Lucanus liuyei HUANG & CHEN, 2010 ssp. incert
= Lucanus wuyishanensis (Auctorum, non Schenk): Fujita, 2010: plate 46, fig. 281-1, ♂, Guangxi.
Eight males and two females of this species were collected by our friends, Mr. Zhong Peng and Dr. Liang Tang from Huaping Nature Reserve of Guangxi province in July 2011. The males have the pubescence on dorsal and ventral surfaces much sparser and shorter than in the typical specimens of L. liuyei from Chongqing and Guizhou; they look more like the males of L. wuyishanensis from the area around borders between Jiangxi, Zheyiang and Fujian. The female has pubescence on dorsal surface of the entire body sparser and shorter than in L. liuyei, otherwise as L. liuyei. However, an examination of male and female genitalia proved these specimens to be conspecific with L. liuyei. We do not name it as new subspecies because the distributional range of this geographical variation is still unknown; it is possible that L. liuyei varies gradually from Guizhou to Guangxi. This unnamed population of L. liuyei can be distinguished from L. wuyishanensis in males by having the slightly denser and longer pubescence on dorsal surface of the entire body, in medium and small-sized males by having larger size in corresponding forms, and in full-sized males by having a narrower anterior margin of head.
REFERENCE:
HUANG HAO & CHEN CHANG CHIN, 2013. Stag Beetles of China II. Taiwan.
(text: pages 4-5; all rights reserved to the authors)
(photos: © Frank Fiedler)
