Revision of Palaearctic and Oriental Necrophila Kirby & Spence, part 2: Subgenus Chrysosilpha Portevin (Coleoptera: Silphidae)

Abstract

A taxonomic revision of the subgenus Chrysosilpha Portevin, 1921 (of the genus Necrophila Kirby & Spence, 1828) is presented. Three valid species are recognized: (1) N. (C.) formosa (Laporte, 1832), comb. nov. (ex Silpha Linnaeus, 1758), widely distributed from Laos and Vietnam through the Malay Peninsula, to Sumatra and Bali, with Silpha chloroptera Laporte, 1840 and Chrysosilpha chloroptera var. magnifica Portevin, 1921 as newly established junior subjective synonyms; (2) N. (C.) renatae (Portevin, 1920), comb. nov. (ex Silpha), endemic to Sulawesi; and (3) N. (C.) viridis (Motschulsky, 1861), comb. nov. (ex Oiceoptoma Leach, 1815), endemic to the Philippines. Lectotypes are designated for Silpha formosa Laporte, 1832; Silpha chloroptera Laporte, 1840 and Chrysosilpha chloroptera var. magnifica Portevin, 1921. Georeferenced records for all three species are mapped. Parsimony analysis supports the monophyly of Chrysosilpha, with N. (C.) formosa as the sister to a clade of N. (C.) renatae and N. (C.) viridis. Geometrical morphometrics (thin-plate spline) discriminated the three species of Chrysosilpha; the first two relative warp axes indicated 70.31% shape variation in males and 77.18% in females, which was further confirmed by MANOVA to be highly significant. Canonical variate analysis indicated no overlap between the three taxa and enabled a 100% correct classification of each specimen to its group mean. Copyright © 2012 Magnolia Press.