Pseudothonalmus bicolor ( Sallé, 1856 ), Woodley, 2024

Pseudothonalmus bicolor ( Sallé, 1856) , new combination

( Fig. 16b View Figure 16 , 20 View Figures 17–20 )

Mallosoma bicolor Sallé 1856: 687 View in CoL

Diagnosis. The apically broad elytra with an elevated middle and lateral costal ridge and dark metallic-purple color on slightly less than apical half of the elytra are distinctive characters for this species. All other similarly colored species lack the modified elytral apex. Pseudothonalmus terminalis ( White, 1853) , known only from Jamaica, is structurally very similar to P. bicolor , but differs in having much finer pronotal punctation with approximately 15 spanning the breadth of the base of the scutellum (more coarse in P. bicolor with approximately 8 spanning the breadth of the scutellum base) and orange head, pronotum, elytral base, and venter (red in P. bicolor ).

Material examined. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: La Vega Province, Pico Duarte environs ( USNM) ; Pedernales Province, Las Abejas , 25 km N. Cabo Rojo ( USNM) ; Pedernales Province, 2.5 km N. Cabo Rojo, 700m, July, 1996, E. F. Giesbert ( EFGC) ; Pedernales Province: Parque Nacional de Jaragua, trail to Carlitos , ca. 6 km S. hwy 44, 106 m, 16 June 2006 ( USNM) ; Pedernales Province, west of Oviedo, Parque Nacional Jaragua , 17.79194°N, - 71.461115°W, 4 July 2021, Jiri Pirkl ( JPPC) GoogleMaps .

Remarks. The translation of the original description from Sallé (1856) is as follows: Very strongly punctate, brick red with a little less than the apical half of the elytra of a beautiful brilliant blue and the antennae brownish black.

Head very punctate, nearly as wide as pronotum, with protruding, emarginate eyes. Antennae brownish black with scape reddish, large, and punctate. Antennomere 2 short, 3–5 with apical spine and long setae; the last 5 antennomeres have much shorter setae. Pronotum rounded at the sides and riddled with deep punctures, having three faint dorsal ridges and a few scattered setae. Scutellum small and depressed medially. Elytra enlarged posteriorly, much wider than the abdomen, red and riddled with very deep punctures at the base, with the apex almost smooth and a beautiful, shiny blue and the boundary of the red with the blue very dark, almost black, they each have three costae which form folds at the apex, with a small spine on the marginal edge. Suture and lateral margin elevated and with stiff setae. Legs redder than the body, punctate and furnished with a few setae. Femora slightly swollen. Meso- and metafemora armed at apices with two weak spines. Legs dark and covered mesally with dense yellowish setae. Tarsi brownish.

Pseudothonalmus was described based on “the variably costate elytra, coarse punctation on head, pronotum, and elytra, curved, acute, offset apicolateral spine of the elytron, deeply sinuate epipleural margin, relatively long third antennomere, mesal antennal spines, coarsely-faceted eyes, erect elytral setae and absence of elytral eburneous calli distinguish this genus.”

The apically widened elytra with small marginal spine, elevated sutural and lateral margins with stiff setae, and dark metallic bluish-purple elytral apex all support Pseudothonalmus bicolor (Sallé) , new combination. These characters were indicated and illustrated for the holotype of Mallosoma bicolor in Sallé (1856). The only discrepancies in the description from Hispaniolan specimens that otherwise match is that that the scape is black (not red as in the description—but note that the illustration in Sallé shows the scape black), there are no evident calli on the pronotum, and the femora do not have apical spines (but these are also not evident in the original illustration).

CALLICHROMATINI Swainson, 1840 Plinthocoelium Schmidt, 1924