Orateon, Lackner & Ratto, 2014

Lackner, Tomáš & Ratto, Giovanni, 2014, Orateon praestans, a remarkable new genus and species from Yemen (Coleoptera: Histeridae: Saprininae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 54 (2), pp. 515-527 : 516-519

Orateon gen. nov.

Diagnosis. Rather small ovoid saprinine genus with entirely punctate dorsal surface, complete set of dorsal elytral striae, strongly narrowed pronotum with correspondingly small head; pronotal hypomeron, elytral epipleuron, lateral disk of metaventrite, metepisternum, metepimeron and all abdominal ventrites laterally with amber setae. Sub-apical tooth on both mandibles large, well developed; labrum with labral pits adorned with two setae; eyes flattened; penultimate labial palpomere with a single long seta. Antennal club almost completely glabrous apart from one deep, almost circular slit-like sensory area on apical surface. Both sets of prosternal striae present, prosternal process compressed laterally, carinal prosternal striae very approximate, almost confluent; prosternal foveae absent. Protibial spur large, bent, growing out from near the protarsal base, claws of last segment of tarsomere as long or longer than it. Femora and tibiae not particularly thickened; posterior surface of both meso- and metatibiae with long dense amber setae. Eighth sternite of male genitalia apically with rather small velum covered with short sparse setae; spiculum gastrale gradually dilated from middle towards both ends; apex of aedeagus blunt, basal piece of aedeagus rather long. Differential diagnosis. Externally resembling Alienocacculus Kanaar, 2008 and Terametopon Vienna, 1987 with which it shares three characters: 1) pen-ultimate labial palpomere with a single, long seta; 2) presence of large protibial spur growing out from near tarsal insertion; 3) ciliate elytral epipleuron. Largely, Orateon differs from the members of Alienocacculus by the absence of prosternal foveae, which are always present in Alienocacculus and from the members of Terametopon it differs by the presence of labral pits and with them associated labral setae. For the complete enumeration of the characters outlining the shared characters and differences between the three aforementioned taxa see also Table 1.

Biology. The type series of this species was collected in the sand of the Tihamah coastal plain ( Fig. 24 ) spreading approximately from Mecca in Saudi Arabia to Aden in Yemen, containing mostly Afrotropical fauna. Beetles were attracted by human faeces, and presumed to have colonized it during the night ; they were present also under the ‘ball’ of human faeces constructed by a couple of dung beetles Metacatharsius inermis (Laporte de Castelnau, 1840) early in the morning, approximately 1 meter from the faeces-baited trap (D. Král, pers. comm 2013).

Distribution. Yemen, Al Hudaydah governorate ( Fig. 25 ).

Etymology. “ Orateon ” from Greek ÓȡĮIJȐȠȞ, is the verbal adjective derived form verb ÓȡȐȦ meaning “to see, to look”. The verbal adjectives derived using the af¿x -IJȐȠȢ, -IJȐĮ, -IJȐȠȞ usually imply necessity or urgency, hence the literal meaning of the name is “the one, that has to be seen”. The ancient Greek word starts with breathing, which was omitted intentionally to connect the name of the beetle to the Modern Greek adjective ȠȡĮȚȠȢ (meaning beautiful) as well. Gender is neuter.

Figures

Figs 24–25. Distribution and habitat of Orateon praestans gen. & sp. nov. 24 – habitat of the new spe- cies in the Tihammah coastal plain (photo: D. Král); 25 – map of Yemen, with the governorate Al Huday- dah (in red); black triangle marking the locality of the new taxon (map based on Wikipedia).