Steriphodon Abeille de Perrin, 1895

Telnov, Dmitry, 2021, Redefinition of Steriphodon Abeille de Perrin, 1895 (Coleoptera: Anthicidae), with a new species description, checklist, and key to species, Zootaxa 5020 (1), pp. 141-165 : 142

Steriphodon Abeille de Perrin, 1895

Type species: Stereopalpus chobauti Abeille de Perrin, 1894 subsequent designation by Abdullah, 1967a.

Steriphodon was originally erected on the basis of the following features (translated from French): “body subcylindrical, narrow, elongate. Head delimited from pronotum, very narrow and elongate posterior to eyes. These more or less strongly protruding, large, spaceous. Antennae subfiliform, very thin and rather short. Labrum transverse. Mandibles very strong, bent at about a right angle, very broad in their first half, tapering sharply towards apex. Terminal maxillary palpomere cultriform. Pronotum very convex, rounded and bulging at the anterior angles, straight narrowed from there towards base, narrowly rimmed at base, constricted anteriad and provided with a kind of very prominent collar. Elytra subcylindrical, rough, narrowing at apex, where they are angularly and separately rounded. Legs robust. Tarsi distinctly heteromerous” ( Abeille de Perrin 1895). The new genus was compared with Stereopalpus LaFerté-Sénectère, 1849 and found to be different by “the very robust and angular mandibles and by the pronotum not narrowed at the base and provided apically with a very detached collar” ( Abeille de Perrin 1895). At the time of Abeille’s description, Eurygeniinae LeConte, 1862 was poorly defined. Consequently, of the features listed above only few are of a taxonomic value regarding to the present concept of eurygeniine anthicids.

Abdullah (1963, 1964) first keyed the genera of Eurygeniini , however, Steriphodon was omitted or unknown to him at that time. Abdullah (1967a & b) recognized that Steriphodon is another member of Eurygeniini , described “critical characters” of the genus based on species from the Indian Subcontinent (1967a), and provided a key to the species (1967a & b). The distinguishing features of Steriphodon , as of Abdullah (1967a & b), are: appendiculate tarsal claws, conspicuous median “abdominal appendages” (broad, apically rounded ventral projections) of males, entire, widely separated compound eyes, pronotum in dorsal view not campanulate, its dorsal surfaces not concealed, uniform dorsal pubescence and immaculate elytra, terminal antennomere much less than twice as long as penultimate antennomere. Morphological similarity with Eurygenius LaFerté-Sénectère, 1849 was suggested and discussed, and the definition of the Eurygeniini extended to include forms with simple and appendiculate tarsal claws ( Abdullah 1967a).

Abdullah (1967c: 180–181) discussed the phylogenetic features of Eurygeniini , mentioning Steriphodon : tarsal claws appendiculate (as a “primitive” character); terminal maxillary palpomere cultriform; metendosternite with the anterior tendons arising on the laminae or at their junction with arms; male abdomen with appendages (all latter as derived characters). Surprisingly, Abdullah (1969), who presented a new concept of Eurygeniinae , and Uhmann (1976), who presented the first comprehensive key to Anthicidae genera both omitted Steriphodon and did not included it to their keys to the eurygeniine genera.

Telnov (2009) was the first to reassess and highlight some disputable features of the Old World Eurygeniinae . Among those are the tarsal claws, which do not appear to be appendiculate in Steriphodon chobauti (Abeille de Perrin, 1894) , the type of the genus. Interocular distance also varies among Steriphodon species , at least in S. chobauti , being greater than the dorsal eye length ( Telnov 2009). Later it was shown that the ventral lobe on morphological sternite III (“abdominal appendage” of authors) only appear on males of the Indian Subcontinent and not on the species of the Palaearctic or the Horn of Africa ( Telnov 2016). This discovery as well as the fact that Abdullah did not study any of the Palaearctic or Afrotropical Steriphodon including the type of the genus, resulted in a dubious generic concept of the genus, necessitating this redefinition of Steriphodon .