Afromicracis brevipilosa Jordal, 2021

Jordal, Bjarte, 2021, Small, uniform, and rarely collected-an integrated taxonomic revision of Afromicracis bark beetles (Coleoptera, Scolytinae), Zootaxa 4981 (1), pp. 70-88 : 82

Afromicracis brevipilosa Jordal , sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:DE45FA12-FAC9-4AE5-BA95-E225BAECF745

( Figs 38, 41, 44 )

Type material. Holotype, female: South Africa, East Cape, Hogsback [GIS: -32.597, 26.961], ex Indigofera , 16.Nov.2006, B. Jordal, leg. Paratype (1): same data as HT . Holotype deposited in SAMC, paratype in ZMUB .

Diagnosis. Asperities on pronotum increasingly scattered towards anterior margin; elytra lightly rugose; interstrial setae very short, as long as broad; female scapus with tiny tuft of setae on its dorsal side.

Description, female. Length 1.0– 1.2 mm, 2.2–2.4 × as long as wide. Colour dark reddish brown. Frons flat, smooth and impunctate just above epistoma, finely granulated above. Antennal scapus apically as broad as pedicel, with fine tuft of setae; club pilose, a procurved suture obscurely marked near apical margin. Eyes separated above by 2.5–2.7 × their width. Pronotum shiny, with asperities on anterior third increasingly separated, subcontiguous near summit to 3–4 × their size near anterior margin; vestiture consisting of bristle-like setae with tiny hair-like setae in between. Elytral striae not impressed, interstriae finely rugose. Interstrial setae short, not longer than broad, truncated on declivity; strial setae minute, not much longer than diameter of a puncture. Legs. Protibiae with one lateral and one or two apical small denticles. Ventrites. Vestiture consisting of long fine setae, slightly shorter on ventrite 1.

Male. Similar to female, except frons more coarsely granulated, scapus with a few short setae.

Etymology. The name is composed of the stem of the Latin nominal adjective brevis, meaning short, the connecting vowel -i, and the nominative feminine adjective pilosa, meaning hairy, referring to the short and well separated setae on the elytra.

Distribution and biology. Only known from the type locality in Hogsback, South Africa. Two females were initiating new galleries in a dead branch of a standing Indigofera bush ( Fabaceae ).

Remarks. Two males were extracted for DNA and not available as paratypes. This was before the fine details between the sexes were noted.

Figures

FIGURES 38–46. Dorsal lateral and front view of Afromicracis brevipilosa female holotype (38, 41, 44), Afromicracis congona female paratype (39, 42, 45), and A. congona female specimen from Cameroon (40, 43, 46).