Description of the female of Strongylaspis granigera Bates , 1884 ( Coleoptera , Cerambycidae , Prioninae )

The female of Strongylaspis granigera Bates, 1884 is described for the first time including photographs of the three specimens collected in the Reserva Biológica Alberto Manuel Brenes, San Ramón, Costa Rica. A key based on morphological features is proposed for the known females of this genus. Additional key words: Cerambycidae, Costa Rica, Prioninae, Reserva BiológicaAlberto Manuel Brenes, Strongylaspis, Taxonomy.

We took advantage of the opportunity to make the correction of the species-group names, to agree in gender with the generic name (see key)."Aspis" (ασπις) is a substantive singular of the feminine gender that means shield.Lameere (op.cit.) made the necessary corrections, assigning feminine termination for the species-group names, but subsequently, nearly all authors continued to use masculine termination for some species.As result, there are names with masculine and feminine grammatical gender in Strongylaspis (see, for example, Monné, 2006).
The objectives of this work were: 1) to describe, for the first time, the female of Strongylaspis granigera Bates 1884, by studying the morphology of three specimens, taking into account that up to now this species was only known by the male holotype, and 2) to elaborate a key to distinguish the females of the different species of the genus Strongylaspis, that can allow their correct identification.

Material and methods
Recently, three females of S. granigera were collected in Costa Rica (Reserva Biológica Alberto Manuel Brenes), what allowed to complete the description and to enlarge the geographical distribution of the species.According to Toledo and Esteban Durán (2008), the Reserva Biológica Alberto Manuel Brenes is a wild protected area created on 1 June 1975, as the San Ramón Forest Reserve.The reserve is administrated by the UCR and MINAE (Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía) of Costa Rica.The reserve covers 7,800 ha, and 90% of it corresponds to the San Lorencito River Basin.The area is limited to the North by Arenal-Monteverde and the Cloud Forest Reserve; to the East and South with primary and secondary forest, and to the West with the forest of Cedral in the locality of Miramar (Salazar Rodriguez, 2006).
The specimens were attracted to the station lights with two kinds of lamps: one was mercury vapour (400 watts) at 4 m high, and there were two further mercury vapour (125 watts) lamps placed against a vertical white sheet.
Female (Figures 1, 2, 3).Integument dark-brown; apical one-third and inner and outer margin of the mandible, edge of the pronotum, of the elytra, and parts of the legs blackish.
Dorsal surface of the head rugose-punctate, with the background microsculptured; coronal suture well marked, surpassing clearly the posterior edge of the eyes; pilosity moderately long and scattered.Labrum excavated longitudinally in the central region; pilosity long and abundant, shorter and more conspicuous in the apical margin.Eyes large; distance between the upper lobes from 0.6 to 0.7 times the length of the scape; distance between the inferior lobes equal to approximately the length of the scape.Length of the mandibles from 0.65 to 0.75 times the length of the scape; dorsal and latero-outer surface rugose-punctate, with long and abundant hairs; inner margin and apex smooth and glabrous; apex bifid; inner margin with a large and rounded tooth near the inner apical tooth; outer margin clearly narrowed after the middle, close to the beginning of the api- rowed.Metasternum and metepisterna with pilosity moderately long and very abundant.Ventral surface of femurs with punctures barely coarse and scattered.Tibiae coarse, abundant, anastomosed and shallow punctate.

Material examined
COSTA RICA, Alajuela: Reserva Biológica Alberto Manuel Brenes (840 m), Fig. 3, Ǩ Pronotum with two prominent and shining callosities; disc rugose-punctate; lateral with shining and very clear granules; all surface microsculptured; lateral margins clearly crenulated; anterior angles prominent and slightly bifurcated; lateral angles with large spine pointed upward and back, placed near the posterior angles; posterior angles rounded; pilosity short and decumbent at central area and close to the posterior angles (sometimes very scattered in the last one), and long and scattered hairs at lateral.Scutellum not notably tumid; granules small and abundant.Elytral surface microsculptured, with small and abundant granules throughout, mainly in the circum-scutellar region; sutural apex with small spine.Proepisterna not notably nar-

Discussion
To facilitate the recognition of the females of Strongylaspis granigera, we recorded the main differences in comparison with the females of other species that share the same or close geographical distribution.
The females of Strongylaspis granigera differ from the females of S. corticaria (Erichson, 1848) (described from Guiana and recorded from the United States to Guiana): antennae shorter, just surpassing the middle of the elytra; pronotum more strongly sculptured; scutellum less elevated (in lateral view, barely higher than the elytra); elytra with small and abundant granules throughout.In the females of S. corticaria the antennae is longer, reaching or almost reaching the posterior onethird of the elytra, the pronotum is clearly less sculptured, the scutellum is clearly elevated (in lateral view, evidently higher than the elytra), and the elytra, at most, have granules at basal one-third.From the females of S. championi Bates, 1884 (described form Guatemala and recorded also to Mexico and Costa Rica) differ, mainly, by the pronotal surface glabrous.In the females of S. championi the pronotum has long and abundant hairs, mainly at lateral.From the females of S. bullata Bates, 1872 (described from Nicaragua and recorded also to Mexico) by the granules of the scutellum that are small and abundant, and by the sculpture of the elytra.In the females of S. bullata the granules of the scutellum are somewhat large and not notably abundant, and the elytra have granules only at basal one-third.Finally, differ from the females of S. dohrni Lameere, 1903 (described from Mexico, and known only by the holotype) by the proepisterna not notably narrowed, by the pronotum glabrous, and by the elytra with sutural spine.In the female of S. dohrni the proepisterna are notably narrowed, the pronotum is pilose, and the elytra are unarmed at sutural angle.
As seen above, Bates (1884) described Strongylaspis granigera from Panama without detailed locality.The specimen originally belonged to Boucard's Collection.Boucard (1894) wrote an account of this extensive travels through the United States, Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Chile and other countries.However, we did not find any reference to his presence in Panama.Besides, Boucard (op.cit.: 158) wrote: "I also made acquaintance of many dealers in objects of natural history, Bell, Wallace, and several others in New York, Akhurst, in Brooklyn, Alexander in Hoboken; and I made some valuable purchases in birds skins and insects in their stores.I secured some rare species of birds from Ecuador and British Guiana; also some very rare Coleoptera from Columbia".Like this, it is possible that Boucard was not the collector of the holotype of Strongylaspis granigera.
According to this, we propose in the Annex a key for the taxonomy of the females of Strongylaspis.