Birandra (Yvesandra) cubaecola Inner

(Figs. 7-14)

Parandra cubaecola Chevrolat, 1862: 275; Thomson, 1862: 96; 1867: 117; Lacordaire, 1868: 23; Gemminger & Harold, 1872: 2751 (cat.); Gundlach, 1891: 243; Gahan, 1895: 80 (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico); Lameere, 1902: 89 (synonymy); 1912: 115 (revalidation); Blackwelder, 1946: 551 (cat.) (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico); Chemsak et al., 1992: 13 (checklist); Santos-Silva, 2002: 33; Peck, 2005: 164 (checklist; part) (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico); Cardona-Duque et al., 2007: 43.

Parandra (Parandra) cubaecola; Lameere, 1913: 6 (cat.); 1919: 17; Monné & Giesbert, 1994: 1 (checklist) (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico); Monné, 1994: 2 (cat.) (Excluding the citation of Puerto Rico); Monné & Hovore, 2005: 6 (checklist) (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico); 2006: 5 (checklist) (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico); Monné, 2006: 16 (cat.) (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico).

Birandra (Yvesandra) cubaecola; Santos-Silva & Shute, 2009: 32 (comb. nov.); Monné & Bezark, 2010: 5 (excluding the citation of Puerto Rico).

Male (Fig. 7): Integument reddish; head darker than remainder of dorsum, particularly anterior margin, mandibles, and post ocular area; anterior margin of pronotum, and elytral suture also darker.

Dorsal surface of head coarsely punctate. Mandibles (Figs. 8, 10) shorter than length of head, robust, densely punctate; inner margin with two large teeth; apex trifurcate: two large teeth in dorsal view, and small tooth ventro-apical (not visible when viewed dorsally). Projection of clypeus-labrum short, centrally rounded, with small projection at each side, twice wider than long. Eyes large, protruding, very slightly emarginated; longer than median width, when viewed laterally; lower ocular lobe broader than upper ocular lobe. Submentum coarsely punctate, denser antero-laterally than medially, anteriorly with some setae. Ventral sensorial area of antennomeres III-XI (Figs. 12, 14) divided by complete, elevated and thick carina, slightly visible from side (Fig. 11), mainly in the distal segments. Dorso-apical sensorial area of antennomere XI rounded, well defined.

Pronotum (Fig. 8) square-shaped; largest width at anterior angles; anterior angles rounded and concave; anterior, posterior and lateral margins sinuate; disc finely, sparsely punctate; laterally, distinctly, coarsely, and more densely punctate. Elytra (Fig. 7) elongated; surface finely punctate, more or less as on pronotal disc. Metasternum coarsely, somewhat sparsely punctate laterally, more abundant towards anterior and posterior regions, finer towards central area; metepisternum coarsely punctate.

Ventrites I-IV with few, short setae. Femora with minute and indistinct setae. Tibiae strongly dilated towards apex, with setae longer than in femora.

Female (Fig. 9): Integument dark-brown. Head less robust; width plus eyes equal to 0.8 times largest width of prothorax. Eyes broader than in male; distance between upper ocular lobes equal to about 7.3 times the length of antennomere III. Mandibles as long as 0.5 times length of head; dorsal carina slightly elevated; outer surface moderately, densely and coarsely punctate; inner surface with moderately long and abundant setae; inner margin with two teeth, together protracted, located about the middle. Clypeal projection wide and truncated at apex. Anterior angles of prothorax projected forward, moderately acute; lateral angles absent; posterior angles almost in right angle. Pronotum coarsely, densely punctate laterally, mainly towards anterior angles, finer and sparser towards center of disc. Elytra coarsely, moderately densely punctate, mainly laterally. Metasternum coarsely, moderately densely punctate laterally.

Variation: Males – Integument dark-brown; dorso-apical sensorial area of the antennomere XI elliptic and undefined; projection of the clypeus-labrum truncated at apex; prothorax laterally enlarged at anterior fourth.

Dimensions in mm ( ♂ / ♀ ): Body length (including mandibles) 16.2/16.0; prothorax: length 3.4/3.3; anterior width, 4.2/4.2; posterior width, 3.4/4.1; humeral width, 4.2/4.5; elytral length, 9.2/9.7. Holotype, according to Chevrolat (1862): “Long. 15 mill., lat. 4 1/2 mill.”

Type and type locality: Holotype male (Fig. 13), described from Cuba (La Habana), deposited at BMNH.

Geographical distribution: Birandra (Yvesandra) cubaecola is known only from Cuba.

Comments: It is not possible to know if the redescription of Parandra cubaecola in Gundlach (1891) corresponds to this species or not. Nevertheless, the description of the mandible (“las mandíbulas de longitud como la cabeza y negras, por dentro con 4 dientes”) agrees more with B. (Y.) cubaecola than with B. (Y.) latreillei (female or small male).

Peck (2005) wrote: “ Cuba localities. Gr: Guamá. Ho: Sierra Cristal. In trunks of pine trees”. That information is from Zayas (1957). Thus, the species actually involved is B. (Y.) latreillei. However, as the work is a checklist, we need to maintain it as reference to B. (Y.) cubaecola.

Photographs of the holotype, sent by Sharon Shute (BMNH), allowed us to correctly identify Birandra (Yvesandra) cubaecola. Apparently, the species is quite rare; among the specimens from Cuba we only saw two males and one female, and those specimens were collected more than 80 years ago.

The following references should be transferred from Birandra (Yvesandra) cubaecola to B. (Y.) tavakiliani (Santos-Silva, 2002): Gundlach (1894); Leng & Mutchler (1914); Wolcott (1924, 1936, 1948). Thus, we are formally excluding B. (Y.) cubaecola from the fauna of Puerto Rico.

Material examined: CUBA, La Habana: Santiago de las Vegas, ♂, VI.1925, J. Acuña col. (BSC-E). Camagüey: Camagüey, ♀, VIII.1924, J. Acuña (MNRJ); Camagüey, ♂, 31.VII.1925, J. Acuña col. (CZACC).