The Laccophilus laeticulus -group

Diagnosis. Members of this group are characterised by: body dorso-ventrally flattened (not subcylindrical); elytra dark ferrugineous to dark brown with distinct pale subbasal transverse band; dorsal reticulation double (discernible at least on pronotum disk and scutellar region of elytra); metacoxal plates with weakly developed semicircular stridulation apparatus; metacoxal process posteriorly truncate, not expanded; posterior margin of apical abdominal ventrite modified, strongly sinuate on both sides of midline, with medial part distinctly produced; male apical abdominal ventrite strongly asymmetric, with distinct process on left side; median lobe of aedeagus in lateral view slightly angled, narrowing distinctly from middle to apex, with dorsal outline close to apex smooth (without minute ridges). The laeticulus -group is exclusively Afrotropical (mainland Africa south of Sahara and Madagascar).

Species list. With the species newly described below, the laeticulus -group comprises the following species (distribution data for previously described species from Biström et al. 2015):

- Laccophilus laeticulus Régimbart, 1895 (from Guinea and Sierra Leone);

- Laccophilus occidentalis Biström, Nilsson & Bergsten, 2015 (from Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Central African Republic and Zaire);

- Laccophilus rakouthae sp. nov. (known only from the Ankaratra massif in central-southern Madagascar);

- Laccophilus transversovittatus Biström, Nilsson & Bergsten, 2015 (widespread Madagascar endemic).