Cephennomicrus ubomboensis, Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013, The first record of the tribe Cephenniini in South Africa, with new species of Cephennomicrus Reitter and Cephennodes Reitter (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 3683 (4), pp. 411-426 : 419-421

Cephennomicrus ubomboensis sp. n.

( Figs. 13 , 16–17 , 22–23 , 29 )

Type material. Holotype: REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA (KwaZulu-Natal Prov.): 3, two labels: " RSA (NE) KwaZulu-Natal / - 27.6100S / 32.0802E / Ubombo Mountain Nat. / Res. 110 m, sifting & / beating 30.11.2012 / leg. P. Jałoszyński" [white, printed]; " CEPHENNOMICRUS / ubomboensis m. / det. P. Jałoszyński, '13 / HOLOTYPUS' [red, printed] ( TMSA).

Diagnosis. Elytral apices non-modified; aedeagus with abruptly demarcated subapical and apical region, with rounded apex of median lobe; internal armature composed of a system of long and dark elongate sclerites; parameres with several non-modified setae.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 13 ) strongly convex and elongate, with weakly marked constriction between pronotum and elytra, brown with slightly lighter appendages, covered with yellowish vestiture. BL 0.81 mm.

Head broadest at large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.08 mm, HW 0.21 mm; vertex and frons confluent, non-modified, in median part only slightly convex; frontoclypeal region anterior to eyes subtrapezoid; supraantennal tubercles indiscernible; punctures on head dorsum very fine, inconspicuous; setae extremely short and sparse, barely discernible. Antennae long and slender, AnL 0.38, with three distal antennomeres distinctly enlarged and forming slender club; antennomeres I and II strongly elongate; antennomeres III–VIII each slightly elongate; IX about 1.5x as long as broad; X 1.8x as long as broad; XI nearly 2.5x as long as broad, distinctly broader than X.

Pronotum subrectangular with rounded margins, broadest near anterior third; PL 0.24 mm, PW 0.30 mm. Anterior margin strongly arcuate; anterior corners rounded but distinct; lateral margins rounded in anterior third and nearly straight in posterior half, distinctly converging towards obtuse and blunt hind pronotal corners; posterior margin weakly arcuate; base of pronotum with fine and shallow ante-basal transverse groove and one pair of shallow and small lateral ante-basal impressions not connected with groove. Punctures very fine but dense, in median part of pronotal disc separated by spaces subequal to puncture diameters; setae extremely short but wellvisible, sparse and recumbent.

Elytra more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest distinctly anterior to middle; EL 0.50 mm, EW 0.40 mm, EI 1.25; humeral calli well-marked, each delimited from adsutural region by shallow and broad basal impression in which basal elytral fovea is barely discernible; apices of elytra non-modified and separately rounded. Vestiture uniform, composed of similar setae as those on pronotum; punctures slightly more distinct than those on pronotum, but shallow and with diffused margins. Hind wings well developed.

Legs moderately long and slender; all tibiae nearly straight.

Aedeagus ( Figs. 16–17 , 22–23 ) stout; AeL 0.23 mm; median lobe in ventral view with abruptly demarcated sub-apical and additionally also apical part, apex broadly rounded; internal armature complex, with a system of elongate, darkly sclerotized sclerites; parameres slender, each with 3–4 setae.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. Eastern RSA, KwaZulu-Natal Prov. ( Fig. 29 ).

Etymology. Locotypical; after the Zulu name Ubombo (English and Afrikaans Lebombo) Natural Reserve.

Remarks. The unique structures of the aedeagus of Cm. ubomboensis cannot be confused with any other congener. Two remaining continental Afrotropical species, Cm. perpunctillus Reitter from Tanzania and Cm. zoiai Castellini from Congo have strongly elongate aedeagi, similar to those of most species described from Madagascar ( Besuchet 1961). Among the latter group of species, an exception is Cm. pauliani Besuchet, 1961 , but the shape of its relatively stout aedeagus and the internal armature are clearly different from those in Cm. ubomboensis .

The aedeagus of Cm. ubomboensis resembles that of Cm. simplex Jałoszyński & Nomura, 2008b (from the Malay Peninsula) in a similar general shape of the median lobe, which in both species has the subapical region abruptly delimited and additionally a sharply demarcated apical part. However, the apical part in Cm. ubomboensis is approximately hexagonal, while in C. simplex subtriangular, and there are also significant differences in the composition of internal sclerites and the external morphology ( Cm. simplex has macrosetae and concave lateral margins of pronotum).

Figures

FIGURES 13 – 15. Dorsal habitus of holotype males. Cephennomicrus ubomboensis sp. n. (13); Cephennomicrus endroedyi sp. n. (14); Cephennomicrus transkeianus sp. n. (15).

FIGURES 16 – 21. Aedeagi of holotype males in ventral (16, 18, 20) and lateral (17, 19, 21) views. Cephennomicrus ubomboensis sp. n. (16 – 17); Cephennomicrus endroedyi sp. n. (18 – 19); Cephennomicrus transkeianus sp. n. (20 – 21).

FIGURES 22 – 23. Aedeagi of holotype males in ventral (22, 24, 26) and lateral (23, 25, 27) views. Cephennomicrus ubomboensis sp. n. (22 – 23); Cephennomicrus endroedyi sp. n. (24 – 25); Cephennomicrus transkeianus sp. n. (26 – 27).

FIGURES 28 – 29. Distribution of continental Afrotropical Cephenniini (South Africa magnified in right panel). 28 ― genus Cephennodes (a ― C. leonensis Castellini; b ― C. atewaensis Jałoszyński; c ― C. nsukkaensis Jałoszyński; d ― C. bundibugyoensis Jałoszyński; e ― C. glabella Castellini; f ― C. ruandae (Cauchois); g ― C. indifferens Besuchet; h ― C. basilewskyi Besuchet; i ― C. leleupi Besuchet; j ― C. zanzibaricus (Schaufuss); k ― C. marginatus Besuchet; l ― C. zulunatalensis Jałoszyński; m ― C. sodwanaensis Jałoszyński; n ― C. lucipetus Jałoszyński; o ― C. mtubatubanus Jałoszyński); 29 ― genus Cephennomicrus (p ― Cm. zoiai Castellini; r ― Cm. perpusillus (Reitter); s ― Cm. ubomboensis Jałoszyński; t ― Cm. endroedyi Jałoszyński; u ― Cm. transkeianus Jałoszyński.