Pectotibialis Tshernyshev, 2021

Tshernyshev, Sergei E., 2021, Pectotibialis paghmanensis Tshernyshev gen. nov. - a new genus and species of soft-winged flower beetle (Coleoptera, Cleroidea, Malachiidae) from Afghanistan, European Journal of Taxonomy 775, pp. 1-14 : 3-4

Pectotibialis Tshernyshev gen. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:D03DBCE5-498E-4993-97EF-C0F6B741D9E4

Type species

Pectotibialis paghmanensis Tshernyshev sp. nov. fixed by monotypy in the present paper.

Diagnosis

Moderately small sized (ca 3.8–4.1 mm) soft-winged flower beetles with the body elongate, narrow, parallel-sided, slightly expanded posteriorly, with two or three apical ventrites of the abdomen not covered by elytra. Metallic green upperside with yellow or yellow-brown parts, i.e., labrum, labium, mandibles, palpi, mouthparts and antennae, tibiae and tarsi in all legs, coxae and trochanters of anterior legs and areas of joining between them in intermediate and posterior legs. Antennae weakly flabellate, not long, expanding over the base of elytra, with the 3 rd antennomere wide triangular. Head small, narrower than pronotum, interocular area slightly impressed and sculptured, frons tuberculate, eyes simple, not large, slightly protruding. Pronotum almost completely equilateral, narrowly transverse, impressed near basal margin, disk convex with wide subtriangular tubercle in the middle and looking bituberculate, basal side and basal half of lateral sides slightly flattened and distinctly marginate, and anterior side indistinctly marginate. Elytra parallel or slightly widened just below the middle, not covering two or three apical segments of the abdomen, coarsely punctured, with distinct and weakly protruding shoulders; apices evenly rounded, simple. Hind wings normally developed (in both sexes). Anterior tarsi with distinct transverse small comb above the 2 nd tarsomere and wide triangular 1 st tarsomere; claws very short and hidden by round transparent plates at base. Anterior tibiae strongly excavate dorsally in apical half with elongate tip looking like initial tarsomere, not swollen; intermediate and posterior tibiae simple, not swollen or emarginate, with the setae similar to that in tarsal comb arranged in apical edge near tarsus. Femora wide, roundly swollen, anterior with a dent in middle. Anterior trochanters oval and impressed to the basal half of the femur.

Metathorax swollen and impressed in the middle with two appendages, one lamellate transverse above, and the other longitudinal with a vertical round semi-transparent plate at apex. Pygidium elongate, equilateral, evenly rounded distally, ultimate abdominal ventrite bilaciniate, narrow, transverse, evenly narrowed dorsally and emarginate in the middle, aedeagus simple, weakly curved dorsally, narrow, with elongate narrow apical lamella, endophallus with a few denticles at apex of inner sac, tegmen long, narrow, with thin, short pointed parameres.

Comparison

Special male characters differentiating Pectotibialis Tshernyshev gen. nov. from all other members in the tribe Apalochrini are given in the key below. The new genus is similar to the genera Dromanthomorphus Pic and Oculapalochrus Tshernyshev in the presence of appendages on the metathorax and tarsal comb above the second tarsomere in the anterior legs of the male, but typical characters that differentiate it are as follows: distinguished from Dromanthomorphus Pic by simple, not widened intermediate tibiae and from Oculapalochrus Tshernyshev by simple eyes; the strongly excavate anterior tibiae in combination with the abbreviated elytra of the new genus are different from both genera.

Notes

This species and genus are known only from Afghanistan, Central Asia.

List of species in the genus Pectotibialis :

1. P. paghmanensis Tshernyshev gen. et sp. nov. ( Afghanistan: Paghman).