Revision of Eupyrochroa Blair, 1914 (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae) based on morphological comparison and molecular phylogenetics.

Eupyrochroa Blair, 1914 is a small genus of fire-colored beetles (Coleoptera: Pyrochroidae) with two putative species recorded from limited historical distributions in China. The two species, E. insignita (Fairmaire, 1894) and E. limbaticollis (Pic, 1909), have been distinguished on the basis of color differences in the pronotum and scutellum, characters now known to exhibit significant variability. In the present study, adult morphology of the two species was compared, and partial fragments of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) from 36 samples representing 14 pyrochroid species were obtained by extraction and a GenBank search. Nucleotide composition, genetic distance, and phylogeny were analyzed. The results of morphological and molecular analyses indicate consistency, suggesting that the two species are indistinguishable by any significant measure. Therefore, Eupyrochroa limbaticollis (Pic, 1909) is proposed as a junior synonym of E. insignita (Fairmaire, 1894). The species is also redescribed and illustrated, including both adults and larvae.

Multilocus phylogeny and species delimitation suggest synonymies of two Lucanus Scopoli, 1763 (Coleoptera, Lucanidae) species names.

Phylogenetic relationsships of four nominal Lucanus Scopoli, 1763 species, L.swinhoei Parry, 1874, L.continentalis Zilioli, 1998, L.liuyei Huang & Chen, 2010, and L.wuyishanensis Schenk, 1999, are assessed based on mitochondrial (16S rDNA, COI) and nuclear (28S rDNA, Wingless) genes. The genetic distance is 0.0072 between L.swinhoei and L.continentalis, and 0.0094 between L.wuyishanensis and L.liuyei. Three species-delimitation approaches (ABGD, PTP, and GMYC) consistently showed L.swinhoei + L.continentalis and L.wuyishanensis + L.liuyei as two MOTUs. A new synonymy, L.liuyei = L.wuyishanensis, is proposed. Synonymy of L.swinhoei over L.continentalis is confirmed.

New color patterns and new synonym of Odontolabis sinensis (Westwood, 1848) (Coleoptera: Lucanidae): insights from a multilocus phylogeny and species delimitation.

Taxonomy of Odontolabis sinensis (Westwood, 1848) and Odontolabis fallaciosa Boileau, 1901 has long been a controversial issue due to their highly morphological similarity except for elytral color patterns. In the present work, we assessed their taxonomic status by combining molecular phylogeny and species delimitation based on multilocus datasets (COI, 16S rDNA, Cytb, CAD, Wingless). Phylogenetic analyses under both Maximum Likelihood inference and Bayesian inference recovered identical topologies. All the examined individuals in the clade of O. sinensis and O. fallaciosa formed into five subclades belonging to four color patterns, respectively. The Kimura-2-Parameter (K2P) genetic distance analysis yielded a low mean value (0.0108-0.0295). The multiple species delimitations (ABGD, PTP and GMYC) reinforced them to be one MOTU. Our results suggest that these clades belong to the same species, and thus we propose O. fallaciosa to be a junior subjective synonym of O. sinensis. We also found two new color patterns corresponding to two clades from Southwestern China (north of 20°N and east of 105°E), respectively displaying the reddish-orange, slenderly rimmed patch and brownish-orange broad patches along the elytral edge, which was probably attributable to both historical and ecological factors in this particular region.