Pteroptyx tener Olivier

Pteroptyx tener Olivier

[Figs 202, 203, 206, 207, 209–220]

Pteroptyx tener Olivier, 1907:181; 1910:48. Ballantyne & McLean, 1970:254. Case, 1984:212; Lloyd, 1984:59. McDermott, 1966:117. Ballantyne, 1987a:120. Ballantyne & Menayah, 2000:323. Ohba & Wong, 2004:1; 2012:in press. Zaidi et al., 2005:282. Dawood et al. 2007:1. Wan Jusoh et al., 2010:56.

Holotype. Male. INDONESIA. Labelled 1. Pink handwritten Pteroptyx tener Ern Oliv.; 2. Printed N. O. Sumatra Tebing-Tinggi Dr Schultheiss (MNHN).

Other specimens examined. MALAYSIA: Selangor, Kampung Kuantan, bred from eggs March–June 2000 by Rasainthiran Menayah, 10 females (ANIC).

Diagnosis. Belonging to a group of four species of Pteroptyx s. str. in which T8 has elongate lobes beside the median posterior emargination (Figs 208–220); distinguished from asymmetria by the symmetrical T8 (that of asymmetria is asymmetrical), from bearni and decolor by the deep emargination of T7 (Figs 212–215; that of tener is slightly emarginate and the posterior margin of T7 sinuate; superficially similar to P. decolor which is not well characterised in collections, differing in the dorsal colour pattern (P. decolor is entirely pale coloured dorsally).

Female (Figs 206, 207). As described and figured in Ballantyne and Menayah (2000; Fig. 1e). Bursa: (Figs 202, 203) median oviduct plate small oval.

Remarks. Ballantyne and McLean (1970 Plate 1 c, d) figured the specimen depicted here but apparently did not recognise it as a type. The species characterisations given in Ballantyne and McLean (1970), Ballantyne and Menayah (2000), Ballantyne (2001), and Ballantyne et al. (2011), as well as Figures 208–220 here, amply describe this species.

Ohba and Wong’s (2004) characterisation of this species is confusing. They describe the antenna with “13 thin flagellums” (the antennae are composed of scape, pedicel and 9 flagellar segments); the male light organs as occurring on the 4 th 5 th and 6 th abdominal segments (they occur on V6 and 7 only); the female legs as the same as the males (only the male has the MFC). There is a suggestion of a possible copulation clamp e.g. (page 17) “male inserted its apex of elytra that is bent inside (LB = deflexed portion) under the female elytra and lifted the abdominal segment of the female with the hook of the elytra” (LB—the deflexed elytral apices press down on the top of the female abdomen; it is the MPP of V7 that presses upwards); (page 18) “The hook of the elytra of the male has the function to clamp securely onto the female abdominal segments when copulating with the female” (LB—the deflexed elytra apex is only part of the copulation clamp). Ohba and Wong (2012) incorrectly indicated that the morphology of this species and that of P. bearni was very similar.