Lebia, Rasool & Abdel-Dayem & Felix & Aldhafer, 2018

Rasool, Iftekhar, Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Felix, Ron F. F. L. & Aldhafer, Hathal M., 2018, A review of the Subtribe Lebiina Bonelli (Lebiini, Carabidae, Coleoptera) from Southwest of Saudi Arabia, Zootaxa 4379 (1), pp. 87-102 : 99

Lebia spec.

Material examined. Total four specimens: Asir: 2 ♀ “ KSA , Asir, Abha, Rayda , N18°11.695' E42°23.818' Alt . 1897 m, 26.IV.2014, (LT)., 2 ♀, “N18°11.679' E42°23.691' Alt. 1851 m, (LT), H. Al Dhafer, M.S. Abdel-Dayem, H.H. Fadl, A. El Turkey , A. Elgarbawy & I. Rasool ”.

Recognition. Medium sized species 7.09–7.50 mm ( Fig. 28 ). Because all specimens are females, it is impossible to study the morphology of the male tibia, notched, crenulate or otherwise, and assign it to a certain subgenus. These collected specimens were compared with Lebia (L.) zanzibarica Chaudoir, 1878 , paratype. that resembles this species rather much, for instance generally in colour and pattern. But there are differences: apart from slight differences in pattern (but specimens of species like L. nilotica , with comparable pattern, also vary a lot in pattern), the tempora are less perpendicular. Furthermore, in L. zanzibarica the frons and disc of the pronotum are much more coarsely punctured, while in L. spec. the frons is smooth and only sporadic punctured. Also the sculpture of the pronotum is different.

The fact that the collected specimens do not correspond with nearby Afro-Ethiopian species, studied in the collection of the Tropical Africa Museum, Tervuren, Belgium, suggests that these specimens belong to a new species. However, we cannot describe it yet, because of the lacking of males so far.

Ecological note. This species was collected at elevation 1851–1897 m in Rayda Nature Reserve. Adult beetles were attracted by UV–light in the steep slopes covered by different vegetation that dominated by cactus shrubs, Opuntia ficus-indica and wild olive trees, Olea europaea (Wall. ex G. Don) Cifferi (Oleaceae) .

Figures

FIGURES 27–29. Habitus of Lebia and Matabele: (27) Syntype. L. natalensis Chaudoir, 1871 (28) L. spec. (29) M. arabica Mateu, 1986.