Introduction
Cis Latreille is the most diverse genus of Ciidae with approximately 400 described species and a worldwide distribution (Oliveira et al. 2013, Lawrence 2016). The genus contains more than half of all described Ciidae species (Lawrence 1971, Oliveira et al. 2013, Lawrence 2016). The Neotropical species of Cis (biogeographic regions sensuMorrone 2015) are represented by nearly 70 described species and at least half of them are organized into artificial species-groups, such as the comptus, creberrimus, melliei, pallidus, taurus, tricornis, and vitulus species-groups.
The pallidus-group comprises C. corticinus Gorham, 1883 from Totonicapán, Guatemala, C. pallidus Mellié, 1849 from the state of Bahia, Northeast Brazil, C. semipallidus Pic, 1916 from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and C. tetracentrum Gorham, 1886, which occurs from southern California and Arizona to southern Mexico (Mellié 1849, Lawrence 1971, Gorham 1883, 1886,). These four species share an elongate body with single and uniform elytral punctation, dorsal vestiture of short to long bristles, slightly tumid prosternum, and males with a very small sex patch on the first abdominal ventrite or none at all (Lawrence 1971; pers. obs.). These species are morphologically closely related to species in the vitulus-group, which are similar but usually have a comparatively less elongate body (Lawrence 1971; pers. obs.).
The aim of this paper is to redescribe C. pallidus, propose a new synonym, and provide new host fungi and geographic distribution records.
Materials and methods
The examined specimens are listed in the section on “type material” and “additional material” below. A total of 12 males from eight localities were dissected, as follows (number of specimens between parentheses): Buenos Aires (1; lectotype of Cis semipallidus) and Famaillá (1), in Argentina; Rio de Janeiro (1), São João del-Rei (1), Viçosa (5), Palotina (1), Nova Teutônia (1) and Urubici (1), in Brazil. Abdominal ventrites shown in Fig. 29 and genitalia in Figs 34–35 were extracted from the same male. Genitalia shown in Figs 30–31 were extracted from the male shown in Fig. 16; the same applies for Figs 43–44 and Fig. 20.
Museum abbreviations are as follows:
ANIC Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO Entomology (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia)
CELC Coleção Entomológica do Laboratório de Sistemática e Biologia de Coleoptera da Universidade Federal de Viçosa (Viçosa, MG, Brazil)
DZUP Coleção Entomológica Pe. Jesus Santiago Moure, Universidade Federal do Paraná (Curitiba, PR, Brazil)
FMNH Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
MACN Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
MCNZ Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil)
MNHN Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France)
MNRJ Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil)
Terms for external morphology and male terminalia of ciids follow Lopes-Andrade and Lawrence (2005, 2011), Lawrence et al. (2011), and Lawrence (2016), but see also Oliveira et al. (2013) for an explanation on the use of “tegmen”. The following abbreviations are used for measurements (in mm) and ratios:
BW (basal width of scutellar shield),
CL (length of antennal club measured from base of the eighth to apex of the tenth antennomere),
EL (elytral length along the midline),
EW (greatest width of both elytra),
FL (length of antennal funicle measured from base of the third to apex of the seventh antennomere),
GD (greatest depth of body measured in lateral view),
GW (greatest diameter of eye),
PL (pronotal length along midline),
PW (greatest pronotal width),
SL (length of scutellar shield),
TL (total length counted as EL+PL, i.e. excluding head).
The GD/EW and TL/EW ratios indicate the degree of body convexity and elongation, respectively.
A total of 21 males and 20 females were measured, with representative specimens from all examined localities. Measurements of antennomeres, GW, and BW provided in the description are the mean measurements of three males from three localities (Viçosa, Atílio Vivacqua, and Nova Teutônia); in these cases, standard deviations are not provided because they were 0.01 or less.
For scanning electron microscopy (SEM), specimens were dehydrated in a series of alcohol and acetone solutions, critical point dried (CPD 020, Balzers, Liechtenstein), mounted on aluminum stubs and sputter coated with gold (sputter module SCA 010, Balzers). Samples were then examined under a SEM (LEO VP 1430, Zeiss). Transcription of labels, dissection, photography under optical equipment, and measurement of specimens followed the methods provided by Araujo and Lopes-Andrade (2016). Names of host fungi extracted from labels were updated consulting the online database of Index Fungorum (http://www.indexfungorum.org) and are summarized in the section “Host fungi”. The criteria provided in Orledge and Reynolds (2005) are followed for determining breeding records. The distribution map (Fig. 45) was generated using the on-line SimpleMappr tool (Shorthouse 2010).