Subgenus Phacothorax
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Ordo: Coleoptera
Familia: Carabidae
Name
Jeannel, 1944 – Wikispecies link – Pensoft Profile
Diagnosis
The species comprising this subgenus exhibit a remarkable diversity of body forms (Figs 9, 16, 20), but all species share a reduced or absent parascutellar striole (Jeannel 1944[1]). The elytra either lack evident discal striae (Figs 9D–E, 16A, C), or the striae are shallow and smooth to only indistinctly punctate (Figs 9A–C, 16B–D, E, 20). The scutellum is narrow, less than twice as broad as long. As in the ground-plan for Mecyclothorax, the lateral elytral setae are arrayed in an anterior series of seven setae plus a posterior series of 6 setae. The vertex of the head is convex behind the eyes, and the ocular lobe meets the gena at a very obtuse angle without any groove marking the juncture. The prosternum, synapomorphously, either lacks an anteapical groove, or the groove is very broad, shallow and smooth (Fig. 2C). The abdomen bears a single seta each side of the apical ventrite in all males, and two setae each side in females complemented by a trapezoidal medial patch of 4–5 setae (for specimens of those genders observed among the various species). As Jeannel (1944[1], fig. 1) reported, the parameres are much like those of subgenus Mecyclothorax (Figs 5D–E, 11, 22). The male aedeagal median lobe internal sac may bear a well-developed flagellum, flagellar shield, and dorsal plate (e.g. Fig. 10D), or the flagellar apparatus may be secondarily reduced, as in M. fleutiauxi and M. jeanneli, where it is hypothesized that only the flagellar sheath remains (Fig. 10M, Q). As in males of the subgenera Eucyclothorax and Qecyclothorax, the male aedeagal median lobe ostial opening is simple, without an ostial ventroapical operculum. The female reproductive tract exhibits extensive disparity in configuration, plesiomorphically exhibiting a helminthoid sclerite and spermathecal duct entering at the bursal-common oviduct juncture (Figs 12A–C, G, 23B), or in derived configurations at the apex of a single-lobed bursa copulatrix (Fig. 23A, D), or at the apex of a dorsal lobe in a bilobed bursal configuration (Fig. 12D–E). Finally, body coloration is uniformly somber, with head capsule piceous, pronotal disc piceous without contrasting margins, and slightly paler, rufopiceous elytra and concolorous sutural intervals. The legs are paler–brunneous, rufobrunneous, or flavobrunneous–generally without contrasting coloration on the femora (exceptions noted under appropriate species treatments).
Member species
There are 15 species assignable to subgenus Phacothorax, with all species restricted to New Caledonia.
Taxon Treatment
- Liebherr, J; 2018: Cladistic classification of Mecyclothorax Sharp (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Moriomorphini) and taxonomic revision of the New Caledonian subgenus Phacothorax Jeannel Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, 65(1): 1-63. doi
Images
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![Figure 5. Paired left (above) and right (below) parameres of Mecyclothorax spp. (ectal view): A, M. blackburni; B, M. storeyi; C, M. amplipennis; D, M. montivagus; E, M. laterobustus. As the aedeagal assembly of M. storeyi males is inverted relative to other Mecyclothorax species (Moore 1984[2]), the configuration of the upper, or right paramere of M. storeyi should be compared to the ventral, or left parameres of the other species, and vice versa.](/wiki/File:Dez-65-001-g005.jpg)
Other References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jeannel R (1944) Un carabique nouveau de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Revue Française d’Entomologie 10: 84–86.
- ↑ Moore B (1984) Taxonomic notes on some Australasian Mecyclothorax Sharp (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Psydrinae) and descriptions of new species. Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 23: 161–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-6055.1984.tb01935.x
