Enoclerus philogenes Rifkind

Rifkind, Jacques, 2017, New species of Mutillid Mimicking Enoclerus Gahan (Coleoptera: Cleridae: Clerinae) from Mexico and Central America, Zootaxa 4231 (3), pp. 409-420 : 418-419

Enoclerus philogenes Rifkind , n. sp.

( Fig. 9)

Diagnosis. Separable from congeners based on a unique combination of setal patterning and distribution, elytral sculpturing, the shape of the median elytral fascia, and the shape of the male pygidium. In addition, among the species resembling Enoclerus crabronarius in montane northwestern Costa Rica, E. philogenes is the only one in which the elytral posterior setal band covers the apices without interruption.

Description (holotype male). Length: 9.0 mm. Color: black; antennal scape (in part) and distal end of last maxillary palpomere, testaceous; antennae piceous; each elytron ( Fig. 9) with a medium sized, slightly oblique yellowish fascia, feebly narrowed laterally, where it is complete to margins, irregularly rounded internally, where it is interrupted cleanly before suture. Head: surface finely, shallowly, densely granulate–punctate, moderately densely covered with short suberect and longer erect, rather robust whitish setae, most thickly arrayed between frons and vertex. Pronotum: scutiform; a little broader than long; anterior margin slightly arcuate; disk subflattened above; transverse impression broadly U–shaped at middle; surface rather finely, densely, shallowly granulate– punctate; discal vestiture black, rather dense, composed of both short and long erect setae; posterior margin and sides moderately densely set with whitish suberect and erect setae varying in length from short to long (vestiture sparser and mostly short laterally); anterior margin with a triangular patch of erect whitish setae of moderate length. Elytra: elongate (ratio of length to width 33:18), broadest at posterior 1/3; anterior margin slightly arcuately emarginate at middle; humeri subquadrate; umbones prominent; sides slightly inflected at middle; apices separately rounded, slightly dehiscent; subbasal tumescences present, but shallow and rounded; disk slightly depressed at middle; posterior declivity moderate; surface moderately shining, anterior rather densely, finely, irregularly rugulose–punctate, middle with punctures more defined, subserially arrayed, area between punctures micropunctate, broader than diameter of punctures, posterior finely, densely, shallowly granulate; elytral vestiture as follows: anterior margin with a broad, obtusely triangulate covering of mostly reclinate, rather short whitish setae, intermingled with some longer, erect whitish setae; middle disk moderately densely clothed with short, suberect black setae, intermixed with fewer, longer, erect black setae (midelytral fasciae similarly clothed with whitish setae); posterior 1/8 densely covered with whitish reclinate and suberect setae of various lengths. Mesosternum: posterior median process elevated, notched at apex. Metasternum: surface finely, densely granulate– punctate, rather densely covered with reclinate whitish setae of moderate length. Abdomen: visible sternite 5 with hind margin moderately broad, slightly arcuately emarginate; visible sternite 6 with sides oblique, hind angles rounded, posterior margin slightly arcuately emarginate; visible tergite 6 narrowly rounded posteriorly, surpassing hind margin of visible sternite 6.

Variation. Specimens range in length from 7.8 mm to 9.7 mm. In the female, abdominal sternite 6 is narrower, more elongate and more coarsely punctate by comparison with the male. In addition, the posterior margin of sternite 6 in the female is more or less coterminous with that of tergite 6.

Type specimens. Holotype: Costa Rica, Prov. Guanacaste, Est. Pitilla, 9 km S. Santa Cecilia, 700 m, Mar 1994, P. Rios, LN 330200–380200, #2807 ( CSCA) . Paratypes: 9 (JNRC), same data as holotype; 1 ( JNRC) , same data as holotype except “ Abr 1994, #2844”; 4 ( CSCA) , same data as holotype except “ MAR 1995, M_329950_380450, #4359”; 3 ( CSCA) , same data as previous except “ C. Moraga, #4357”; 1 ( MUCR) , same data as previous except “ MAY 1995, #4815”; 1, ( MUCR) , same data as holotype except “ MAY 1995, LN 329950 380450, #4815”; 1 ( MUCR) , same data as holotype except “ Mar 1989, GNP Biodiversity Survey, 330200.380200” [no collector name]; 1 ( MUCR) , same data as previous except “ 21 Mar–21 Apr 1989 ”; 1 ( MNCR) , same data as holotype except “ 31 mar–15 abr 1992, LN 330200.380200”; 1 ( MNCR) , same data as holotype except “ May 1991, L–N–330200, 380200.”

Distribution. Northwestern Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. This species appears to be restricted to montane habitat in the Cordillera de Guanacaste.

Etymology. The specific name honors Publius Monetius Philogenes , a Roman ceramist of the Augustan period.