Hovorestenia Santos-Silva, 2007

Botero, Juan Pablo, 2020, Review of the genus Hovorestenia Santos-Silva (Coleoptera: Disteniidae), Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 60 (7), pp. 1-10 : 1-2

Hovorestenia Santos-Silva, 2007

Hovorestenia Santos-Silva , in Santos-Silva&Hovore, 2007: 14 ; 2008: 2; Santos-Silva & Martins, 2010: 105; Monné, 2012: 135; 2019: 219.

Type-species: Distenia humeralis Waterhouse, 1880 (original designation).

Redescription: Head prognathous, subparallel-sided behind eyes, then narrowed toward occiput. Eyes finely faceted, upper eye lobes

well-separated, distance between them at least 2.5 times width of upper lobe. Antennae longer than body in both sexes; antennomeres gradually thinner toward apex. Fourth maxillary palpomere sexually dimorphic, securiform in male, fusiform in female. Prothorax slightly wider than long (including lateral tubercles), with median lateral tubercle; pronotum punctate, with four discal gibbosities. Elytra at least four times as long as prothorax; with two distinct areas of punctation:coarse and deeply punctate anteriorly and finely punctate posteriorly, in male, the border between those areas is sharp and marked by a pubescent band, in female the change in punctation is more gradual and the border is not well-defined; elytral apex with long spine at outer angle. Femora subfusiform; apex unarmed. Metatarsomere I as long as II + III togeth- er; metatarsomere V subequal in length to that of II in male, and at least 1.5 times as long as II in female.

Remarks: Hovorestenia differs from the other American genera of Disteniini by the following combination of characters: eyes finely faceted; pronotum lacking central gibbosity; elytra with coarse and deep punctation anteriorly and fine punctation posteriorly; metatarsomere V, about as long as II ( Fig. 1A ) in male, and longer than II ( Figs. 1 B-C) in female.

Hovorestenia resembles Nethinius Fairmaire, 1889 , from Madagascar and the Comores, by the pronotum without central gibbosity combined with the slender body, but differs by the antennae, at most, ⅓ longer than the body (about twice the body length in Nethinius ) and the apex of the elytra with external spine (without external spine in Nethinius ).

In the most recent key for the genera of Disteniini Santos-Silva & Martins (2010) differentiated Hovorestenia in the first couplet by the metatarsomeres II and V subequal in length (metatarsomere V distinctly longer than II in other American genera). Santos-Silva & Martins (op. cit.) proposed the key when the genera was known only by male specimens. Now, with the discovery of new Hovorestenia species, represented by both sexes, this step turned out to be useless for females, which have the metatarsomere V longer than II. Therefore, the first couplet of the key is modified as follows:

1. Elytra with two distinct areas of punctation: coarse and deeply punctate anteriorly and very finely punctate posteriorly;males with metatarsomeres II and V subequal in length .................................... ....................................................... Hovorestenia Santos-Silva,2007

— Elytra uniformly punctate or the punctation gradually finer toward the apex;males and females with metatarsomere V longer than II......2

Figures

Figure 1. Detail of metatarsi: (A) Hovorestenia cleideae sp. nov., holotype male; (B) H. cleideae sp. nov., paratype female; (C) H. espilota sp. nov., holotype female.