In this paper we present the description of male genitalia and additional information on taxonomy of three recently described and poorly
known Chinese endemic members of the genus Meligethes Stephens, 1830, Meligethes (Odonthogethes) brassicogethoides Audisio, Sabatelli
&amp; Jelínek, 2015, M. (O.) inexpectatus Liu, Huang, Cline, Sabatelli &amp; Audisio, 2017, and M. (O.) tricuspidatus Liu, Huang, Cline
&amp; Audisio, 2018

Josef JELÍNEK

Meike LIU

Min HUANG

Paolo AUDISIO

Simone SABATELLI

English

In this paper we present the description of male genitalia and additional information on taxonomy of three recently described and poorly
known Chinese endemic members of the genus Meligethes Stephens, 1830, Meligethes (Odonthogethes) brassicogethoides Audisio, Sabatelli
&amp; Jelínek, 2015, M. (O.) inexpectatus Liu, Huang, Cline, Sabatelli &amp; Audisio, 2017, and M. (O.) tricuspidatus Liu, Huang, Cline
&amp; Audisio, 2018

Josef JELÍNEK

Archivio della ricerca- Università di Roma La Sapienza

351Fragmenta entomologica, 52 (2): 351–353 (2020)Short scientific noteSubmitted: July 18th, 2020 - Accepted: September 10th, 2020 - Published: November 15th, 2020Description of the unknown males of three Chinese Meligethes (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Meligethinae)Simone SABATELLI 1, Paolo AUDISIO 1, Josef JELÍNEK 2, Meike LIU 3,4, Min HUANG 3,* 1 Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “C. Darwin”, Sapienza Università degli Studi di Roma - Viale dell’Università 32, Rome I-00185, Italy - simone.sabatelli@uniroma1.it; paolo.audisio@uniroma1.it2 Department of Entomology, National Museum - Circusová 1740, CZ - 193 00 Praha 9, Horní Počernice, Czech Republic jj.nitidula@seznam.cz3 Key Laboratory of Plant Protection Resources and Pest Management of Ministry of Education, Entomological Museum, Northwest A&F University - Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China - huangmin@nwsuaf.edu.cn4 College of Agriculture, Yangtze University - Jingzhou, Hubei 434025, China - liumk2009@126.com* Corresponding authorAbstractIn this paper we present the description of male genitalia and additional information on taxonomy of three recently described and poorly known Chinese endemic members of the genus Meligethes Stephens, 1830, Meligethes (Odonthogethes) brassicogethoides Audisio, Sa-batelli & Jelínek, 2015, M. (O.) inexpectatus Liu, Huang, Cline, Sabatelli & Audisio, 2017, and M. (O.) tricuspidatus Liu, Huang, Cline & Audisio, 2018.Key words: pollen beetles, male genitalia, China.IntroductionThe pollen beetle genus Meligethes (Nitidulidae, Meli-ge thinae), established by Stephens in 1830, as re-de-fined and delimited by Audisio et al. (2009) and Trizzi-no et al. (2009), was recently revised by Audisio et al. (2015). Subsequently, nine additional new species from China were described by Chen et al. (2015) and by Liu et al. (2016, 2017, 2018), and a few others are still un-der scrutiny, or under description elsewhere. This genus now officially includes 62 species, mostly distributed in the Eastern portion of the Palaearctic Region. Larvae of all members of the genus are associated with flowers of Rosaceae. Recent molecular analyses (Trizzino et al. 2009; Liu et al. 2020) fully confirmed an almost certainly monophyletic lineage including the taxa Meligethes Ste-phens, 1830 (s. str.), Odonthogethes Reitter, 1871 (a sub-genus of the former), Brassicogethes Audisio & Cline, 2009, and Meligethinus Grouvelle, 1909. This article in-cludes the descriptions of the previously unknown males of Meligethes (Odonthogethes) brassicogethoides Audi-sio, Sabatelli & Jelínek, 2015 (known thus far from Yun-nan), M. (O.) inexpectatus Liu, Huang, Cline, Sabatelli & Audisio, 2017 (known thus far from Sichuan), and M. (O.) tricuspidatus Liu, Huang, Cline & Audisio, 2018 (known thus far from Hubei), based on recently collected material from Central and S China. AbbreviationsAcronyms of museum institutions:CAR-MZUR P. Audisio’s collection, currently housed in the Zoological Museum, Sapienza Ro me University, Rome, ItalyNMPC National Museum, Prague, Czech RepublicNWAU Entomological Museum of the Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, ChinaMeligethes (Odonthogethes) brassicogethoides Audisio, Sabatelli & Jelínek, 2015 (Figs 1, 4-5)This species was described only on the base of two fe-male specimens collected in SW China, Yunnan prov-ince (Audisio et al. 2015). A recent collection from SW China, Guizhou province, allowed us to compare a short series of Odonthogethes specimens of both sexes, the fe-males exhibiting a rather peculiar ovipositor, identical to that known in M. (O.) brassicogethoides from the neigh-bor Yunnan, despite their body shape (Fig. 1) was distinct-ly less elongate than in the type material. The unknown male genitalia of this species as in Figs 4-5. They are characterized by a standard wide and short tegmen, with widely U-shaped medial excision and rath-er narrow and pointed paramera, associated with middle-sized aedeagus, obtusely and uniformly triangularly point-ed distad. eISSN: 2284-4880 (online version) pISSN: 0429-288X (print version)352Sabatelli et al.Taxonomic remarks. The shape of the male genitalia in this species is unusual within members of the M. (O.) chin-ensis Kirejtshuk species-group (Audisio et al. 2015), most included taxa of this lineage exhibiting, in fact, an aedea-gus chisel-shaped distad.Examined Material. China: Guizhou, Qiandongnan City, Leigong Mts, 18.VII.2018, Chen lgt., on flowering shrubs of Artemisia lactiflora Wall. ex DC. (Asteraceae), 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀ (NWAU, CAR-MZUR); Shaanxi, Haoping Temple, 30.IV.2017, Cao lgt, 2 ♀♀ (NWAU, CAR-MZUR). Meligethes (Odonthogethes) inexpectatus  Liu, Huang, Cline, Sabatelli & Audisio, 2017 (Figs 2, 6-7)This species was described only on the base of a female specimen collected in SW China, Sichuan province (Liu et al. 2017). This isolated female was previously erroneous-ly believed as representing the unknown female of anoth-er member of the O. chinensis species-group, O. scrobes-cens Chen, Lin, Huang & Yang, 2015 from Sichuan (Liu et al. 2016). A recent collection from SW China, Hubei province (see below), allowed us to compare a short se-ries of specimens of both sexes, the females exhibiting an ovipositor identical to that known in O. inexpectatus from Sichuan. The unknown male genitalia as in Figs 6-7. They are characterized by a standard tegmen, with widely V-shaped medial excision, and paramera obtusely pointed distad, as-sociated with peculiarly long and large aedeagus, the latter widely chisel-shaped distad. Taxonomic remarks. The shape of the male genitalia seems to confirm the placement of this species well within the M. (O.) chinensis species-group (Audisio et al. 2015), where it appears to be characterized by an aedeagus pecu-liarly large, long, and widely chisel-shaped distad (Fig. 7).Examined Material. China: Sichuan, E of Luding, Er-lang Mts (Erlangshan), 2600-2700 m a.s.l., 14/15.VI.2003, S. Murzin lgt., 2 ♂♂ (NMPC, CAR-MZUR); Shaanxi, Ankang, Langao, NanGong Mts, 26.VI.2018, Yang lgt, 1 ♂ (NWAU); Hubei, Xiangyang, Baokang, Houping Town, Hengchong Scenic Spot, 06.VII.2018, Yang lgt, on flow-ering shrubs of Astilbe chinensis (Maxim.) Franch. et Sa-vat. (Saxifragaceae), 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (NWAU). Meligethes (Odonthogethes) tricuspidatus Liu, Huang, Cline & Audisio, 2018 (Figs 3, 8-9)This species was described only on the base of three fe-male specimens collected in Central China, Hubei prov-ince (Liu et al. 2018). A recent collection from SW China, N Sichuan province (see below), allowed us to compare a couple of specimens of both sexes, the female exhibiting the same, very peculiarly shaped ovipositor known in O. tricuspidatus from Hubei. The unknown male genitalia of this species as in Figs 8-9. They are characterized by a standard short and wide tegmen, with paramera obtuse distad, associated with a middle-sized aedeagus, narrowly chisel-shaped distad. Taxonomic remarks. The shape of the male genitalia seems to confirm the placement of this species well within the M. (O.) chinensis species-group (Audisio et al. 2015).Examined Material. China: N Sichuan, XiaoZhaizi Na-tional Nature Reserve, 4 Km NE of Qingpianxiang, Zheng-hecun, 32°3’27”N, 103°59’37”E, 1350-1850 m a.s.l., 23/26.Figs 1-3 – Dorsal habitus of males of Meligethes (Odonthogethes) spp. 1, M. brassicogethoides from Guizhou; 2, M. inexpectatus from Hubei; 3, M. tricuspidatus from Shaanxi. Scale bar: 1 mm.1 2 3353The unknown males of three Chinese MeligethesVI.2017, P. Kabátek lgt, 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (NMPC, CAR- MZUR); Hubei, Shennongjia Scenic Area, ca. 2500 m, 16.VI.2017, P. Audisio lgt, on flowering shrubs of Rubus ro sae folius Smith (Rosaceae), 1 ♀ (NWAU); Shaanxi, Ankang, Langao, Nan-Gong Mts, 26.VI.2018, Yang lgt, on flowering shurbs of Spiraea salicifolia L. (Rosaceae), 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (NWAU). Bionomical notes. No sure larval-host plant relationships are known for this species, although the above cited Ru-bus rosaefolius Smith (Rosaceae) and Spiraea salicifo lia L. (Rosaceae) could both represent possible alternative hosts.Acknowledgements – This research was supported by funds from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affair for Re-cruitment Program of High-end Foreign Experts (Popular Repub-lic of China). The authors greatly appreciate the valuable com-ments on an earlier version of this manuscript by an anonymous reviewer. The author M.L. thanks the China Scholarship Council for financial support for her stay in Rome (November, 2016–De-cember, 2017), in collaboration with coauthor P.A. ReferencesAudisio P., Cline A.R., De Biase A., Antonini G., Mancini E., Trizzino M., Costantini L., Strika S., Lamanna F., Cerretti P. 2009. Preliminary re-examination of genus-level taxono-my of the pollen beetle subfamily Meligethinae (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae). Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae, 49 (2): 341–504.Audisio P., Sabatelli S., Jelínek J. 2015. Revision of the pollen beetle genus Meligethes Stephens, 1830 (Coleoptera: Nitid-ulidae). Fragmenta entomologica, 46 (2014): 19–112. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/fe.2014.71Chen Y., Lin X.L., Huang M., Yang X.K. 2015. A new species of Lamiogethes and a new species of Meligethes from China (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae: Meligethinae). Zootaxa, 3999 (3): 413–420. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3999.3.6Liu M., Huang M., Cline A.R., Audisio P. 2018. New and poor-ly known Meligethes Stephens from China, with bionomi-cal data on some species (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae: Meligethi-nae). Zootaxa, 4392: 546–566. Doi: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4392.3.6Liu M., Huang M., Cline A.R., Mancini E., Scaramuzzi A., Par-adisi S., Audisio P., Badano D., Sabatelli S. 2020. Rosace-ae, Brassicaceae and Pollen Beetles: exploring relation-ships and evolution in an anthophilous beetle lineage (Nitid-ulidae, Meligethes-complex of genera) using an integrative approach. Frontiers in Zoology, In Review, Doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-37852/Liu M.K., Huang M., Cline A.R., Sabatelli S., Audisio P. 2017. A new species of Meligethes Stephens from China and ad-ditional data on members of the M. chinensis species-com-plex (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Meligethinae). Fragmenta en-tomologica, 49 (1): 79–84. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/fe.2017.234Liu M.K., Yang X.K., Huang M., Jelínek J., Audisio P. 2016. Four new species of Meligethes from China and addition-al data on other species of the genus (Coleoptera: Nitiduli-dae: Meligethinae). Zootaxa, 4121 (2): 101–116. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4121.2.1Trizzino M., Audisio P., Antonini G., De Biase A., Mancini E. 2009. Comparative analysis of sequences and secondary structures of the rRNA internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) in pollen-beetles of the subfamily Meligethinae (Coleoptera, Nitidulidae): potential use of slippage-derived sequences in molecular systematics. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evo-lution, 51 (2): 215–226. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2008.11.004Figs 4-9 – Male genitalia (tegmen and aedeagus, dorsal view) of Meligethes (Odonthogethes) spp. 4-5, M. brassicogethoides from Guizhou; 6-7, M. inexpectatus from Hubei; 8-9, M. tricuspidatus from Shaanxi. Scale bar = 0.2 mm.4 5 6 7 8 9

Description of the unknown males of three Chinese Meligethes (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Meligethinae)

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Description of the unknown males of three Chinese Meligethes (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Meligethinae)

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