Bolboceratex coryphaeu

Gussmann S. M. & Scholtz, C. H., 2000, Systematic revision of endemic southern African genera of Bolboceratinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Bolboceratidae), Journal of Natural History 34, pp. 1045-1123 : 1109-1111

Bolboceratex coryphaeu s (Fabricius) comb. nov.

(®gures 24a±e, 25e, f, 26d±f, 30c, d, 34)

Scarabaeus coryphaeus Fabricius, 1775: 817 .

Bolboceras coryphaeus (Fabricius) : Westwood 1848a: 386; 1848b: 355; 1852: 23, pl. iv ®gure 13 (Redescr.); Boucomont 1902: 4; 1912: 9; Paulian 1941: 64 (Redescr., Transl.).

Bolbodius coryphaeus (Fabricius) : Krikken 1984: 35.

Bolboceras capicola PeÂringuey, 1908: 637 , pl. xviii ®gures 7, 8, 9; Boucomont 1912: 8; Paulian 1941: 64 (syn. of Bolboceras coryphaeus ).

Description l

Body length. 15.0± 16.9 mm.

Colour. Mid-brown to dark brown, rarely light brown, but scutellum and forebody slightly darker.

Head. Dorsal surface asetose except for labrum. Outer margin of mandible slightly sinuate and anteriorly more strongly curved inward. Labrum (®gure 24a) with few scattered setae; declivous in anterior third and posterior two-thirds, transverse carina feebly developed or obsolete; anterior margin sinuate. Clypeus (®gures 24a, 28b) vertically inclined to upright horn on each side at antero-lateral angle; horns slightly divergent, more or less inclined anteriorly, U-shaped and carinate between; posterior armature lacking; lateral carina raised and distinct above antennal insertion, continuing from there in a slightly arcuate line to almost posterior end of frons, but feebly developed adjacent to eye-canthus; antero-lateral angle of genae sharply raised. Frons (®gures 24a, 28b) lightly depressed in middle, with small median tubercle near posterior end (in one specimen bituberculate longitudinal, short carina). Antennal club with glabrous area of basal segment two-thirds of exposed surface.

Pronotum (®gure 28b). Antero-medially with steep, almost vertical incline to base of two conical horns; horns slightly anteriorly inclined, area between them deeply indented, V-shaped; at posterior pronotal margin with a median longitudinal, elongate swelling; swelling dorsally ¯at, sloping graduall y downward antero-laterally; lateral to swelling with shallow concavity; with large, shallow punctures, more densely spaced and increasingly conūent on sides; lateral margin entire.

Scutellum. Basal width about 1.5Ölength (®gure 24b); with some ®ne punctures near base and larger, shallow, partly conūent punctures particularly in the middle.

Elytron. Striae moderately impressed, their punctures separated by three to four puncture diameters (®gure 24b); intervals with double punctation (approximately three to four ®ne and eight minute punctures between two striae).

Metasternum. As in generic description but length of longitudinal suture variable, either reaching meso-metasternal suture (®gure 24a) or not reaching it (®gure 24d).

Legs. Protibia ®ve-dentate. Metatibia in lateral view elongate, only feebly broadening apically; with subapical carina distinctly bilobed; with toothlike projections arranged in two rows above subapical carina. Metatarsus lacking subapical setae on tarsomeres 2±4.

Male genitalia. Aedeagus as in ®gure 28d±f.

Distribution (®gure 32). The species appears to be endemic to the southwestern Cape.

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE, l Scarabaeus coryphaeus Fabricius :`Coryphaeus Fab. Lees Cabt.’ [hand-written in ink by Hope]/`?? [illegible] Pl 16? [illegible] 150’ [later pencil annotation]/`Scarabaeu s coryphaeus ’ [unknown handwriting] ( OXUM), attached a typical Westwood mouthparts dissection on a card ; HOLOTYPE, l Bolboceras capicole PeÂringuey :`Darling [33.23S 18.23E] C.C., J. Th. Bari [?, illegible], 1905’/`Type SAM/ Ent 5081’ /`coryphaeus F., H.Andreae det.’ /` Bolbocera s capicole typ. PY’ [handwriting PeÂringuey] ( SAMC) .

Additional material examined (seven specimens). South Africa: 1, l no locality data but` Bolboceras coryphaeus Fabr. ’/`Agrees with typical ®gure G.J.A.’/`5957 Vigor’s Coll. ’ ( BMNH) ; 1, l` Stellenbosch [33.56S 18.51E], J. C. Dendy 1928’/`coryphaeus F., H.Andreae det.’/`’l /`scabricolle’ ( SAMC) ; 1, l Stellenbosch , 27.iv.1927, Dippenaar ( TMSA) ; 1, l Stellenbosch , Cape, 24.v.1981, C. R. Owen ( COCS) ; 1m, Stellenbosch , 10.x.1947, J. M. Punn ( SAMC) ; 1, l Wellington [33.38S 19.00E], Cape, 25.viii.1981, C. R. Owen ( COCS) ; 1, l South Africa, Cap de B.esp. ( ISNB) .

Comments. Type material described by Fabricius and housed in the Hope Collection, Oxford, is not available on loan. The identity of the species was, however, con®rmed by Dr G. McGavin, curator of the Hope collection, who also supplied all the label information.

The species was placed into the monotypic genus Bolbodius by Krikken (1984) which is now transferred to the genus Bolboceratex . It exhibits all the generic features and particularly the very distinct aedeagal type with modi®ed parameres that characterize the genus Bolboceratex .

The single female specimen from Stellenbosch is considered to be the matching female to the males of Bolboceratex coryphaeus (Fabricius) . It has been excluded from the above description due to its poor condition. It agrees with the generic characteristics of Bolboceratex such as general shape of the scutellum, shape of the metasternum and posterior end of prosternum and setation of the metafemur. The following character states are discernible and shared with males of Bolboceratex coryphaeus : size, sinuate labrum, glabrous area occupying two-thirds of basal segment of antennal club, speci®c shape of scutellum, elytral punctation and ®vedentate protibia. In addition, the female is very similar to the females of the closely related Bolboceratex vanwyki (see above). The female (®gure 28a) diOEers from the males in cephalic armature, i.e. anterior clypeal carina is not horned, instead a trituberculate transverse posterior carina is present between the eye-canthi. It also diOEers in pronotal ornamentation, i.e. no distinct protuberances are present except for four slight rounded swellings on the anterior part of the pronotum, similar to Bolboceroides capensis . A separate dorsal aspect of the female’ s head is not illustrated here because the dorsal surface is mostly very worn. With no apparent diOEerences in cephalic armature between Bolboceratex coryphaeus and Bolboceratex vanwyki , the illustration of the latter (®gure 25b) is applicable.

One of the above-listed males was identi®ed as`scabricolle’. This identi®cation is clearly wrong because the brief, original description of Bolboceras scabricollis from the Cape by Westwood (1848a: 355) mentions a short, trilobate transverse carina on the head and three indistinct, longitudinal impressions on the pronotum. Paulian (1941), on the other hand, tentatively placed Bolboceras scabricollis Westwood in synonymy with Bolboceras indubium PeÂringuey and added that he never viewed type material of both species. He claimed that the type of the former species is deposited at BMNH. We could not trace the type in any collection and the identity of the species remains unclear. If all, the characteristics mentioned in Westwood’s description might match females of Bolboceratex coryphaeus or Bolboceratex vanwyki .