Tibiodrepanus tagliaferrii, Barbero, Palestrini & Roggero

Barbero, Enrico, Palestrini, Claudia & Roggero, Angela, 2011, Tibiodrepanus tagliaferrii — a new Afrotropical Drepanocerina species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Oniticellini), with notes on phylogeny and distribution of the genus, Zootaxa 2923, pp. 27-47 : 43-45

Tibiodrepanus tagliaferrii, Barbero, Palestrini & Roggero , sp. nov.

( Figs. 32–34 )

Type material. Holotype of Tibiodrepanus tagliaferri (here designated): Ƥ, “ NAMIBIA: Sovo area, Mile 46 Agric. Station 18°15’52” 19°15’18”, 25.iii.2002, ex cattle dung coll. Mann, Marais & Kasch OUMNH 2006-094” ( OUMNH).

Paratypes of Tibiodrepanus tagliaferrii (here designated): 2 Ƥ, same locality and collector as the holotype ( OUMNH); 1 Ƥ. CAMEROON: Adamaoua, Ngaoundaba, iv.1976, Nicolas & Nicolas leg. ( MHNL).

Diagnosis. This species is similar to T. setosus , differing mainly by the humped metasternal disc and by its Afrotropical distribution.

Description. Body entirely light brown; antennae pale yellow, antennal club dark brown. Anterior edge of epistoma very widely but rather deeply notched; notch toothed at sides, teeth sharpened, raised and gently directed outward; lateral edges oblique, concave, obviously toothed before the genae; genal sutures prolonged backwards; genae oblique, rather strongly toothed distally; clypeogenal angles strongly notched; epistomal surface hollowed anteriorly in the middle; head on the whole finely and not densely punctate. Pronotum: anterior angles blunt, lateral edges evenly curved, feebly crenulate in the anterior half; pronotal disc with a longitudinal, medial hollow in the basal two thirds, a circular hollow in the apical third, and two longitudinal lateral hollows; punctures evenly very dense, wide, rather superficial, rounded or elliptical; setae light, scale-like, more or less thickened, and bordering the discal depressions. Elytra dull on the whole, except for the juxtasutural interstriae, the edges of the striae and a spread, shiny microgranulation; scutellum small and triangular; elytral striae wide, not deep and not punctate; striae IV and V noticeably sinuate in the distal half; interstria VII strongly depressed in the distal two third. Setae pale white, thick, erect, scale-like, placed along the entire V and VII interstriae and at the apex of the remaining interstriae. Protibiae: distal tooth narrow, curved, sharpened, inserted on the anterior edge of tibia. First three teeth normally perpendicular to the longitudinal tibial axis; basal tooth obviously smaller than the second and the third ones; basal half of the outer edge crenulated; inner edge curved. Ventral side of femura strongly and densely punctate and clothed with white, dense, short and very fine setae. Prosternum bearing an anterior, longitudinal carina. Mesosternum superficially punctate. Metasternum longitudinally gibbose in the anterior half; punctures very dense, wide in the anterior half, smaller in the posterior half and on the sides. Surface of punctures microreticulate. Abdominal segments superficially punctate, almost smooth medially; setae light, thickened.

Etymology. The species was named after the entomologist A. Tagliaferri , who died suddenly in June 2010.

Distribution. Cameroon and Namibia.

Remarks. On the basis of the morphological traits (mainly, the shape of the protibia) this Afrotropical species appears to be more closely related to the Oriental species than to T. sulcicollis , the only other Afrotropical species included at present in the genus. At present the species shows a west Afrotropical disjunct distribution.

Figures

FIGURES 32 – 34. Facies of Tibiodrepanus tagliaferrii, scale bar = 1 mm: 32; Epipharynx of T. tagliaferrii, scale bar = 0.2 mm: 33; Vagina and receptaculum seminis of T. tagliaferrii, scale bar = 0.2 mm: 34.