Paridea ( Paraulaca ) avicauda ( Laboissière, 1930 )

Paridea ( Paraulaca) avicauda ( Laboissière, 1930)

Figs 1–6 View Figs

MATERIAL EXAMINED. Russia: Primorsky Krai: 7 km NE from Khasan, ‘ Golubinyi utes’, 13.VII 2023, 1♂, leg. M.E. Sergeev ( FSCV) .

REMARK. Brief description of males and females from China ( Sichuan: Mupin) was given by Laboissière (1930). The species has not yet been redescribed, but there is a morphologically similar species that differs in the structure of the aedeagus ( Paridea flavipennis Laboissière, 1930 ). Below the male and its aedeagus are redescribed, as the type specimens of P. avicauda has not been opened and the aedeagus is unknown.

REDISCRIPTION. Male. Body pale orange, elytra paler, surface smooth and glossy ( Figs 1–3 View Figs ). The capsule of the head is hypognathic, short and not constricted at the back of the eyes. The labrum is broad and smooth. The eyes are large, round and convex in shape. The frontal ridge is convex, triangular, widening towards the base, covered with small wrinkles at the base. Frons is broad and smooth. The frontal tubercles do not touch and are separated from the vertex by frontal furrows, smooth, narrow, slightly curved. Gena length 2/3 of eye diameter. The antennae reach the middle of the elytra ( Figs.1, 3 View Figs ). The 1–2 antennal segments are completely rufous, 3–11 are partially or completely darkened, reddish brown. The 3rd antennal segment is 2 times longer than the second, the 4th is the same length as the third. The 1st–3rd antennal segments are clearly wider at the apex than at the base, from the 4th to the 10th they are slightly widened at the apex, the 11th segment is pointed at the apex. The pronotum is rounded and widened in the anterior half. At its widest point it is about 1.5 times wider than it is long. The disc of pronotum is smooth with a transverse groove behind the centre ( Fig. 3 View Figs ). The front corners of pronotum are straight and slightly protruding. The scutellum is triangular, smooth, equal in length to width, and rounded at the apex. Elytra widened towards apex, rounded separately at apex, and humeral tubercles developed ( Fig. 3 View Figs ). Punctation is mixed, dots are small and in some places clustered in irregular rows. The spaces of elytra are shiny and larger than the diameter of the dot. The epipleurae are broad, covered with small sparse punctures, narrowing towards the apex and disappearing at the apical angles. Male elytra with a general, large convexity, more intensely coloured than the disc, beginning behind the scutellum and ending anteriorly from the middle of the elytra to the centre of the disc. The bulge in the suture area is deep, narrow and pressed posteriorly. The wings develop. Sides of mesosternum, metasternum, posterior edge of 1st abdominal sternite black; remaining abdominal sternites light. The fifth abdominal sternite is three-lobed, with deep incisions on each side; the middle lobe is large, straight cut, with a deep depression along its entire length ( Fig. 1 View Figs ). Legs are long. Femurs slightly thicker. The 4th tarsal segment protrudes half its length from the third. Claws with a tooth at the base. The eighth tergite of the abdomen ( Fig. 4 View Figs ) is weakly sclerotized at the base, transverse and thin, with a pair of strongly sclerotized, long and thin processes. The processes are flattened, pointed towards the apex, and their apices are slightly turned to the side in relation to each other.

The aedeagus is asymmetrical, slightly curved in the ventral plane ( Figs 5, 6 View Figs ). The apex is slightly widened in the upper third and elongated into a long apical process that is ventrally curved and laterally flattened.

Female. Similar to male, but elytra are not convexed. Pygidium strongly elongated, with a deep rectangular tip. Ends rounded, lined with small black teeth ( Ogloblin, 1936; Warchałowski, 2010).

HOST PLANTS. No host plant has been found, but species of the genus Paridea are known to feed on plants from the family Cucurbitaceae ( Lee & Bezděk, 2014; Orlova-Bienkowskaja & Bieńkowski, 2014).

DISTRIBUTION. Russia: Primorsky Krai (new record). China (Xinjiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi) ( Ogloblin, 1936; Warchałowski, 2010; Beenen, 2024).