Tripanda (Tripanda) jurickorum sp. nov.

(Figs. 3, 11, 22, 36–37, 64–65, 84, 87, 94, 109, 119, 126–127, 146)

Tripanda signitenens auct.: Villiers (1952): 1209. Distribution (partim) [accepted].

Type locality. Guinea, Mt. Nimba, Ziéla.

Type material. HOLOTYPE (Fig. 119): ɗ, ‘ COLL. MUS. TERVUREN / Guinée: Mt. Nimba [p] 28/3/ [19]57 [hw] / (Lamotte-Roy) [p] Ziela U. V. [hw] / Coll. H. Schouteden [p, white label] // ZIELA - U.V. [p] // 28 mars [hw, white label] // Tripanda signitenens [hw, white label] // ɗ[p, white label] // HOLOTYPUS / TRI- PANDA / JURICKORUM / sp. nov. / det. P. Kment & Z. Jindra 2008 [p, red card]’ (MRAC). Holotype, and its detached pygophore, glued on the same piece of card; left antennomere 5 missing, left hemelytron slightly outspread.

PARATYPE: Ψ, ‘ COLL. MUS. TERVUREN / Guinée: Mt. Nimba [p] 1/3/[19]57 [hw] / (Lamotte-Roy) [p] Ziela [hw] / Coll. H. Schouteden [p, white label] // ZIELA - U.V [p] // 1/3/57 [hw, white label] // Ψ[p, white label] // PARATYPUS / TRIPANDA / JURICKORUM / sp. nov. / det. P. Kment & Z. Jindra 2008 [p, red card]’ (MRAC).

Description. Colouration (Fig. 119). Body dorsally brown with slight orange tinge (especially on head and around pronotal callosities), ventral surface and appendages pale yellowish brown; anterior part of pronotal disc and head darker; apical halves of antennomeres 4–5 slightly darkened; eyes dark, sometimes with silver luster; base of clypeus laterally with narrow black lines; two median callosities on pronotum ivory; lateral margins of anterior portion of metapleura darkened; membrane translucent with irregular brownish spots on veins; abdominal spiracles, very small spots on posterolateral corners of connexival segments, and apical halves of claws black.

Structure. Head (Fig. 3) medially about as long as wide across eyes; paraclypei slightly insinuated in front of eyes, parallel in median third, then slightly parabolically rounded medially; clypeus and paraclypei not depressed before apex. Dorsal surface of head densely covered with coarse concolorous to dark brown punctures. Antenniferes well visible from above. Antennomere 1 slightly stouter than antennomere 5 at its widest diameter. Ventral surface of head covered with concolorous to dark brown punctures.

Pronotum (Figs. 11, 119) medially very slightly longer than head; anterior angles slightly pointed; lateral margins rounded, not carinate, shallowly concave before humeral angles; humeral angles triangularly produced laterally an slightly anteriorly, not spinous; lateral margins behind humeral angles convex, nearly gradually narrowing posteriorly, only slightly insinuated before base of scutellum; posterior pronotal margin straight. Disc of pronotum bearing a pair of impunctate cicatrices and medially behind them a pair of large, impunctate, elongated, horizontally oriented, slightly elevated callosities (Fig. 22). Surface of pronotum covered with coarse brown to black punctures, more dense in its anterior part and on humeral angles; spaces among punctures convex, in posterior part forming distinct and largely confluent callosities, impunctate longitudinal median line hardly apparent, merged with surrounding callosities.

Scutellum triangular, about as long as wide at base, slightly insinuated before apex; apex narrowly rounded. Surface covered with coarse, concolorous to brown punctures; spaces among punctures more or less convex, forming fine horizontal wrinkles, lacking elevated callosities.

Hemelytra. Clavi narrow, anteriorly with 4 rows of punctures. Surface covered with irregular coarse, brown to black punctures.

Thorax ventrally (except of evaporatoria) covered with large concolorous to dark punctures. Evaporatorium smooth, without apparent gyrification.

Abdomen distinctly narrower than pronotum. Connexivum wide, posterolateral angles of segments rectangular, hardly protruding from the connexival outline; dorsal surface covered with dense, brown punctures. Abdominal venter convex, covered with sparse, shallow, concolorous punctures.

Male genitalia. Pygophore (Figs. 36–37, 126–127) trapezoidal in ventral view (Fig. 36); posterolateral angles in lateral view less wide, apically regularly rounded (Fig. 37). Dorsal sclerites large, their dorsal margin nearly straight, apex narrowly rounded, only slightly turned upwards (Figs. 64–65), in situ slightly shorter than paramere blade (Figs. 126–127). Parameres large, trifid; blade rather narrow, dorsal margin of blade deeply concave, apex broadly rounded and turned upwards (Figs. 84, 87), with large, half-crescent dorsal projection, and large and long, upward-directed lateral projection. Phallus larger (Fig. 94).

Female genitalia. In the only female available, apical receptacle of spermatheca (Fig. 109) with one long recurved process slightly surpassing proximal flange of intermediate part, having a very small finger-like additional process subbasally, one short recurved process reaching about to proximal margin of flexible zone, and one very short, finger-like process.

Measurements (see Table 1; mm). Body length 9.2 (male holotype) / 9.7 (female paratype).

Variation. The female paratype differs from the holotype male in several details: Body brownish, without orange tinge; punctation of dorsal surface darker; head apically more distinctly parabolic; humeral angles triangular, projected only laterally, not anteriorly; median callose line on posterior part of pronotal disc more distinct; lateral margin of anterior part of metapleura not distinctly darkened; legs (especially forelegs) and abdominal venter with reddish punctures; joining of dark punctures on corial surface into dark lines slightly indicated.

Differential diagnosis. Tripanda jurickorum sp. nov. is habitually very similar to T. horacekorum sp. nov. and T. signitenens . From T. horacekorum sp. nov. it differs markedly by different structure of the male genitalia and humeral angles of pronotum more pointed (Figs. 11, 119). From T. signitenens it differs especially by the following male genitalic characters: Posterolateral angles of pygophore in lateral view less wide, their apex regularly rounded (Fig. 37); dorsal sclerites smaller, their dorsal margins nearly straight, apices narrowly rounded, only slightly turned upwards (Figs. 64–65); dorsal sclerites in situ slightly shorter than the paramere blade (Figs. 126–127); structure of paramere (Figs. 84, 87); and slightly larger phallus (Fig. 94). Apical receptacle of spermatheca as in Fig. 109. In addition, median pronotal callosities of T. jurickorum sp. nov are larger, broadly oval (Figs. 22, 119), and spaces among punctures on scutellum form fine horizontal wrinkles, without small elevated callosities.

Etymology. Patronym, dedicated to my [P. Kment] dear friends Lucie Juřičková (Charles University, Prague), an outstanding Czech malacologist, her husband Tomáš Juřička, and their entire family (Žofka, Bĕtka, Justýnka, Kuba), as my thanks for various help in need.

Bionomics. The abbreviations ‘U. V.’ on the locality label may indicate an UV trap. Adults were collected in March, syntopically with T. longiceps . The type locality of T. jurickorum sp. nov. lies within the limits of the tropical rain forest biome.

Distribution (Fig. 146). Known only from the type locality in Guinea. Villiers (1952) mentioned T. signitenens to occur in Guinea without exact locality; that record may probably belong to this species as well.

Note. We examined also one female from Gabon (Komo, Contreforts des Mts. de Cristal [= foothills of Cristal Mts.], 400 m a.s.l., 1.-15.x.1969, A. Villiers lgt. (MNHN); body length 10.2 mm), which is most similar to T. jurickorum sp. nov., especially in the shape of the pronotum (Fig. 12), and development of small callosities on pronotal surface and their lack on scutellum. This female has the apical receptacle of spermatheca (Fig. 115) with one medially long recurved process not reaching the proximal flange of intermediate part, and two short, recurved processes not surpassing distal flange of intermediate part. Lacking any corresponding male from Gabon, we do not assign this female to T. jurickorum sp. nov. or another species.