New species of the genus Cristaphanes Aurivillius, 1916 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Palawan

Abstract

Cristaphanes palawanus sp. nov. from Palawan island, the Philippines, is described, illustrated and compared with other similar species. There are currently 8 species of the genus Cristaphanes known in the world fauna, but 2 species are found in the Philippine archipelago.

Full text

Baltic J. Coleopterol. 23(2) 2023
https://doi.org/10.59893/bjc.23(2).012 ISSN 1407 – 8619
255
New species of the genus Cristaphanes Aurivillius, 1916
(Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Palawan
Arvīds Barševskis, Milton Norman Medina
Barševskis A., Medina M.N. 2023. New species of the genus Cristaphanes
Aurivillius, 1916 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Palawan. Baltic J. Coleopterol.,
23 (2): 255 - 258.
Cristaphanes palawanus sp. nov. from Palawan island, the Philippines, is described,
illustrated and compared with other similar species. There are currently 8 species of
the genus Cristaphanes known in the world fauna, but 2 species are found in the
Philippine archipelago.
Key words: Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Lamiini, Polyphida, new species,
taxonomy
Arvīds Barševskis. Coleopterological Research Center, Institute of Life Sciences and
Technologies, Daugavpils University, Vienības Str. 13, Daugavpils, LV-5401, Latvia;
Coleoptera Research Center, Institute for Biodiversity and Environment, University
of Mindanao, Davao City, 8000, Philippines; e-mail: arvids.barsevskis@du.lv
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9703-0115
Milton Norman Dejadena Medina. Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences,
Davao Oriental State University, Dahican, Mati City, 8200, Philippines; e-mail:
miltonnormanmedina@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org
INTRODUCTION
Genus Cristaphanes Aurivillius, 1916 (Col-
eoptera: Cerambycidae) belongs to the sub-
family Cerambycinae and tribe Callidiopini.
In the world fauna, 7 species of this genus
are known so far, distributed in the Oriental
region. All species of this genus are endem-
ics with a rather narrow distribution range
in Borneo, W Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos,
Thailand and the Philippines. The greatest
variety of species of this genus was ob-
served on the island of Borneo, where 3
species were found.
Only one species - Cristaphanes filipinus
Vives, 2009 - known from Mindanao is so
far distributed in the Philippine Archipela-
go. In this article we describes the second
species of this genus discovered on the is-
land of Palawan. Thus, two species of the
genus Cristaphanes are currently known in
the Philippine archipelago, while 8 species
are found in the world fauna. Most of the
species of this genus are poorly studied and
since their description, there is very little
information about their distribution
(Tavakilian, Chavillotte 2023).

Barševskis A., Medina M.N.
256
The Callidiopini Lacordaire, 1869 tribe
mainly distributed in Oriental and Austro-
Asian Regions. In the world fauna are pre-
sented more than 400 species hierherto de-
scribed, which belongs to 68 genera. Yokoi
(2023) has published a paper describing six
new species and one subspecies of the ge-
nus Ceresium Blanchard, 1853 and one
subspecies of the genus Examnes Pascoe,
1861 from the Philippines. Both genera
belong to the tribe Callidiopini.
In last months, many scientists have pub-
lished new taxonomic and distribution data
about the longhorn beetle fauna of the Phil-
ippine archipelago, including Vives (2023a,
2023b, 2023c), Yokoi (2023), Medina, Vi-
tali, Barševskis (2023) and others. This
shows that the longhorn beetle fauna of the
Philippine archipelago is poorly studied.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The studied material (holotype) is deposited
in the beetles collection of Daugavpils Uni-
versity, Institute of Life Sciences and Tech-
nology, Coleopterological Research Centre
(DUBC; Ilgas, Daugavpils Distr., Latvia).
The laboratory research and measurements
have been performed using Nikon AZ100,
Nikon SMZ745T and Zeiss Stereo Lumar
V12digitalstereomicroscopes, NIS-
Elements 6D software. The habitus photo-
graph was obtained with a digital camera
Canon EOS 6D with Canon MP-E65 mm
macro lens, using Helicon Focus automon-
tage and subsequently was edited with Pho-
toshop. All measurements are given in mil-
limeters.
In the present paper we followed the taxo-
nomic nomenclature provided by
Tavakilian, Chavillotte (2023).
DESCRIPTION
Cristaphanes palawanus sp. nov.
(Fig. 1)
Fig. 1. Cristaphanes palawanus sp. nov.
(holotype)
Type specimen: Holotype: Female.
/Philippines: Palawan Isl., / Roxas,
06.2021, / local collector leg./ [handwrit-
ten]; // HOLOTYPUS:/ Cristaphanes / pa-
lawanus sp. nov. / A.Barševskis, / M.N.
Medina det. 2023 [red label, handwritten]
(DUBC).
General distribution: Philippines: Pa-
lawan Island.
Description. Body elongated, narrow, par-
allel, brown. Elytra brown, with black lat-
eral margin, suturae and elongated black

New species of the genus Cristaphanes Aurivillius, 1916 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) from Palawan
257
band behind shoulders. Pronotum laterally
black, but dorsal disc brown. Body lenght
27.0 mm, maximal width: 6.9 mm.
Head dark-brown, convex and uneven be-
tween antennal bases, with bilobate convex
eyes. Surface of head with coarse punc-
tures, wrinkles and sparse long brown pu-
bescence, especially behind eyes, with
short,
line, which impressed between antennal
bases. Frontal portion of head with dense
pubescence of relatively long brown hairs.
Cheeks covered with sparse brown pubes-
cence. Labrum brown, narrow, cowered
with long brown hairs. Clypeus brown,
transverse, shiny, in frontal line with long
brown hairs. Mandibles dark-brown, with
sharp apex, massive, wide, shiny, lateral
sides with pubescence of long brown hairs.
Antennae brown, slender, relatively long,
but not reaches apex of elytra, shorter than
body, covered with punctures and sparse
pubescence and has many long bristles;
basal antennomeres thickened and slightly
darkened apically, remaining antennomeres
cylindric, brown.
Pronotum laterally black, with brown and
convex pronotal disc, elongated, neck-
shaped narrowed in apical and basal por-
tions, Pronotal disc with irregular wrinkles
and coarse punctures and brown pubes-
cence.
Scutellum small, with pubescence. Pars
stridens partially visible because it is under
the posterior edge of the pronotum, forming
smooth two areas with very fine transverse
microsculpture, between with thin im-
pressed line.
Elytra parallel-sided, brown, flattened dor-
sally, with black lateral margin, suturae and
elongated black band behind distinct,
slightly raised shoulders hump, which are
with raised, sharp, oblique keel. Surface of
elytra matt, with weak reflection and mi-
crosculpture. Punctation of elytra very
dense, not arranged in longitudinal rows,
with long sets and pubescence.
Fig. 2. Cristaphanes filipinus Vives, 2009
(holotype) (Bezark 2023)
Ventro-lateral surface of body brown, cov-
ered with pubescence. Legs brown, mas-
sive, covered with pubescence and long
sets.
Differential diagnosis. Regarding the
shape of the body, the new species differs
from Cristaphanes filipinus Vives, 2009
(Fig. 2). with darker elytra color and slight-
ly different black bands, different dark pat-
tern on pronotal disc, with dark legs with-
out black joint area, almost grown color of
attennomeres, without black joints. New
species is similar also to Bornean Cristaph-
anes bifidus Holzschuch, 2010 (Fig. 3),
from which it differs by a wider and darker

Barševskis A., Medina M.N.
258
black band along the elytra suture, a more
pronounced black band along the sides of
the elytra, which completely surrounds the
apex of the elytra, with darker legs. The
tarsomeres and antennomeres of the new
species are dark brown instead of light
brown as in the other species.
Fig. 3. Cristaphanes bifidus Holzschuch,
2010 (holotype) (Bezark 2023)
Etymology. This species is named after the
Palawan island, where it occurs [Palawan -
palawanus].
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to express our gratitude to Alex-
ander Anichtchenko (Daugavpils, Latvia)
for help in preparation of photographs of
beetles.
REFERENCES
Bezark L. 2023. Old World Cerambycidae
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Medina M.N., Vitali F., Barševskis A.,
2023. Catalog of the genus Cacia
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Lamiinae) in the Philippines with de-
scription of two new species. Zootaxa,
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Tavakilian G., Chavillotte H. 2023. Base de
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Received: 13.06.2023.
Accepted: 08.12.2023.