taxonID	type	description	language	source
03A3DB28FFBDCF7CFF047ADB51A6FE54.taxon	materials_examined	Holotype: J (TSMA): // Waterberg / Dist. 1898 - 99 / v. Jutrzencka // Holotypus / Cryptocephalus waterbergi / des. M. Schöller [red] /. Paratypes: 1 ♀ (TSMA): // Waterberg / Dist. 1898 - 99 / v. Jutrzencka //; 1 ♀ (TSMA): // S. Afr.: Waterberg / Geelhoutbush farm // 3.10.1995: E-Y 3141 / beating / Endrödy & Bellamy //; 1 ♀ (SANC): // SAARTJIESNEK / SE 25 27 Db / 7 - 11. XI 1983 / CL Bellamy [black plastic label with transparent font] // NATIONAL COLL. / OF INSECTS / Pretoria, South Africa / Ex UPSA, May 2002 //; 1 J (SANC): // SOUTH AFRICA, TVL / Roodeplaat dam, nr / Pretoria 24.41 S / 28.18 E 7. X. 1986 / J. S. Donaldson // NATIONAL COLL. / OF INSECTS / Pretoria, S. Afr //; 1 ♀ (SANC): // SOUTH AFRICA, TVL / Lapalala Nat. Res. / 23.51 S / 28.17 E / 15 - 16. xi. 1986 / R. Oberprieler // NATIONAL COLL. / OF INSECTS / Pretoria, S. Afr //; 1 ♀ (SANC): // SOUTH AFRICA, OFS / Glen nr Bloemfontein / 28.59 S / 26.19 E / 11. xii. 1984 / R. Oberprieler // NATIONAL COLL. / OF INSECTS / Pretoria, S. Afr // 1 ♀ (ZSM): // S. Afr., E. Transvaal / Barberton, 17 km NNW / 25.36 S - 29.53 E // 10.11.1980; E-Y: 1727 / flowering Acacia / leg. Endrödy-Younga // Cryptocephalus / waterbergi / Lindemann / det. C. Lindemann 1972 // Zool. Staatsslg. / München [blue] //; all paratypes with my label // Paratypus / Cryptocephalus waterbergi / des. M. Schöller [red] //. D e s c r i p t i o n: Body truncate, elongate (about 1.7 times as long as wide). Body yellowish brown with reddish and blackish brown patterns. Pronotum predominantely reddish brown. Legs brown. Ventral side whitish yellow, reddish and blackish brown. Body length of male 4.8 - 6.0 mm, width 2.9 - 3.5 mm, body length of female 5.4 - 6.0 mm, width 3.2 - 3.5 mm. General view as in Figs 1 - 3, 10 - 12. H e a d: Reddish brown with blurred yellowish markings around inner eye margin (Figs 4, 5, 13), puncturation fine and sparse, denser at middle, with thick white setae. Labrum with shallowly concave anterior margin and rounded anterior angles; transverse; its surface smooth with 12 setae along anterior margin. Clypeus triangle with concave anterior margin, its surface densely covered with short white setae, clypeus not distinctly separated from frons. Eyes large and distant, ratio eye length: distance between upper lobes as 1.00: 0.52. Canthus deep, triangular. Antenna filiform (Figs 1, 10), antennomeres I-IV mid brown, V-XI dark brown, V-XI moderately widened in both sexes, in male antennomeres with conspicuous long setae, especially on scape (Fig. 7), in male antenna half as long as body. Mandibles dark brown (Fig. 5). Maxillary and mandibular palps spindle-shaped. T h o r a x: Pronotum moderately convex, narrowed from base to apex, transverse (about 1.88 times as wide as long) (Figs 1, 10). Pronotal surface shining, densely covered with large but very shallow punctures (Fig. 12). Anterior margin of pronotum narrowly bordered, reddish brown, a narrow line close to anterior margin yellow. Lateral margin of pronotum narrow, not visible simultaneously in dorsal view, brown, pronotum above lateral margin broadly yellow, enclosing a reddish brown spot each (Figs 3, 12); basal margin black, with relatively homogenous teeth that become slightly larger towards humerus. Scutellum trapeziform, reddish brown with blackish brown margins, basally only slightly notched and apically truncate, raised above elytral surface (Figs 10, 12). Prosternal process whitish yellow, rugosely punctured, with long white setae, apically simply rounded (Figs 5, 11), and basally with a pair of strong teeth. Elytra long (width 0.83 times its length), with a transverse depression behind scutellum, elytra slightly attenuate towards apex, shiny, yellowish brown with 5 (2, 2, 1) blurred reddish brown spots (Figs 3, 12), and reddish brown almost regular striae of punctures, distinct to apex (Fig. 14), punctures coarse, interstices matt due to fine wrinkles, increasingly vaulted towards lateral margins. Epipleurae vanishing before its middle, glabrous, yellow. Legs brown, all tibiae almost straight (Figs 2, 11), all tarsomeres simple except for male fore-tarsus, which is enlarged and tarsomeres I and II with a long tuft of setae (Figs 8, 9), claws simple. A b d o m e n: whitish to blackish brown as in Figs 2 and 11, with adherent white setae. Ventrite V in male with a broad, shiny pit with a longitudinal ridge at the middle (Fig. 6). Pygidium regularly rounded except for a short, blunt longitudinal carina at apex (Fig. 14). Aedeagus (Figs 15 - 19) with frontal opening, the apex with a small denticle situated ventrally (Figs 16, 17, 19), aedeagal lobe extended into two large lateral lobes, and a narrow dorsal lobe at apex in dorsal view (Figs 18, 19). In dorsal view a pair of sharkteeth-shaped endosclerites visible (Figs 15, 18). In lateral view aedeagus massive, not curved (Figs 17, 19). Underside of aedeagus regularly vaulted (Fig. 16), a group of setae present close to apex (Figs 17, 19). Length of aedeagus about 2.9 mm, width 0.85 mm. F e m a l e: Similar to male but on average larger. Ventrite V large, with deep, lonitudinal oval egg-hollow. Spermatheca medium brown, narrow, large, 0.45 x 0.40 mm, hookshaped, tip bent downwards, apical part as long as basal part of reservoir (Fig. 22). Spermathecal duct as brown as spermatheca, fine and densely coiled close to spermatheca, more broadly coiled but still dense apically, ending in a darker pigmented hook-like structure apically (Fig. 22). Kotpresse with dorsal sclerites spatuliform, bend straight towards dorsal fold, ventrally bent part of dorsal sclerite present (Fig. 20), ventral sclerites fused at the middle, apodemes slender, wider than rectum, a chitin polster, but no ventral sclerotised area present, ventral sclerotisations of lateral fold present (Fig. 21). V a r i a b i l i t y: The yellowish markings on the pronotum are of variable size (Figs 1, 10). D i f f e r e n t i a l d i a g n o s i s: The only other Southern African species with a colouration similar to C. waterbergi nov. sp. is C. crenatostriatus WEISE, 1892 described from Angola. The latter is much larger (8 - 9 mm), the males have none of the sexual dimorphic characters described for C. waterbergi nov. sp. and the aedeagus is a simple tube. However, the shape of the male abdomen and the general aedeagus morphology of C. waterbergi nov. sp. have similarities to the species in the C. oblongosignatus species group (C. bottegoi GESTRO, 1895; C. clavareaui REINECK, 1915; C. cylindriformis BRYANT, 1944; C. inclusus JACOBY, 1895; C. menelik REINECK, 1915; C. methneri REINECK, 1915; C. oblongosignatus WEISE, 1892; C. semicinctus WEISE, 1919 and C. sudanensis REINECK, 1915). The aedeagi show a frontal opening and similar externally visible endosclerites as in C. waterbergi, however, in the above mentioned species there are additional hyaline parts bearing setae which are missing in C. waterbergi. More male specimens of C. waterbergi would be necessary to study the aedeagal endosclerites in detail. All these species have a different, presumably aposematic body colour. In female C. oblongosignatus, there is a ventral sclerotised area present close to ventral sclerite of kotpresse, and pit-shaped depressions on the pygidium (missing in C. waterbergi). E t y m o l o g y The name waterbergi of the new species refers to the Waterberg mountains in the South African Waterberg district, Limpopo province, where some of the type specimens were collected. Christa Lindemann (1918 - 1996) already found this species to be new to science, but it remained undescribed. B i o l o g y: One specimen was collected from flowering Acacia, adults may be petalophagous. D i s t r i b u t i o n: South Africa (Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga).	en	Schöller, Matthias, A, South (2025): An aberrant new species of Cryptocephalus GEOFFROY, 1762 from South Africa (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae: Cryptocephalinae). Linzer biologische Beiträge 57 (1): 351-357, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16956084
