Saprositellus santaritae Stebnicka, 2003

Stebnicka, Zdzisława Teresa, 2003, The Genus Saprositellus Balthasar, with Descriptions of Three New Neotropical Species (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Odontolochini), The Coleopterists Bulletin 57 (4), pp. 451-457 : 455-456

Saprositellus santaritae Stebnicka , new species

( Fig. 3 )

Description of Male. Length 2.9 mm, greatest width 1.0 mm. Form ( Fig. 3 ) elongate, almost parallel-sided; color dark brown, legs reddish brown, surface microreticulate. Clypeus slightly emarginate anteriorly, edge on each side of emargination with 6–7 denticles; surface just above emargination shining and here minutely transversely granulate, punctures above granulate area up to frontal suture very fine and shallow, separated by about one diameter, vertex with band of round, rugose punctures; frontal suture marked by slightly thickened line; gena small rounded. Pronotum strongly convex, side slightly arcuate, finely margined, lateral tooth acutely prominent, posterior angle excised, base straight, finely crenate with distinct marginal line; pronotal disc with shallow longitudinal furrow and small fovea laterally, surface punctures everywhere very close, almost contiguous, rugose. Elytra parallel-sided, apex with minute setae visible under high magnification; base as wide as pronotal base, humeral denticle small, acute; striae deep, slightly wider than intervals with deep coarse punctures crenating inner margins of intervals, punctures separate each other by about 1/3 of their diameter; intervals carinate, microreliculate. Ventral sclerites alutaceous, surface punctate; punctures of mesosternum and metasternum equal in size, smaller than those of pronotal disc, generally separated by about one diameter; prosternal process widely triangular, punctate; mestasternal midline shallow, lateral metasternal triangle marked by very shallow concavity; abdominal sternites arcuate, minutely fluted along sutures, punctate from side to side, punctures two times smaller than those on mesosternum, disc of pygidium with fine punctures same size as those on penultimate sternite. Profemur wide, perimarginal groove deep, surface punctures same size as those of penultimate sternite; meso- and metafemora slender, posterior femoral lines strong, complete, posterior edge straight, unlobed; meso- and metatibiae as long as femora, slightly sinuate, minutely and scarcely setigerous; metatibia with fine external spine and seta-like apical spurs, tarsus very short, segments subquadrate; basal tarsomere of metatarsus slightly shorter than upper tibial spur and longer than second tarsomere.

Female unknown.

Affinity. Saprositellus santaritae is most closely related to S. ariquemes n. sp. sharing with that species a similar sculpture of the pronotum and elytra. It differs from ariquemes by having the less arcuate elytra with distinctly finer humeral denticle.

Type Material. Holotype male ( HAHC): ‘‘ Panama, Colón Prov., Santa Rita Ridge , 250 m, 9.23N, 79.45W, 10.VI.1977, H. Stockwell. ’’

Etymology. Derived from the name of type locality ‘‘Santa Rita.’’

Figures

Figs. 1–4. 1) Saprositellus denticulatus Balthasar, habitus; 2–4) left half of body; 2) S. ariquemes n. sp.; 3) S. santaritae n. sp. 4) S. peruanus n. sp.