Cazeresia kanalensis ( Perroud, 1864 ), 2025

Gómez-Zurita, Jesús & Cardoso, Anabela, 2025, Systematics and evolution of the New Caledonian endemic genus Cazeresia (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Eumolpinae), Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny 83, pp. 127-170 : 127-170

Cazeresia kanalensis ( Perroud, 1864)

Figures 8 a , 9 h , 11 c

Colaspis kanalensis Perroud, 1864, p. 207.

Colaspis kanalensis : Fauvel, 1866, p. 206.

syn. Dematochroma laboulbenei : Lefèvre, 1885, p. 38.

syn. Dematochroma laboulbenei : Clavareau, 1914, p. 40.

Colaspis kanalense : Heller, 1916, p. 258.

Colaspis kanalensis : Jolivet et al., 2007 b, p. 34.

Colaspoides kanalensis : Jolivet et al., 2013, p. 143.

Colaspoides kanalensis : Jolivet & Mille, 2022, p. 43.

Colaspis kanalensis : Gómez-Zurita & Pàmies-Harder, 2022, p. 34.

Material.

Lectotype (present designation). Male (Fig. 11 c ), Colaspis kanalensis Perroud, Kanala , Type, ex coll. B.-P. Perroud, Muséum Paris 1958 coll. M. Pic, Syntype, Syntype Colaspis kanalensis Perroud, 1864 , MNHN, Paris EC 17237 ( MNHN) . — Paralectotype. Female, ex coll. B.-P. Perroud, Muséum Paris 1958 coll. M. Pic, Syntype, Syntype Colaspis kanalensis Perroud, 1864 , MNHN, Paris EC 17238 ( MNHN) .

Other material.

MNHW: male, JGZC-5332 , road Bonde-Mandjélia Mt. , 20°28.6’S 164°15.6’E, 250 m, niaouli forest, 9.i.2007, at light, M. Wanat and R. Dobosz leg.

Remarks.

In his comprehensive systematic catalogue of Eumolpinae, Lefèvre (1885) removed Colaspis kanalensis Perroud, 1864 from Colaspis Fabricius, 1801 , a genus that he recognized as exclusive of the New World, but at the same time, this sound decision was accompanied by the synonymisation of the species with Dematochroma laboulbenei ( Montrouzier, 1861) , a radically different species. Neither Clavareau (1914) nor Heller (1916) questioned this decision, and it was nearly one century later that Jolivet et al. (2007 b) rejected this synonymy, an opinion that was endorsed by Gómez-Zurita and Pàmies-Harder (2022). However, these authors did not propose an alternative systematic placement of the species, and their proposition would come a few years later, when the species was assigned to the genus Colaspoides Laporte, 1833 , with the suggestion that it may be the only valid species of this genus in New Caledonia ( Jolivet et al. 2013). The examination of the type specimens of Colaspis kanalensis for this work leads to a very different conclusion.

Perroud (1864) described Colaspis kanalensis without any indication of the number of specimens he used for the description, but providing an interesting character that already identifies the specimen as a male, namely the arched emargination of the anterior border of clypeus, a trait characteristic of the males of some species of Cazeresia . The MNHN collection preserves Perroud’s types, including two specimens identified and recognized unambiguously here as syntypes of C. kanalensis , clearly fitting the species description. One of the syntypes is a male, and proposed here as the species lectotype, and the other one is a female and proposed as paralectotype. These type specimens undoubtedly belong to the species complex of Cazeresia thyiana (Jolivet, Verma & Mille) , very uniform morphologically. In particular, they share more similarities with the pair C. thyiana and C. holosericea sp. nov., for example the lack of tiny stiff setae apically on epipleura. Therefore, we propose that the correct generic assignment of Perroud’s species is the genus Cazeresia , as Cazeresia kanalensis ( Perroud, 1864) comb. nov.

The town of Canala, the type locality of C. kanalensis , is not far (slightly over 30 km apart) from the type locality of the very similar C. holosericea , but we are positive about these species being different based on the conspicuous dorsal purple metallic tinge of the types of C. kanalensis , lacking in all the other species of the group, including C. holosericea , but also the different conformation of the anterior incision of male clypeus, which in the male lectotype of C. kanalensis is shallower and more angulate than the deep subtrapezoidal and flanged apical incision of clypeus in male C. holosericea . The MNHW collection includes one male specimen from a very distant (~ 200 km), low elevation locality, in an ultramafic inland island not far from the southern shores of the northern tip of Grande Terre, which shares all the attributes of C. kanalensis , including the unique coloration, shape of clypeal emargination and facial structure in general, a shared marked tendency to regular arrangements of elytral punctation, as well as its size (5.7 mm long, 3.1 mm wide), only slightly below the 6.0 mm mark that characterizes most species in this group (except for C. ovata sp. nov.). This specimen, based on these rather distinctive attributes is tentatively considered to belong to C. kanalensis and used to illustrate the penis, which is quite different compared with the male genitalia in this group (Fig. 9 h ).

Figures

Figure 8. Distribution maps of the species and subspecies of Cazeresia Jolivet, Verma & Mille in New Caledonia.

Figure 9. Lateral and apical dorsal views of the penis of Cazeresia robusta sp. nov. (a), C. montana Jolivet, Verma & Mille (b), C. imperiosa sp. nov. (c), C. laticollis sp. nov. (d), C. petitpierrei sp. nov. (e), C. clipeata sp. nov. (f), C. maquis sp. nov. (g), C. kanalensis (Perroud) (h), C. holosericea sp. nov. (i), C. thyiana (Jolivet, Verma & Mille) (j), and C. subgeminata sp. nov. (k).

Figure 11. Dorsal views of the holotypes of Cazeresia thyiana (Jolivet, Verma & Mille) (a), C. humboldtiana (Heller) (b), C. kanalensis (Perroud) (c), and C. striata (Jolivet, Verma & Mille) (d).