Lathrobium bananum nov.sp.

(Figs 4-7, Map 1)

Type material: Holotype ♂: " IRAN, Kerman province, Kerman-Kuhpaye: Darbasiab ( Banan Mts), 2470 m, N 30°31'09'' E 057°09'47'', 19.05.2010, lg. Frisch & Serri / Holotypus ♂ Lathrobium bananum sp. n., det. V. Assing 2013" (cAss).

Etymology: The specific epithet (adjective) is derived from the name of the mountain range (Banan) where the type locality is situated.

Description: Body length 9.5 mm; length of forebody 4.9 mm. Coloration: head blackish; pronotum dark-brown; elytra castaneous; abdomen dark-brown; legs castaneous; antennae dark-brown.

Head (Fig. 4) 1.12 times as long as broad and of oval shape (i.e., lateral margins convex in dorsal view); posterior angles smoothly convex, practically obsolete; punctation relatively fine and moderately dense; interstices with fine and shallow microreticulation, mostly approximately as broad as diameter of punctures, partly narrower; median dorsal portion between eyes with sparsely punctate patch. Eyes relatively small, approximately 1/4 as long as distance from posterior margin of eye to posterior constriction in dorsal view. Antenna approximately 2.7 mm long.

Pronotum (Fig. 4) approximately 1.3 times as long as broad and 0.97 times as broad as head; punctation slightly coarser than that of pronotum and moderately dense; interstices with extremely shallow, almost obsolete microreticulation, on average slightly broader than diameter of punctures; midline broadly impunctate.

Elytra (Fig. 4) 0.86 times as long as pronotum; punctation shallow and ill-defined. Length of hind wings not examined.

Abdomen approximately as broad as elytra; punctation dense and fine; interstices with distinct microsculpture; posterior margin of tergite VII with palisade fringe.

♂: sternites III-VI unmodified; sternite VII slightly depressed in posterior median portion, posterior margin weakly concave in the middle; sternite VIII (Fig. 5) weakly transverse, with shallow median impression in posterior half, this impression with two longitudinal clusters of numerous modified, stout black setae, posterior margin broadly and weakly concave; aedeagus (Figs 6-7) 2.3 mm long, ventral process with distinct median keel basally and with long and slender ventral process.

♀: unknown.

Comparative notes: In external and the male sexual characters, L. bananum is most similar to L. bucharense, most likely its adelphotaxon, but distinguished by the darker coloration of the elytra, legs, palpi, and antennae, and by the shape of the ventral process of the aedeagus (median carina of different shape; ventral process shorter in relation to aedeagal capsule). For illustrations of L. bucharense see Figs 1-3.

Distribution and natural history: The type locality is situated near Kerman, Kerman province, southern Iran (Map 1), at an altitude of 2470 m.