Dicaelus (Liodicaelus) chermocki Ball 1959

Dicaelus (Liodicaelus) chermocki
This species is readily distinguished from other species of subgenus Liodicaelus by the following combination of characters : head wider than average with only slightly convex eyes, posterior margins of clypeus evenly rounded, pronotum less transverse than in D. laevipennis with the apex less narrowed and apical margin less deeply concave, the lateral margins posteriorly strongly sinuate, punctures indicating position of elytral striae obsolescent.
This species is named after my good friend and former teacher, Dr. Ralph L. Chermock, of the University of Alabama.
Description. — Type, female. Carr Canyon, Huachuca Mts., Cochise County, Ariz.[ona], 7,500', 29 July, 1948, (G. E. Ball), [Museum of Comparative Zoology Coll.].
Female. Length 17.9 mm., width 8.2 mm. Integument generally black with a silky lustre, excepting piceous tarsi, palpi, and basal six segments of antennae ; apical 5 segments of antennae are pale in color. Sculpture as in D. laevipennis.
Head 2.12 times wider than long, frontal impressions shallow, elongate, broad basins extending posteriorly beyond plane of anterior pair of supraorbital setigerous punctures and converging somewhat posteriorly. Labrum 1.72 times wider than long, 1.23 times wider at base than at apex, anterior margin moderately deeply incised, right lobe slightly longer than left, median longitudinal impression deep. Terminal segment of maxillary palpus with obliquely truncate apex, sides more or less parallel, hardly at all triangular in shape. Terminal segment of labial palpus narrowly triangular. Mandibles similar in general facies to those of D. I. dicaeloides (retinacular ridge lacking on left mandible but probably due to wear) ; terebral margin strongly concave, inner margin of basal portion with a well developed molariform area ; right mandible typical for subgenus. Eyes slightly convex, not at all prominent.
Pronotum 1.66 times wider than head, 1.50 times wider than long, 1.58 times wider at widest point than at apex, disc slightly convex medially, moderately depressed posteriorly with relatively few, fine obsolescent, transversely directed lines, lateral margins rather strongly reflexed, separated from disc by broad groove on each side ; sides evenly and more strongly convergent anteriorly than posteriorly, arcuate in anterior 1/2, broadly sinuate in posterior 1/2, anterior margin broadly and evenly concave, anterior angles narrow, lateral grooves each with the usual pair of setigerous punctures close to lateral margin; median longitudinal impression shallow, attaining neither basal nor apical margin; posterior transverse impression very weakly indicated, almost on same plane as posterior margin, connecting the shallow, broad, oblique posterior lateral impressions. (See fig. 103.)
Elytra 1.30 times wider than pronotum, 1.45 times longer than wide, each stria indicated by a row of small punctures which are barely evident laterally and apically but are larger and deeper medially and basally ; carinate portion of interval 7 about 1/5 the length of the elytra; elytra broadly rounded apically, but not as broadly as in D. I. abbreviatus.
Abdominal sternites smooth medially, rugulose laterally, 6th abdominal sternite with a row of six setigerous punctures apically.
Paratypes, six, all females, have been taken in the following localities in Arizona. Cochise County; Huachuca Mountains, Sept. 3, 1931, L. K. Gloyd, [University of Mich. Mus. Zool.] ; Ramsey Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, VI. 7.20, J. R. Selvin, [Cal. Acad. Sci.] ; Huachuca Mountains, VII.21.1912, J. R. Selvin, [Cal. Acad. Sci.]; Huachuca Mountains, [Amer. Mus. Nat. His.] ; Chiracahua Mountains, [Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila.]. Tables 44-49 contain data on variation in the following mensural characters and ratios — length, maximum width, W pn/ W head, PN : L/W apex, PN : W base/ W apex, El : L/W.
Variation. — Color and lustre is the same as was described for the type, excepting one specimen, taken in Ramsey Canyon, which is more shining.
The frontal impressions and lines of macrosculpture of the head are deeper on the average than in the type. The pronotum is essentially as in the type with the sides either slightly more or less reflexed. The surface markings are as in the type but a little deeper in one specimen taken in Ramsey Canyon.
The elytra are as in the type.
The 6th abdominal sternite bears 6-7 (6.8) setigerous punctures near its posterior margin.
The male of this species is not known to me.
Distribution. — -This species is known only from the Huachuca and Chiracahua Mountains of Arizona.
The type specimen was collected under a rock, near the margin of the small stream which flows through the upper end of Carr Canyon.
This species may possibly be only a montane race of laevipennis, but in the absence of geographically and morphologically intermediate forms, and because it is strikingly different from laevipennis, I have treated it as a distinct species.