Trachelophora sarasini Breuning 1961

Trachelophora sarasini Breuning, 1961 Fig. 5 A – E Trachelophora sarasini Breuning, 1961 a: 120 (original description, type locality: Tomohon, North Sulawesi). Type material examined. Holotype: ♂ (NMB), Drs. Sarasin, N. Celebes, Tomohon (printed with black ink on a rectangular white label) / Trachelophora sarasini mihi typ Breuning det. (handwritten and printed with black ink on a rectangular white label) / Mulciber pullatus Pasc. Determ K. M. Heller (handwritten and printed with black ink on a rectangular white label) / TYPUS (printed with black ink on a rectangular red label) (Fig. 5 A – E). Diagnosis. (holotype, based on quality photographs, and modified from the original description) Male distinguished from all congeners by its medium-sized body, length 18.0 mm, width 5.5 mm, pale reddish-brown to dark reddish-brown integument densely clothed with fine, recumbent, yellowish-brown pubescence, with diffuse ochraceous markings restricted to the pronotum and elytra, producing a characteristic mottled dorsal appearance. Eyes almost completely divided; antennal tubercles weakly developed, scarcely prominent. Head with a broad, shallow median groove on the frons narrowing toward the vertex and not reaching the clypeal margin; punctation sparse on the head, legs, and ventral surface, but coarse and dense on the elytra, where the punctures are arranged in regular longitudinal rows. Pronotum distinctly transverse, bearing a pair of strong, acute conical lateral spines; disc impunctate, strongly transversely rugose. Elytra elongate; apices individually rounded to very slightly emarginate. Remarks. Based on the label data (Fig. 5 E), Heller identified the specimen collected from Sulawesi and deposited in the NMB, as Mulciber pullatus Pascoe, 1864. The same specimen was subsequently described as Trachelophora sarasini by Breuning (1961 a). The specimen was re-evaluated by the present authors based on the available photographs from the NMB and through comparison with the original description of M. pullatus by Pascoe (1864), as well as with published images of M. pullatus in Ślipiński and Escalona (2013: 414, fig. J). The characters of M. pullatus as described by Pascoe (1864) and illustrated by Ślipiński and Escalona (2013) do not fully correspond with those observed in the NMB specimen, particularly the structure of the elytral apex. Furthermore, M. pullatus was originally described from Batjan (North Moluccas), and its confirmed distribution appears to be restricted to that area. Given the clear geographic and biogeographical separation between Batjan and Sulawesi, the assignment of the Sulawesi specimen to M. pullatus cannot be convincingly supported. Accordingly, T. sarasini is here treated as a valid species, and the presence of M. pullatus in Sulawesi is considered unsupported by the currently available evidence. Distribution. Tomohon, North Celebes, Indonesia (Breuning 1961 a).