A New Subspecies of Platycerus consimilis (Coleoptera, Lucanidae) Discovered on the Micang Shan Mountains in Northeastern Sichuan, Southwest China

2005·3.9 MB·

by  Imura, Y

E、l・1・,a,T◆()k、・o,33(1):259-264、May30,2005
ANewSubspeciesofPlatycerusconsimilis(Coleoptera, Lucanidae)
DiscoveredontheMicangShanMountainsin
NortheasternSichuan,SouthwestChina
Yuki IMURA
Shinohara-cho1249-8,Kohoku-ku,Yokohama,222-0026Japan
Abstract A new subspeciesofP/a0,col・11sco,Isl1,11/Is isdescribed fromtheMi-
cangShan Mountainsof northeasternSichuan,SouthwestChina, under thename c.
p1/agophilus.
In theautumnof2004, I visited theMicang Shan Mountains in northeastern
SichuanofSouthwestChina,withthepurposeofafaunalsurveyofthelucanidgenus
Platycerus.Until that time,nothinghadbeen knownonthePlatycerus faunaofthis
mountainrange,thoughthatoftheDabaShanMountains, thesoutheasterncontinua-
tion of the Micang Shans, waswell-investigated and known to becomposed of as
manyasfourspeciesbelongingtothesamegenus,namely,1)rugosus, hongwonpyoi
dabashanensis, 1) businskyi bashanicus and P kitawaki1 (0KUDA, 1997; IMURA &
TANIKADo,1998).Ofthese, the former twobelongtothegroupof1:) acutico11isand
thelatter twoarethemembersofthegroupofPdelicatulus.Viewed fromthelocation
andstill richlywoodedenvironment,IexpectedthattheMicangShanMountainsmust
harbouratleasttwoormorePlatycerusspecies.
WiththeaidofYoshiyukiNAGAHATAbywhomIwasaccompanied,myestimation
hassoon turned intoreality,at least partly. Investigatingonly for a few hourson the
first day ofour stay on theMicangShans, wesucceeded in collectingaseriesof
Platycerusbelongingtothegroupof delicatulus ina forest of beech treenear the
villageofDabain thecentralpartof thesamemountain range.At firstsight, it re-
mindedusofthespeciesidenticalwithorverycloselyrelatedtoRbuslnskyi known
fromtheQinlingMountainsofsouthernShaanxi (IMuRA,1996)andDashennongJiaof
western Hubei (IMURA, 2002) as well as the DabaShan Mountains as mentioned
above.Tooursurprise,however,itsgenitalorganwellagreedineverydetailwiththat
off)consim11isdescribedbyTANIKADoandTABANA(1998) fromMiyaluoofLi Xian
incentralSichuan,whichisabout400kmdistanttothesouthwest fromthecentralpart
oftheMicangShans.Inthisarticle,IamgoingtointroducetheMicangShanraceinto
scienceasanewsubspeciesof co,1slmIlisunderthenameofphagophilus.
IwishtoexpressmydeepgratitudetoMr.YoshiyukiNAGAHATA(Yonezawa),Mr.
FAN Ting (International Academic Exchange Center of the Academia Sinica,
260 YukiIMURA
Chengdu)andMissCHENLi(AcademiaSinica,Chengdu),fromwhomIhavereceived
invaluable aid in thefield investigation. Also I thank Dr. Kunio ARAYA (Graduate
SchoolofSocialandCulturalStudies,KyushuUniversity) forhiskindadviceandco-
operation for my study on Platycerus, andMr. Motohiko TANIKADo (Ibaraki) for
kindlyprovidingmetheparatypesofPconslm11is.HeartythanksareduetoDr.Shun-
lobi UENo (National ScienceMuseum, Tokyo) for revising themanuscript of this
paper.
PlatycerusconsintilisphagophilusIMURA,subsp
nov
(Figs.1-3,6)
Description. Length(includingmandibles): (39.45-10.50(mean10.00)mm;
9.40-10.50(mean9.92)mm.Discriminatedfromthenominotypica1subspeciesinthe
followingpoints:1)colorationofdorsalsurfacelighter,muchmorestronglygreenish
inmaleandgoldencopperybearingafaintgreenishtingein female;2) frontanglesof
pronotumalittlelesssharplypointedattips;3)centralpartsofelytramorestrongly
depressedandalittlelessremarkably rugu1ose.Malegenitalorganalmostas inthe
nominotypicalrace,butapairofvisor-likeprotuberancesonventralmarginofmedian
lobenarrowerandsituatedalittlenearertotheapex.
Typeseries. Holotype: ,3,ca 3kmnorth-northwest fromDaba [大 ], 1,550-
1,650m inaltitude,theMicangShanNationalForestPark [米合山国家森林公国], in
northern Nanjiang Xian [南江 ], of northeastern Sichuan, Southwest China, 2~
5-XI-2004, Y. IMURA& Y. NAGAHATAleg.,preserved inthecollectionoftheDepart-
mentofZoology,NationalScienceMuseum(Nat.Hist),Tokyo.Paratypes:9 8
, ,
samedataasfortheholotype,preservedinthecollectionofY.IMURA.
,
Notes. Before thediscovery of thepresent new race, we assumed that the
PlatycerusfaunaoftheMicangShanMountainsmightbemostcloselyrelatedtothat
oftheDabaShanMountains,sincetheformerarethenorthwesterncontinuationofthe
latter. ItwasthereforeunexpectedthatthespeciesfoundontheMicangShariswasnot
referabletoanyofthefourspeciesoccurringontheDabaShansbutapparentlycon-
specificwith thatinhabitingLiXianincentralSichuan,whichisabout400kmdistant
tothesouthwest fromthetypelocalityofthenewsubspecies.Thisdiscoveryisvery
important fromthezoogeographicalviewpoint,sinceitbecomesthepositiveproofofa
closefaunalrelationshipoftheMicangShanMountainsinnortheasternSichuantothe
mountainousregions incentralSichuanconcerningthelucanidbeetlesof thegenus
Platycerus,thoughasimilarrelationshiphadalreadybeensuggestedbythemembers
ofgroundbeetles.Forexample,apeculiarprocrustimorphouscarabi(i,Shenoc〔)pto-
1abrus osawai, is known from both theMicang Shans and Mao Xian of central
Sichuan,butnotrecordedfromtheDabaShans(IMURA,2000;DEUvE,2003).
Thepresent newsubspeciesinhabitsthe forest of deciduousbroad-leaved trees
mainly composedofFaguspashanlcaand englerlana nowsporadicallypreserved
aroundDabaVillageinthecentralpartoftheMicangShanMountains(Fig 4).All the
NewSubspeciesofPlatyce,・ttsfromNortheasternSichuan 261
Figs. 1_2. Platyce1-usconst,t111isp11agop1111ussubsp nov., fromtheMicangShanMountainsinnorth-
easternSichuan(1, holotype;2, ,paratype).
,
imaginescollectedwerehibernating inwhite-rottencortexofwitheredwoodeither
stillstandingoralready fallendown(Fig 6).Fromthesameenvironmentalcondition,
weredjscoverednota fewlarvaeofPlatyceru.smostprobably referabletothesame
race.AsisobservedinothermembersofthesamegenusdistributedintheEurasian
contjnentandJapan,thepresentnewraceleavesapeculiarovipositionma「konthe
surfaceofjtsfoodplant(Fig5).Ofthetotally18imaginesco11ecte 16We「e f「om
adegoe agtlspas฀m'c an th remainin tw wer fro uerctisafieM and nｽfanf ฀S PS・
respectively.
Togetherwith the typeseriesof thenewsubspecies, one femaleima90of a
strangeplatyceruswasalsocolelctedfromthesameforest.ThoughClosely「eSemblin9
eachother,jtisdefinitelydifferentfromthenewraceindetails.FO「example,f「ontan-
glesofthepronotumarenotprotrudedanteriorly,theelytraa「e「obuSte「andthe9ono-
coxlteIsalittledjffelrentintheshape.Inmyview,itismostProbablethatthisfemale
IsreferabletoF)buslnskyj.However,Iwillsuspendjudgmentonitstaxonomicaccount
262 YukiIMURA
9
Fig.3. GenitalorganofPlatycelusconsim11isphagop/11hlssubspnov fromtheMicangShanMountains
innortheasternSichuan. - a-c,Laterallobeofaedeagus;d-h,medianlobeofaedeagus;i,gono-
coxiteoffemalegenitalia. - a&d,Ventralview;b,e&i,dorsalview;c& f,rightlateralview;g,
viewfromaedeaga1apex;h,rightsubventra1view.Scale:lmmfora-c,0.54mmford-i.
until Icanexaminemorespecimensincludingthemale.
Inaddition,nota few larvaeofPlatyceruswerealso found fromsoftly rotten
smallbrancheslyingontheforestfloor.Thoughimpossibletomakeareliableidentifi-
cationonthemorphologyofthelarvaealone,theymaybelongto thethirdspecies,
sincetheywereobtained fromtheenvironmentalconditionusually favoredby the
speciesbelongingtothegroupofPacutlco11is.Anyway,itishighlyprobablethatthere
inhabitatleasttwoormoredifferentspeciesofPlalycerusontheMicangShanMoun-
tainsasmentionedintheintroductionofthispaper.
NewSubspeciesofPlat、,(・・e,・ll fromNortheasternSichuan 263
Figs 6. Habitat,ovipositionmarkandimaginesinhibernationofP/a0'ce'1'1sconst'川/Is 1/agop/11/l's
subsp nov. - 4,Habitat(forestofFaguspas/1anlcanearDabaontheMicangShanMountainsin
northeasternSichuan);5,ovipositionmarkteflonthesurfaceofwitheredwood;6,imagineshibemat-
jngjnwhite-rottenwoodofFaguspashanlca(photographbyY.NAGAHATAinNovember2004).
Etymology. Thenewsubspecificnameiscomposedof two LatinizedGreeks,
phagesandphjleo,meaningbeechtree(Fagus)andlove,respectively,sincethenew
racecloselydependsonthisplantontheMicangShanMountains.
要 約
井村有希:中国四川省米合山から発見されたミヤマルリクワガタの1新亜極. - 中国四
川省北東部の米合山からはこれまで, ルリクワガタ属の記録がなかったが, 2004年- の秋に行っ
た現地調査により, 同属の1種が採集された.詳細な検討の結果, この種は, 同省中部理 の
米 から記載されたミヤマルリクワガタに一致するものと考えられたが, 背面の色彩, 前用l
264 YtikiIMURA
背板の形態, 上翅の彫刻, そして陰茎中央葉の形態などに一定の差異が認められたため, その
生息環境にちなみ, phagophilusという新亜種名を与えて記載した.米合山は大巴山系の北西端
に位置しているため, そのルリクワガタ相はとうぜん, 山系中央部にある大巴山との共通要素
が多いのではないかと思われていた. しかしながら, 発見された種が大巴山に産する4種のい
ずれとも異なり, 南西方向に400kmも隔たった四川省中部に生息しているものと同じであった
ことは, 生物地理学的にみても, また中国におけるルリクワガタ属の系統や分布の成り立ちを
考えるうえにおいても, きわめて興味深い. なお, 同山塊からは他に, 形態のやや異なる9成
虫および環境条件の異なる朽木に入っていた複数の幼虫が得られており, 少なくとももう1~2
種のルリクワガタ属が生息している可能性が高いが, それらの分類学的処遇については を含
む複数の成虫を検することができるまで保留としておきたい.
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