Pseudohesperus bafutensis ( Levasseur, 1967 ) Hromádka, 2010

Hromádka, Lubomír, 2010, Revision of the Afrotropical species of the genus Pseudohesperus, with taxonomic notes on other Afrotropical species of the subtribe Philonthina (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 50 (2), pp. 495-516 : 500-502

Pseudohesperus bafutensis ( Levasseur, 1967) comb. nov.

( Figs. 18–22 )

Hesperus bafutensis Levasseur, 1967: 954 .

Type locality. Cameroon, Bafut forest, Nʼguemba.

Type material. HOLOTYPE: J, ‘FʼBAFUT, Nʼguemba, 16.VIII.1965, Muséum Paris, CAMEROUN, B. de Miré, // Hesperus bafutensis n. sp. L. Levasseur det. 1966 [ochre oblong label, handwritten]’ ( MNHN).

Additional material examined. NIGER: 1 J, Abargasit, 3.ii.1978, R. Macek leg. ( NMPC).

Description. Body length 9.2 mm, length of fore body (to end of elytra) 3.9 mm.

Colouration. Head and pronotum black, scutellum and elytra brown-black, suture and posterior margin narrowly brown-yellow, abdomen black-brown, posterior margin of all tergites narrowly red-brown, all tergites with bluish purple iridescence. Maxillary palpi, labial palpi and mandibles brown-yellow, antennae black, base of antennomere 2 yellow-brown, femora brown, tibiae darker, tarsi brown, slightly paler distally.

Head rectangular, wider than long (ratio 30: 22), parallel-sided, each posterior angle obtusely rounded, bearing one long black bristle. Eyes flat, as long as temples. Four coarse punctures between eyes, distance between medial interocular punctures three times as long as distance between medial and lateral puncture, medial punctures slightly shifted anteriad. Several variably large punctures placed posterolaterally of the line connecting middle of inner margin of eyes and middle of posterior margin of head. Surface with patches of very fine irregular microsculpture.

Antennae slender and very long, exceeding posterior margin of pronotum by antennomeres 10 and 11 when reclined, all antennomeres longer than wide. Relative lengths of antennomeres 1–11: 1 = 8 units, 2 = 5 units, 3 = 6 units, 4–7 = 5 units, 8 and 9 = 4.5 units, 10 = 4 units and 11 = 5 units.

Pronotum highly convex, slightly wider than long (ratio 34: 32), parallel-sided, anterior angles conspicuously deflexed, vaguely obtusely rounded, posterior angles markedly rounded. Each dorsal row with four coarse punctures and many smaller punctures. Each side along impunctate midline with numerous punctures. Surface with microsculpture similar to that on head.

Scutellum very finely punctate, punctures somewhat smaller than eye-facets, distance between punctures mostly larger than their diameter. Setation dark.

Elytra combined wider than long (ratio 45: 40), widened posteriad. Punctation very fine and dense, punctures as large as eye-facets, separated by 1–1.5 diameter of punctures. Surface without microsculpture; setation greyish.

Legs. Metatarsus shorter than metatibia (ratio 25: 27), lengths of metatarsomeres 1–5: 1 = 7 units, 2 = 4 units, 3 = 3 units, 4 = 2.5 units and 5 = 7 units.

Abdomen wide, parallel-sided, very hardly narrowed posteriad. First three visible tergites with two basal lines, elevated area between lines coarsely and densely punctate. Punctation of tergites sparser and coarser than that on elytra, becoming sparser towards apex of each tergite; setation similar to that on elytra.

Male. Protarsomeres 1–4 simple, each with modified pale setae laterally. Sternite VIII ( Fig. 21 ), sternite IX ( Fig. 22 ), aedeagus ( Figs. 18–20 ).

Female. Unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Pseudohesperus bafutensis may be distinguished from the most similar species P. conradti by its wider head, shorter antennae and denser punctation of the scutellum, from P. natalensis by a different colouration of the pronotum and abdomen, narrower elytra and darker legs, from P. varanus sp. nov. by a finer punctation of the elytra and sparser punctation of the abdomen, and from all three species by a different shape of the aedeagus. Moreover, P. bafutensis differs from P. proselytus by a wider head, longer antennae and sparser punctation of the scutellum.

Distribution. Cameroon and Niger.

Figures

Figs. 13–27. 13–17 – Pseudohesperus tauraco sp. nov. (13 – aedeagus, ventral view; 14 – aedeagus, lateral view, 15 – apical portion of paramere with sensory peg setae, ventral view; 16 – apical portion of male sternite VIII, ventral view; 17 – male sternite IX, ventral view). 18–22 – Pseudohesperus bafutensis (Levasseur, 1967) (18 – aedeagus, ventral view; 19 – aedeagus, lateral view; 20 – apex of paramere with sensory peg setae, ventral view; 21 – apical portion of male sternite VIII, ventral view; 22 – male sternite IX, ventral view). 23–27 – Pseudohesperus tyto sp. nov. (23 – aedeagus, ventral view; 24 – aedeagus, lateral view; 25 – apex of paramere with sensory peg setae, ventral view; 26 – apical portion of male sternite VIII, ventral view; 27 – male sternite IX, ventral view).