Hedyphanes (Hedyphanes) kmenti Nabozhenko & Keskin, sp. nov., 2020

Nabozhenko, Maxim, Keskin, Bekir & Papadopoulou, Anna, 2020, Two new species and new records of darkling beetles of the tribe Helopini from Turkey and Cyprus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 60 (2), pp. 411-417 : 412-413

Hedyphanes (Hedyphanes) kmenti Nabozhenko & Keskin, sp. nov.

( Figs 1–7 )

Type material. HοΓοτΥΡΕ, ♁ ( NMPC), labelled: ‘Asian TURKEY, ARTVIN prov. / Çeltlikdüzü env. valley of / Çoruh Nehri above Çiftlikdüzü / 620 m; 40º45ʹ39.8ʺN 41º29ʹ25.6ʺE / 14.v.2005, lgt. P. KMENT’.

Description. Body large (length 18.0 mm, width 5.5 mm), slender, black, dull.

Head widest at eye and genal levels, 1.57 times as wide as interocular space of frons. Eyes strongly transverse, weakly convex. Anterior margin of epistoma slightly rounded. Genae strongly regularly rounded. Lateral margin of head with short obtuse emargination between genae and epistoma. Epistomal surface very weakly depressed.

Punctation of head coarse and dense (puncture diameter twice as wide as interpunctural distance). Head dorsally with round coarse punctures around mouthparts and transverse wrinkles on sides of gula; covered with short recumbent setae. Gula with acute apex. Mentum transverse, rectangular. Antennae relatively short, with only two apical antennomeres extending beyond base of pronotum; antennomere 11 short, oval, strongly asymmetric.

Prothorax. Pronotum slightly longitudinal (1.07 times as long as wide), widest in anterior third, 1.40 times as wide as head. Lateral margins weakly rounded, slightly widely sinuate near posterior angles; anterior margin widely emarginate; base weakly rounded. Anterior angles rectangular, posterior ones obtuse; all angles narrowly rounded at apex. All margins narrowly beaded, basal third of lateral margins with interrupted bead. Disc of pronotum weakly convex, with posterior angles obliquely depressed.

Punctation of disc moderately coarse and dense (puncture diameter subequal to distance between punctures), sparser and finer than on head. Prosternum coarsely punctured.

Prothoracic hypomera with coarse asperate punctation of round punctures, granulate near procoxae. Prosternal process with slightly longitudinally impressed surface between procoxae, completely bordered, with conical elevation near apex.

Pterothorax. Elytra strongly elongate (2.09 times as long as wide), subcylindrical, widest in apical half, 1.80 times as wide as head, 1.31 times as wide and 2.50 times as long as pronotum. Base of elytra on sides with sub-erect setae.

Humeral angles absent. Punctures in striae slightly elongate, distinctly separated. Interstriae flat, with fine and sparse punctation (punctures much smaller than in striae). Narrow deflected margin of elytra only partly visible dorsally. Epipleura without epipleural micro-mucro at apex. Mesoventrite with subcontiguous coarse transversely elongate punctures.

Mesepimera, mes- and metepisterna with coarse and dense punctation. Metaventrite with coarse and dense punctation on sides and finer dense punctation in middle.

Abdomen. Abdominal ventrites with recumbent brown setae and same punctation as metaventrite; abdominal ventrite 5 not beaded even in basal parts. Inner sternite VIII with terminal sclerotization and two sclerotized longitudinal areas in middle ( Fig. 5 ). Spiculum gastrale with weakly C-shaped rods and very long narrow lobes ( Figs 6–7 ). Tegmen with sharply rectangular apex of apical piece ( Fig. 2 ) and spines in apical third ( Figs 2–4 ). Median lobe with acute separated apex ( Fig. 3 ).

Legs slender. Tibiae straight, with very dense line of brown hairs on inner side (longer on metatibiae). Protarsi transversely widened; mesotarsi also widened, but with subequal length and width.

Differential diagnosis. Hedyphanes kmenti sp. nov. belongs to the species-group with asperate prothoracic hypomera and it is different from other species of the genus in pubescent sides of elytral base. This species is externally similar to H. seidlitzi seidlitzi Reitter, 1914 from Turkmenistan and Iran (NΑΒοΖ*üΕΝΚο 2018) in large body, visible elytral striae and elytra widest in apical half, but clearly differs from this species in the absence of epipleural micro-mucro at apex and rectangular apex of apical piece of the aedeagus. Another Turkish species with asperate prothoracic hypomera, H. mannerheimi Faldermann, 1837 , differs from H. kmenti additionally in more robust body, strongly convex pronotum and weakly bluish tint of integument. The new species differs from H. cordicollis Seidlitz, 1896 from south-eastern Anatolia (NΑΒοΖ*üΕΝΚο 2013) in weakly rounded margins of elytra and absence of humeral angles. Turkish Hedyphanes Fischer von Waldheim, 1820 can be distinguished using the key below.

Collecting circumstances. The holotype was collected at dry ruderal site with plenty of bare soil patches (P. Kment, pers. comm).

Etymology. This species is named in honour of the collector of this species, Petr Kment, a renowned entomologist of the National Museum Prague. The name is a noun in singular genitive case.

Figures

Figs 1–7. Hedyphanes kmenti sp. nov., holotype. 1 – male habitus; 2 – tegmen, ventral view; 3 – median lobe, ventral view; 4 – tegmen, lateral view; 5 – male inner sternite VIII; 6 – spiculum gastrale, ventral view; 7 – the same, lateral view. Scale bars = 1 mm (Figs 2–4, 6, 7), 0.5 mm (Fig. 5).