Pseudohesperus tyto, 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 : 509-511

Pseudohesperus tyto sp. nov.

( Figs. 23–27 )

Type locality. Ethiopia, Shoa, Sodere.

Type material. HOLOTYPE: J, ‘ ETHIOPIA: Shoa , Sodere, 1971 // HOLOTYPE Pseudohesperus tyto sp. nov. Hromádka det. [red oblong label, printed]’ ( MRAC) . PARATYPES: ETHIOPIA: 3 JJ, Abessin , Maraco, 5.v.1914 ( LHPC) ; 1 J, Abyssinie // Tottenham megalopoides Tottenham , TYPE [ochre oblong label, handwritten] ( IRSB) . DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: 1 J, Congo Belge, Libenge , 29.iv.1948, R. Cremer – M. Neuman ( IRSB) .

Description. Body length 8.3–8.9 mm, length of fore body (to end of elytra) 4.2–4.6 mm.

Colouration. Head and pronotum black, scutellum slightly pitchy, abdomen black, conspicuously blue-golden iridescent, mandibles, maxillary and labial palpi brown, anterior half of palpomere 3 yellow-brown, ventral side of antennomere 1 yellow-brown, dorsal side and antennomeres 2 and 3 dark brown, remaining antennomeres black, legs pitchy with femora hardly lighter.

Head markedly transverse, wider than long (ratio 32: 22), parallel-sided, posterior angles obtusely rounded, bearing one long black bristle each. Eyes flat, hardly longer than temples (ratio 10: 9), base straight. Four coarse punctures present between eyes, distance between medial interocular punctures 2.5 times as long as distance between medial and lateral puncture. Middle portion of head with relatively wide impunctate longitudinal band. Each side and temporal area with many punctures of variable size. Surface with very fine microsculpture.

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

Pronotum highly convex, hardly wider than long (ratio 33: 31), each anterior angle strongly deflexed, obtusely rounded, posterior angles conspicuously rounded. Middle portion of pronotum with wide impunctate longitudinal band. Each dorsal row irregular, consisting of four large and 5–6 small but distinct punctures, number of punctures difficult to state owing to its irregularity; other similarly small and 1–2 larger punctures diffusely scattered over whole lateral area. Surface with microsculpture similar to that on head.

Scutellum finely punctate, punctures as large as eye-facets, separated by one puncture diameter in transverse direction; setation black.

Elytra vaguely wider than long (ratio 42: 40), very slightly widened posteriad. Punctation fine and dense, diameter of punctures somewhat larger than those on scutellum, separated by 1–1.5 puncture diameters. Surface without microsculpture; setation greyish.

Legs. Metatarsus as long as metatibia. Metatarsomere 1 longer than metatarsomere 5. Relative lengths of metatarsomeres 1–5: 1 = 8 units, 2 = 4 units, 3 = 3.5 units, 4 = 3 units and 5 = 6 units.

Abdomen slightly narrowed from visible tergite III towards apex. First three visible tergites with two basal lines, elevated area between lines sparsely punctate. Base of each tergite finely and densely punctate, gradually becoming finer and much sparser towards posterior margin of tergite. Surface between tergites without microsculpture; setation similar to that on elytra.

Male. Protarsomeres 1–4 simple, each with few modified pale setae laterally. Sternite VIII ( Fig. 26 ), sternite IX ( Fig. 27 ), aedeagus ( Figs. 23–25 ).

Female. Protarsomeres 1–4 of the same shape as in male.

Differential diagnosis. Pseudohesperus tyto sp. nov. may be distinguished from P. tauraco sp. nov. by a wider and densely punctate head and different shape of the aedeagus, from P. eccoptomus by shorter eyes, finer punctation of the abdomen and a different shape of the aedeagus, and from P. proselytus by a wider head, longer antennae, paler antennomere 1 and denser punctation of the scutellum and abdomen.

Note. I have found this new species under the name Philonthus megalopoides identified by Tottenham in the collection of IRSB, but the species has never been formally described.

Etymology. The name of this species, a noun in apposition, is the Latin generic name of the African grass-owl Tyto capensis (Smith, 1834).

Distribution. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia.

Fig. 41. Distribution of the Afrotropical Pseudohesperus . ● – P. apsilus sp. nov.; ♣ – P. bafutensis ( Levasseur, 1967) ; ♥ – P. conradti ( Bernhauer, 1912) ; ▼– P. eccoptomus ( Tottenham, 1962) ; × – P. natalensis ( Scheerpeltz, 1956) ; ○ – P. proselytus ( Herman, 2001) ; ◊ – P. tauraco sp. nov.; * – P. tyto sp. nov.; + – P. varanus sp. nov.

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).