Longulus soldier beetle (Ichthyurus longulus) is the first of dozens new species to be published

NEWS - Researchers report a new species of Ichthyurus longulus that is widely distributed in Shanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Chongqing, Guizhou and Guangxi in China. This species has some variation in pronotum coloration but can be easily distinguished from all other species.

I. longulus is easily distinguished from all species from China by its uniform black elytra, in contrast to the mixed black and yellow bicolor elytra in other species. Each mesotibia is present with an apical spur in males, while it is absent in other species.

In addition, the terminal abdominal tergite is characterized by a long lateral projection, about 3/5 of the tergite length. Furthermore, the aedeagus has a long setifore extension that is almost as long as the parameres. The legs are slender and the terminal abdominal tergite has a simple lateral projection in males.

The specific name is derived from the Latin word longus meaning long, referring to the long setifore extension. The body length for both sexes is 13.5-14.4 mm (13.5 mm in the holotype), the humeral width for both sexes is 1.9-2.0 mm (1.9 mm in the holotype).

The genus Ichthyurus Westwood (1848) is the largest taxonomic group in the soldier beetle family Ichthyurini, containing about 200 species distributed worldwide. China, with an area of 9,600,000 km2, is an important part of the global fauna, but only 10 species have been reported from this region to date.

Chinese ichthyurus have historically received little attention from specialists, and even some common species are still unknown in this region. Researchers from Hebei University in Baoding and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have collected a large amount of Ichthyurus material and discovered dozens of new species that are in the process of being published.

Original research

Lin H, Liu H, Yang X, Yang Y (2024). A new and widely distributed species of Ichthyurus Westwood, 1848 (Cantharidae, Chauliognathinae, Ichthyurini) from China. Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e131829, DOI:10.3897/BDJ.12.e131829

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