Craspedophorus latemaculatus Alluaud, 1930

Häckel, Martin, 2016, A contribution to the knowledge of the subfamily Panagaeinae Hope, 1838 from Africa. Part 1. Revision of the Craspedophorus reflexus group (Coleoptera: Carabidae), Zootaxa 4061 (5), pp. 504-526 : 511-512

8. Craspedophorus latemaculatus Alluaud, 1930

(Plate 3, Fig. 20)

Craspedophorus latemaculatus Alluaud, 1930: 4 (type loc. “Joko, Kamerun ” [= Cameroon: Central]). Häckel et Farkač 2012: 81.

Type material. Holotype (♀): “Joko / Kamerun [printed, white label]// latemacula - / tus Type [handwritten]/ Alluaud, 1930 [printed, correction handwritten in black ink]”, (Plate 3, Fig. 20, MNHN).

Note. The original description of this species was based on three specimens labelled “Joko, Kamerun ”. Description (in part, see Alluaud 1930: 4). “Length 18–19 mm, width 6.5–6.8 mm. Body quite slender, back convex, narrowing toward base and apex, maximum width fairly behind midlength. Elytra with four large orange maculae; humeral macula extending from 2nd interval to margin, preapical macula extending from 3rd to 8th interval.

Palps with terminal article quite securiform; antennae long, reaching the level of humeral macula; 3rd article as long as two proximal combined; articles 4 to 11 densely covered by ferruginous setae. Pronotum shallower-punctured, maximum width at midlength, lateral margins wide and elevated, in front of each posterior angle very small indentation. Elytra with strongly punctured striae, intervals sparsely punctured, punctuation most sparse at location of maculae. Ventral segments on posterior margin without crenulation. Metepisterna longitudinally longer than wide. Tarsi with ventral brushes of ferruginous setae. It quite resembles C. brevicollis (Dejean, 1831) and C. gratus (Chaudoir, 1854) by the great width of elytral maculae, but these species belong to different groups; it also resembles C. grossus ( Hope, 1842) in similarly shaped body and pronotum, but is smaller, narrower, and elytral maculae are markedly longer. Hab. Joko in Cameroon …” [translated from French].

This species markedly differs from others here described namely in the shape and sculpture of the pronotum (cordate, smooth, reminding of species of the C. strachani group sn. Häckel, in press), and also in the extent and shape of the orange elytral maculae. These characters isolate it within the group, but despite that the shape of the metepisternum and absence of crenulations on anterior margins of ventrites place C. latemaculatus in the C. reflexus group. These characters are included in the key to species presented below.

Distribution. Central Cameroon. Known only from the type locality.