Cephennodes (Cephennodes) lucipetus, Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013, The first record of the tribe Cephenniini in South Africa, with new species of Cephennomicrus Reitter and Cephennodes Reitter (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 3683 (4), pp. 411-426 : 413-414

Cephennodes (Cephennodes) lucipetus sp. n.

( Figs. 1 , 5–6 , 28 )

Type material. Holotype: REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA (KwaZulu-Natal Prov.): 3, two labels: " RSA (NE) KwaZulu-Natal / - 27.6392S / 32.1583E / Mkhuze Game Res. / 100 m, camping site, at light / 29.11.2012 / leg. P. Jałoszyński" [white, printed]; " CEPHENNODES (s. str.) / lucipetus m. / det. P. Jałoszyński, '13 / HOLOTYPUS' [red, printed] ( TMSA).

Diagnosis. Frons and vertex in male without modifications; median lobe of aedeagus with broad and moderately elongate subtriangular and symmetrical apical part and narrow but blunt apex; the longest apical projection (apical hook) in lateral view evenly curved dorsally.

Description. Body of male ( Figs. 1 ) moderately strongly convex, oval with feebly marked constriction between pronotum and elytra, brown with slightly lighter legs and palps, covered with yellowish vestiture. BL 1.13 mm.

Head broadest at moderately large but strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.15 mm, HW 0.29 mm; vertex and frons confluent, non-modified, in median part only slightly convex; supraantennal tubercles prominent; punctures on head dorsum very fine and inconspicuous, surface of cuticle glossy; setae short and sparse, recumbent to suberect. Antennae moderately long, with slender proximal part and strongly broadened, distinct club composed of three terminal antennomeres, AnL 0.50, antennomere I 1.5x as long as broad; II only slightly narrower and shorter than I, 1.2x as long as broad; III–VII subequal in length and width, each distinctly narrower and shorter than II and about as long as broad; VIII about as long as VII but slightly broader, slightly transverse; IX much broader and slightly longer than VII, distinctly transverse; X much broader and slightly longer than IX, distinctly transverse; XI nearly as long as IX–X together, broader than X and with pointed apex.

Pronotum semi-oval, broadest slightly anterior to middle; PL 0.38 mm, PW 0.50 mm. Anterior margin weakly arcuate; lateral margins strongly convex in anterior third and slightly rounded in posterior half, slightly convergent towards nearly right and sharply-marked posterior pronotal corners; posterior margin deeply bisinuate; lateral margins thickened and sharply demarcated from disc; lateral ante-basal foveae shallow but distinct, each located much closer to posterior than to lateral pronotal margin. Punctures on median part of pronotal disc inconspicuous, fine and sparse, punctures becoming denser but not larger toward lateral margins of pronotum, punctures on thickened area along lateral margins are small but dense and slightly coarse. Setae on pronotal disc moderately long and dense, suberect.

Elytra as convex as pronotum, oval, broadest in anterior third; EL 0.60 mm, EW 0.53 mm, EI 1.14; subhumeral lines well-developed and carinate, as long as 0.4x EL; basal elytral foveae located closer to lateral margin of mesoscutellum than to humerus; elytral apices non-modified, separately rounded. Punctures on elytra small and shallow but dense and more distinct than those on pronotal disc, those on anterior half of each elytron separated by spaces subequal to puncture diameters. Hind wings well developed.

Legs moderately long and slender; all tibiae nearly straight.

Aedeagus ( Figs. 5–6 ) simonis type, AeL 0.15 mm; median lobe with broad subtriangular and blunt apex, apical projections broad, with robust and long hook evenly curved dorsally, in ventral view left lateral margin of dorsal projection just beneath apex strongly concave; parameres slender, their apices not extending above apex of median lobe.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. Eastern RSA, KwaZulu-Natal Prov. ( Fig. 28 ).

Etymology. The specific epithet lucipetus, Latin "seeking light", was chosen because the holotype of this species was attracted to light.

Remarks. Cephennodes lucipetus is highly similar to all its Afrotropical congeners, and additionally its aedeagus resembles that of C. papuanus Jałoszyński, 2010b from Papua New Guinea. However, the new species can be easily distinguished from C. papuanus , C. zanzibaricus ( Schaufuss, 1889) , C. nsukkaensis Jałoszyński, 2010a , C. atewaensis Jałoszyński, 2010a and C. bundibugyoensis Jałoszyński, 2010a on the basis of a nonmodified vertex and frons (all these species have various tubercles, protuberances, carinae or impressions on the head dorsum). From C. ruandae it differs in the body shape; in C. ruandae the pronotum is strikingly broader than elytra, while in C. lucipetus elytra and pronotum have comparable width. Distinguishing C. lucipetus from the remaining Afrotropical congeners requires examination of the aedeagus. The aedeagus of C. lucipetus shows the following major differences compared to its congeners:

- in C. basilewskyi Besuchet, 1962 apices of parameres are clearly extending beyond the apex of median lobe (not exceeding apex in C. lucipetus ), and the apical part of median lobe is clearly shorter and more slender;

- in C. leleupi Besuchet, 1962 the median lobe is much stouter and its apex is broadly rounded, arcuate (subtriangular in C. lucipetus );

- in C. indifferens Besuchet, 1962 the apex of median lobe extends above apical projections (in C. lucipetus apical projections are strongly extending above the apex);

- in C. marginatus Besuchet, 1962 the left lateral margin of median lobe (in ventral view) is deeply concave from middle to apex (in C. lucipetus the concave part is shallow and very short, visible only in subapical region);

- in C. leonensis Castellini, 2008 the apical part of median lobe is strongly projecting and forming nearly parallel-sided, long and slender rod (short and subtriangular in C. lucipetus );

- in C. glabella Castellini, 2007 the apex of median lobe is very short and pointed (longer and blunt in C. lucipetus ), and apices of parameres are extending far above the apex of median lobe (apices not extending above apex of median lobe in C. lucipetus ).

Differences between all species of Cephennodes newly described here are shown in Figs. 5–12 ; most important structures that need to be compared for identifications are indicated with arrows (and these are the shape and size of the apical part of median lobe, length of parameres in relation to the apex of median lobe, and the shape of the apical projections, most importantly the longest projection that forms the apical hook).

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 4. Dorsal habitus of holotype males. Cephennodes lucipetus sp. n. (1); Cephennodes zulunatalensis sp. n. (2); Cephennodes mtubatubanus sp. n. (3); Cephennodes sodwanaensis sp. n. (4).

FIGURES 5 – 12. Aedeagi of holotype males in ventral (5, 7, 9, 11) and lateral (6, 8, 10, 12) views. Cephennodes lucipetus sp. n. (5 – 6); Cephennodes zulunatalensis sp. n. (7 – 8); Cephennodes mtubatubanus sp. n. (9 – 10); Cephennodes sodwanaensis sp. n. (11 – 12). Abbreviations: ah, apical hook; aml, apex of median lobe; ap, apical projections. Arrows indicate structures important for species identification: a, general shape of median lobe and especially the shape of its left lateral margin in ventral view; b, shape of the apical region of median lobe in ventral view; c, position of parameral apices in relation to the apex of median lobe; d, general shape of apical projections in ventral view; e, shape of apical hook in dorsal and lateral views.

FIGURES 28 – 29. Distribution of continental Afrotropical Cephenniini (South Africa magnified in right panel). 28 ― genus Cephennodes (a ― C. leonensis Castellini; b ― C. atewaensis Jałoszyński; c ― C. nsukkaensis Jałoszyński; d ― C. bundibugyoensis Jałoszyński; e ― C. glabella Castellini; f ― C. ruandae (Cauchois); g ― C. indifferens Besuchet; h ― C. basilewskyi Besuchet; i ― C. leleupi Besuchet; j ― C. zanzibaricus (Schaufuss); k ― C. marginatus Besuchet; l ― C. zulunatalensis Jałoszyński; m ― C. sodwanaensis Jałoszyński; n ― C. lucipetus Jałoszyński; o ― C. mtubatubanus Jałoszyński); 29 ― genus Cephennomicrus (p ― Cm. zoiai Castellini; r ― Cm. perpusillus (Reitter); s ― Cm. ubomboensis Jałoszyński; t ― Cm. endroedyi Jałoszyński; u ― Cm. transkeianus Jałoszyński.