1901: 242) , this dimorphism has not been throughout studied and the given descriptions are too poor to be of any help. Only a revision of the type series and the examination of more material will allow to establish whether there are differences among species and any intraspecific variability.

Ecology. The specimens from the environment of Eluwankulama have been collected in and under a semi-dry bovine dung on the side of a road (Iuri Zappi, pers. comm.).

Distribution. Presently known only from Sri Lanka ( Fig. 9 View Fig ). This is the third species reported for the island after Cypturus aenescens and C. thugi ( Mazur, 2011: 40) .

Etimology. This species is dedicated to the collector and friend, Iuri Zappi.