Craspedophorus stanleyi Alluaud, 1930

Häckel, Martin, 2016, A contribution to the knowledge of the subfamily Panagaeinae Hope, 1838 from Africa. Part 1. Revision of the Craspedophorus reflexus group (Coleoptera: Carabidae), Zootaxa 4061 (5), pp. 504-526 : 520-521

12. Craspedophorus stanleyi Alluaud, 1930

(Plate 3, Figs 21, 22, Plate 4, Fig. 32)

Craspedophorus stanleyi Alluaud, 1930: 5 (type loc. “Stanleyville” [=Democratic Congo: Orientale Province: Kisangani]). Burgeon 1935: 181, Häckel et Farkač 2012: 83.

Type material. Holotype (♀): “Stanleyville [handwritten white label // Stanleyi / Type. [handwritten in black ink] / Alluaud det. 1930 [printed in brown ink, combined with handwritten corrections in black ink]” (Plate 3, Fig. 22, MNHN, Alluaud's Collection).

Other material examined. Tanzania. 1 ♂: “Africa or., Kidugala [Iringa Region], 63., n. sp.?“ (Plate 3, Fig. 21, MNHN).

Note. The original description of this species was based on a broken specimen, labelled “Stanleyville“.

Description (in part, see Alluaud 1930: 5). “Length 22.5 mm, width 10 mm. Very special form, because of disproportion between maximum width of pronotum (6 mm) and elytra (10 mm), widely ovoid, and because of configuration of elytral maculae, with spots interleaved with black intervals. Palps and antennae absent in the only specimen I have. Head small, with diminutive mandibles. Pronotum with lateral margins wide, elevated, disc coarsely punctured; hind angles rounded, with a small indentation at base level. Elytral striae very fairly punctured, intervals throughout densely punctured except maculae. Humeral macula comprised of three elongated spots on intervals 4, 6 and 8, preapical macula also comprised of three spots, each of different length, located on same intervals as in humeral macula, in addition with a small yellow spot on 7th interval; spot on 6th interval twice longer than spots on intervals 4 and 8. Ventrites without crenulation on posterior margins. Metepisterna twice longer than wide. Sternites more coarsely and less densely punctured near margins, more finely punctured at middle. Tarsi with ventraldiffuse brushes of setae. It fairly resembles C. reflexus ( Fabricius, 1781) by similarly shaped pronotum, but because of disproportion between diminutive head with pronotum and bloated back, C. stanleyi does not resemble any other species of the genus known to me” [from French].

This type could not be sexed with certainty. The shape of the preserved labial palps seems to suggest a female (Plate 3, Fig. 22). Alluaud‘s collection ( MNHN) contains a male specimen from Kidugala (Iringa, Tanzania), which I dissected and which in my opinion has the pronotal shape and elytral coloration approaching the (so far unknown) male of C. stanleyi (Plate 3, Fig. 21). Until a female becomes available from the same locality, or a male is found to match the type female, I provisionally regard this specimen as C. stanleyi .

Distribution. Democratic Congo: Orientale Province; Tanzania: Iringa Region.