Description.
Male. Holotype (NHML) body length 5.1 mm, width 2.0 mm, other specimens (four female paratypes) 4.8-5.0 mm in length. Body reddish brown, essentially as in Dryocoetes autographus Ratz. All five studied specimens appear to be mature, not teneral.
Frons is rather densely but not coarsely, uniformly punctured, with an enlarged puncture in center forming a small fovea. Frontal surface shining, without reticulation. Vertex more sparsely punctured and with smaller punctures. A median longitudinal black line (sulcus) on vertex probably indicates internal strengthening of the head. Frons with rather long, fairly sparse, yellowish hair-like setae, not forming tufts typical of females of Dryocoetes species. Hair-like setae significantly longer at lateral sides of pubescent frontal area. Epistoma with long dense yellowish setae directed downwards. Eyes rather large, emarginate anteriorly. Antennae typical for genus: funiculus 5-segmented and club obliquely truncate with recurved sutures on anterior face, and one suture near apex on posterior face.
Pronotum slightly longer than wide (1.9 vs. 1.8 mm); sides subparallel in basal three fourth and apex simply rounded, without teeth on anterior margin. Pronotal surface generally granulate, more coarsely anteriorly, punctured area very small and restricted to central portion of pronotal base around impunctate median line extending approximately one fifth of pronotal length only. Pronotal surface between granules shining, without any reticulation. Sides and anterior margin of pronotum with long, curved, yellow hair-like setae.
Scutellum large, flat, flush with elytral surface, of same reddish color as elytra.
Elytra slightly wider (2.0 vs. 1.9 mm) than pronotum, nearly cylindrical, only slightly widened towards apex, 3.2 mm long. Elytra extremely coarsely punctured on the disk, especially on striae 1-3 (Fig. 1). Juxtasutural stria not impressed both on disk and on declivity, its punctures nearly as deep and as large as punctures of second stria. Interstriae in central part of disk narrow, 1.5-2.0 times narrower than striae, rather convex and shining, with minute punctures nearly 5 times smaller in diameter than strial punctures, in one irregular row on each interstria; minute tubercles present on interstriae on disk, but not on declivity.
Declivity slightly flattened, convex, not steep, dull. Ventrolateral sides of declivity not armed and lacking minute tubercles on declivital surface. First and second interstriae are widened at declivity. Strial punctures of first and second interstriae on declivity larger than punctures of other striae, but more than two times smaller than on disk. First and second striae slightly divergent towards elytral apex. Suture appearing only slightly convex on declivity because juxtasutural striae are not deepened. Elytra with rather long yellow interstrial hair-like setae, longer laterally and on the declivity; strial hair-like setae recumbent and approximately 5 times shorter that interstrial setae.
Legs typical for the genus, protibia with 5 socketed teeth on outer surface, meso- and metatibiae each with 5 spines on outer margin.
Underside of body reddish brown, abdomen covered with rather long setae on posterior margin of ventrites.
Female. Similar to male, but the frons with a dense tuft of long yellow hair-like setae.
Etymology.
The new species is dedicated to the eminent British coleopterologist F.G. Browne, who first labeled the holotype as a possible new species.
Type material.
Holotype (male) is deposited in NHML. Labels of the holotype are as follows: Kashmir: Gulmarg. vi - 1931. Dr. M.Cameron. B.M. 931-452.// Dryocoetes sp.n. det. F.G.B. 1967 (in black ink, in F.G. Browne’s handwriting)// Possibly one of Beeson’s undescr. spp. - deobanos himalahinorum [sic!] (in black ink, in F.G. Browne’s handwriting). Paratypes (4 females) (including female allotype): Afghan[istan], Nurestan N.Waygal 2500 m., 10.VII.1972 , Kabakov [leg.], 1 spec. in Zoological Institute, St.Petersburg (ZISP) and 3 spec. in A.V. Petrov private collection.
Diagnosis and comparison with other Indian Dryocoetes species.
A new bark-beetle is described from Northern India that differs from all other Indian species of the genus Dryocoetes by the exceptionally large punctures of the elytral discal striae and by the large size of the body.
In India, four species of genus Dryocoetes were previously reported to occur, namely Dryocoetes hewetti Stebbing, 1908, Dryocoetes himalayensis Strohmeyer, 1908, Dryocoetes quadrisulcatus Strohmeyer, 1908 and Dryocoetes indicus Stebbing, 1914. We were able to study all these four species in the Zoological Museum of Moscow University (ZMMU). The first of them has a spatulate antennal club, and extremely long declivital pubescence, and was correctly transferred to the genus Taphrorychus (Wood and Bright, 1992). Dryocoetes himalayensis and Dryocoetes quadrisulcatus differ from both Dryocoetes indicus and Dryocoetes brownei by the much smaller body size and by the strongly deepened first striae on the disk and the declivity. Although this feature is more evident in males of these species, it is also developed in the females. Dryocoetes indicus is also smaller in size (4.0 mm vs 5.1 mm) than Dryocoetes brownei , has equally punctured striae and interstriae on the disk, and minute but evident tubercles on the declivity.
