Stiptopodius savuti Daniel & Deschodt, 2020

Daniel, Gimo M., Deschodt, Christian M., Davis, Adrian L. V. & Sole, Catherine L., 2020, The enigmatic dung beetle genus Stiptopodius Harold, 1871 (Coleoptera Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) revisited: new species descriptions from southern Africa, Zootaxa 4763 (3), pp. 394-404 : 399-400

Stiptopodius savuti Daniel & Deschodt , new species

( Figs. 1B , 4 )

Type locality: Savuti, North West, Botswana.

Type material. Holotype, female: Savuti [ Botswana, North West], Site 4 | S18.53092 [°]; E24.08378 [°] | 15.xii. 2005 | Deschodt & Tshikae | Carrion pitfall trap || HOLOTYPE: Stiptopodius | savuti Daniel & Deschodt | 2020 [printed on the red card] ( TMSA).

Description. Holotype, female. Length: 4.3 mm, width: 1.9 mm.

Colour. Dorsally black; lateral edge of clypeus, legs, and last abdominal ventrite brown; setae yellowish.

Head. Incision between medial clypeal teeth deeply concave; latero-clypeal edges not sinuate; genae with external protrusion sharply triangular; surface of the head smooth and punctate; ocellate punctures sparse on the middle of vertex; some large punctures with outer edges moderately raised on clypeus, otherwise, finely punctate; clypeo-frontal carina not visible; clypeal-genal suture present; vertex with carina occupying half the space between eyes, carina interrupted in the middle clearly forming two small cephalic tubercles. Antennae with eight antennomeres, labium setose.

Pronotum. Convex, wider than long; base of pronotum marginate; anterior margin wider than posterior edge; in lateral view, lateral edge strongly sinuate before postero-lateral angles, central disc glabrous; punctation ocellate with sparse, short setae antero-laterally that emanate from centres of punctures.

Elytra. Laterally straight, somewhat convex distally and concave proximally; sparsely and finely punctate in external-most four striae, the rest apunctate; interstriae with sparse, short setae visible basally, only interstriae V–VIII punctate.

Pygidium. Convex with dense ocellate punctation bearing setae emanating from centres of punctures.

Abdominal ventrites. Prosternum with anterior angles slanted forward and inwards, surface somewhat excavated. Mesoventrite dull, setose and punctate. Metaventrite shiny with long setae anteriorly, glabrous mid-posteriorly. Abdominal ventrites glabrous medially, shiny laterally, setigerous with ocellate punctures, setae arranged in lateral rows; last ventrites wider medially than others (female character).

Legs. External and internal margins of profemora punctate, with well-developed setae, central area apunctate and glabrous; external and internal edges strongly and slightly marginate, respectively. Meso- and metafemora with external and internal edges sparsely punctate, all punctures bearing setae (shorter than those in profemora), surface between external and internal edges glabrous, strongly marginate internally. Protibiae crenulate with four teeth on external margin, a line of setae around teeth in dorsal view; in ventral view, protibiae with two carinae, internally punctate and pilose. Protibial spur long and inward curving. Meso- and metatibiae triangular and strongly widened apically. Protarsi broken off in both legs. Meso- and metatarsomeres I–IV triangular, widened apically, wider than long, strongly concave medially, external and internal edges with distal lobe; meso- and metatarsomere V rectangular and longer than others, with pair of very tiny apical claws.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution. This species is only known from the type locality Savuti in Botswana.

Etymology. The specific name, a noun in apposition, refers to the name of the type locality.

Diagnosis. Stiptopodius savuti new species is morphologically similar to S. granulosus . However, S. savuti new species can be distinguished by having the dorsal cephalic and pronotal surface smooth while in S. granulosus they are densely rugose. The new species bears a carina which is interrupted medially and clearly forms two small cephalic tubercles, unlike S. granulosus , whose cephalic carina does not form tubercles. Furthermore, the head of the new species is glabrous, whereas in S. granulosus it is setigerous.

Remarks: The Afrotropical Stiptopodius savuti new species seems to be similar to the brown Somalian species of Stiptopodius glabricollis Müller, 1942 . Our knowledge on Afrotropical dung beetle biogeographical distribution patterns suggests that it is very unlikely that the inland species from Botswana could be a sub-population of the coastal eastern horn of Africa species, S. glabricollis (see also a similar case in Génier & Josso 2017: 338). As such a wide and disjunct distribution is very rare among Afrotropical Scarabaeinae, we therefore consider the specimen from Savuti ( Botswana) as a new species. Stiptopodius granulosus (from Zambia) is morphologically similar to the new species. Since both species occur in neighbour countries, there is a huge potential of misidentification between them, that’s why the diagnosis of the new species is compared to the closest species in southern Africa.

Conservation status and potential threats. This species was recorded from the well-protected Savuti area of Chobe National Park in northern Botswana. The vegetation consists of somewhat open to dense stands of Philenoptera nelsii (Schinz) Schrire. The trees are about one to two meters tall with about 30% canopy cover (CMD, personal observation). Although it is protected at Savuti, the extent of occurrence of this species is not known and it should thus be assessed as Data Deficient.

Figures

FIGURES 1A–D. Habitus of Stiptopodius Harold, 1871 species, holotypes. A, Stiptopodius peringueyi Daniel & Deschodt, new species; B, Stiptopodius savuti Daniel & Deschodt, new species; C, Stiptopodius muellerae Daniel & Deschodt, new species; D, Stiptopodius singularis (Péringuey, 1901). Scale bar = 2.0 mm.

FIGURE 4. Map showing the type localities of Stiptopodius muellerae Daniel & Deschodt, new species (.), Stiptopodius savuti Daniel & Deschodt, new species (A) and Stiptopodius peringueyi Daniel & Deschodt, new species (■).