Pseudomesolestes brittoni Mateu, 1956

Rasool, Iftekhar, Abdel-Dayem, Mahmoud S., Felix, Ron F. F. L. & Aldhafer, Hathal M., 2018, The Dromiusina Bonelli, 1810 of southwestern Saudi Arabia with description of a new species (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiini), ZooKeys 771, pp. 73-103 : 73

Pseudomesolestes brittoni Mateu, 1956 Figures 19, 33, 45, 53

Mesolestes brittoni Mateu, 1956: 66.

Type locality.

Yemen, Kamaran Island.

Type depository.

Male in BMNH.

Material examined.

Holotype: Male labeled "Holotype [red label]" / “stones” / "S. Arabia: Kamaran. I. 27-11-1903, Dr. M. Cameron. B.M. 1928-109" / " Mesolestes (Pseudomesolestes) brittoni , J. Mateu det." / "Holotype [rounded label, red boarder]" [BMNH] (Fig. 33 in this work).

Description.

Small beetle (Fig. 33) 2.55 mm. Color: frons and vertex black; clypeus, labrum, dorsum and ventrum of head and thorax, mouthparts, elytra, antennomeres I and femora -dark brown; rest of the antennomeres dark brown; elytra with two pale testaceous elongate spots, one after humeri covering intervals IV–VI and second round small spot near apex of elytra, covering intervals IV and V; tibiae and tarsomeres pale testaceous. Microsculpture: Head, pronotum and elytra with granulated microsculptures, clypeus and labrum with transverse lines. Head: as long as wide HL 0.56 mm and HW 0.58 mm as wide as pronotum; tempora short (Fig. 19). Pronotum: Transverse, PL 0.42 mm and PW 0.58 mm, narrowed posteriorly, sinuate before the basal angles, base straight in the middle with weak angles (Fig. 19). Elytra: Widened posteriorly, apical margins transversally truncate; striae II with fine punctures. Claws smooth. Aedeagus: Small (Fig. 45) AL 0.61 mm, in lateral view, aedeagus slightly curved dorsally and ventrally; thick from base to apical lamina; apical lamina narrowed, short and slightly curved before end with a small tooth dorsally; base of aedeagus also with a small tooth.

Affinities.

Pseudomesolestes quadriguttatus is the only other specie recorded from Saudi Arabia which is close to P. brittoni in shape of head and pronotum, but can be distinguished by granulated microsculptures on head, pronotum and elytra, wrinkles on dorsum of pronotum along the medial impression; shape of testaceous spots; dark brown femora, aedeagus with single elongate endophallus armature and short apical lamina.

Geographical distribution.

This species was originally described from Yemen ( Mateu 1956) and also recorded from Saudi Arabia ( Mateu 1979, Kabak 2017). It is confined to Arabian Peninsula and exemplifies Arabian chorotype.