Atrichelaphinis (Eugeaphinis) vermiculata (Fairmaire, 1894)

Rojkoff, Sebastien & Perissinotto, Renzo, 2015, Review of the genera Anelaphinis Kolbe, 1892 and Atrichelaphinis Kraatz, 1898 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae), ZooKeys 482, pp. 91-142 : 117

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Scarabaeidae

Atrichelaphinis (Eugeaphinis) vermiculata (Fairmaire, 1894) Figure 17

Elaphinis vermiculata Fairmaire, 1894: 653-654; Kraatz 1895a: 381; Kraatz 1895b: 384; Preiss 1902: 99; Schenkling 1921: 304; Antoine 1991: 2; Antoine 2002: 186.

Anelaphinis vermiculata (Fairmaire) Antoine, 2002: 186.

Atrichelaphinis vermiculata (Fairmaire) Kraatz, 1898: 220; Schenkling 1921: 304; Antoine 2002: 186.

Type specimen.

Holotype not traced.

Redescription

(n = 11). Size: length ♂, 12.1-13 mm; ♀, 10.7-13.9 mm; width ♂, 6.7-7.6 mm ♀, 6.1-7.9 mm.

Body. Velutinous, from light brown with dark marks to dark green with dark brown areas, white small irregular spots scattered throughout, sometimes becoming confluent on lateral declivity of elytra, pronotum and pygidium; light pilosity usually present on vertex and lateral margins of pronotum, mesepimeron, elytral apex and pygidium; mesepimeron with sculpture and pilosity limited to anterior half, posterior half smooth.

Head. With median vertical smooth carina extending from vertex to clypeal disc; clypeus clearly transverse, anterior margin reborded in both sexes but not strongly raised, slightly incised in the middle, more strongly punctate laterally and in front, where punctuation becomes confluent; disc exhibiting smooth areas.

Pronotum. Octagonal; not tuberculate on anterior margin; lateral angles well marked but rounded; lateral margins completely reborded, with posterior half parallel; posterior angles rounded; sculpture of setigerous crescents, usually sparce and poorly pronounced on disc, but stronger in front and on lateral marginss; posterior margin from straight to slightly concave in front of scutellum, lateral edges convex.

Scutellum. Not uniformly sculpted, laterally grooved, and with white tomentum.

Elytra. With lateral margins almost straight and parallel, posthumeral emargination weak; sculpture of strong and well marked horseshoe punctures sometimes confluent, especially in apical half; space between vertical lines of punctuation of same width, appearing not geminate; sutural apex blunt.

Pygidium. With white, small spots becoming confluent; light pilosity throughout.

Underside. Shiny, with small white spots on postero-lateral angles of sternites and metasternum, sometimes on the mesepimeron and metepimeron, some apical spots also on femora; pilosity long and thin, extending throughout surface except middle of metasternum and abdomen; mesosternal apophysis transverse, anterior margin straight, strongly compressed between mesocoxae and not protruding in front in lateral view; abdomen concave in male, convex in female, last sternite less sculpted at middle in male.

Legs. Metafemora sometimes with white spot of tomentum on underside close to joint; protibiae enlarged in female, meso- and metatibiae with transverse carina just after middle; metatibial spurs slender and more acute in male, larger and blunt in female.

Aedeagus. Parameres converging regularly at apex, without lateral expansions or modifications; apex with marked incision at middle of downturning margin.

Remarks.

Most of the specimens analysed in this study originated from Erythrea (PCDC, PCSR, MNHN, MNHU). Although the type was not traced, all specimens match Fairmaire’s (1894) original description. The species has also been reported from Ethiopia, locality confirmed through the study of one female labelled "Abyssinie, Tigray, Alitiena" (close to the Erythrean border) and one couple labelled "Abyssinien" in the MNHN collections.