Bambara Vuillet, 1911

Darby, Michael, 2019, New Ptiliidae (Coleoptera) from Sarawak in the spirit collection of the Natural History Museum, London, European Journal of Taxonomy 512, pp. 1-50 : 6

Genus Bambara Vuillet, 1911

Small, fragile and weakly sclerotised insects, widely distributed particularly in the tropics with many undescribed species. No published records from Sarawak. A careful study of the chaetotaxy of the head, legs, antennae, abdomen and other features failed to reveal the presence of any reliable differences to distinguish species. Similarly, no reliable features have been detected in the external skeleton. These findings correlate with those of Dybas (1966) and Johnson (1971) both confirming spermathecal differences as the best method of determining species. The use of elytral shape as used by the author in separating Madagascan Bambara has not proved to be helpful with these specimens, none of which possess elytra which are wider at, or close to, the humerus. No species were detected with a mesoventral collar extending onto the humeri as B. contorta Dybas, 1966 the only species in the genus recorded to date to exhibit this feature.

In dorsal view, species of Bambara are easily confused with some smaller, paler Acrotrichis and with species of Ptiliola , but are easily separated from the former by the longer elytra covering most of the abdomen and from the latter by the adjacent metacoxae separated only by the bifid extension of the metaventrum. Dimorphism involving blindness and aptery, similar to that exhibited by species of Ptinelliini, has been shown to be present in the genus ( Darby 2014 b) but was not detected in the Sarawak species.