Philonthus cliens Eppelsheim, 1890

Hromádka, Lubomír, 2009, Revision of the Afrotropical species of the Philonthus caffer species group (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Philonthina), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 49 (1), pp. 161-190 : 172-173

Philonthus cliens Eppelsheim, 1890

( Figs 21–24 )

Philonthus cliens Eppelsheim, 1890: 277 (resurrected from synonymy by SCHILLHAMMER (2004: 322)). Philonthus aeneipennis var. cliens: FAUVEL (1903: 159) . Philonthus aeneipennis var. lindemanni Scheerpeltz, 1960: 5 .

Type locality. India, Nagpore.

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: J, ‛Nagpore, India centr., Dr. D. Bomford [white oblong printed label] // cliens Eppel. spec. propria. det Gridelli [white oblong label, handwritten] / / aeneipennis Boh. var. [white oblong label handwritten] // quisquilarius v. inquinatus [white oblongblabel] // Philonthus cliens, Eppelsheim , HOLOTYPUS [red oblong label, handwritten] ’ ( NHMW).

Additional material examined. BOTSWANA: 6 spec., ‘ 6 km E Kakfontein, 6.iii.1993, 20°04′24″S / 20°50′05″E, lux, M. Uhlig, leg.’ ( ZMHB). INDIA: 1 J, ‘Nagpore, // Philonthus n. sp. Epp. // Philonthus cliens, Epp. ’, det. Schillhammer ( ZMHB).

Redescription. Body length 7.5 mm, length of fore body (to end of elytra 3.5 mm).

Colouration. Head black, pronotum, scutellum and abdomen black-brown, elytra red, shoulders narrowly smoky black, maxillary and labial palpi yellow-brown, antennomeres 1–2 and anterior half of antennomere 3 yellow-brown, remaining antennomeres brown-black, legs yellow-brown.

Head as wide as long, narrowed posteriad from posterior margin of eyes, posterior angles each with one long and several short black bristles. Eyes as long as temples, slightly convex. Four punctures between eyes, distance between medial interocular punctures about 4 times as large as distance between medial and lateral interocular punctures. Posterior margin of eyes with 4 coarse punctures. Temporal areal almost impunctate. Dorsal surface with very fine irregular microsculpture here and there.

Antennae long and slender, reaching posterior fifth of pronotum when reclined. Antennomere 1 longer than antennomere 11, antennomere 2 shorter than antennomere 3. Relative length of antennomeres: 1 = 7.5; 2 = 4; 3 = 5; 4–6 = 3.5; 7–8 = 3; 9–10 = 2.5; 11 = 4.5.

Pronotum highly convex, somewhat longer than wide (ratio 28: 25), slightly narrowed anteriad, posterior angles markedly rounded. Each dorsal row with 5 fine punctures, punctures 1–4 equidistant, distance between punctures 4–5 somewhat larger than distance between punctures 1–4. Each sublateral row with 2 punctures, puncture 1 situated approximately behind level of puncture 3 of dorsal row. Microsculpture similar to that on head.

Scutellum very coarsely and densely punctate, punctures larger than eye-facets, slightly contiguous here and there.

Elytra combined as wide as long, slightly widened posteriad. Punctation somewhat coarser and sparser than that on scutellum, separated by a puncture diameter, or somewhat smaller here and there; setation yellow-brown.

Legs. Metatibia as long as metatarsus. Metatarsomere 1 as long as metatarsomere 5. Relative length of metatarsomeres: 1 = 6; 2 = 2.5; 3–4 = 2; 5 = 6.

Abdomen parallel-sided anteriorly, very gradually narrowed from visible tergite III towards apex. Elevated area between two basal lines on first three visible tergites impunctate. Punctation at base of all tergites finer and denser than that on elytra, gradually becoming finer and much sparser towards apex of each tergite. Setation similar to that on elytra.

Male. Protarsomeres 1–3 markedly dilated, sub-bilobed, covered with modified pale setae ventrally, protarsomere 4 distinctly narrower than preceding ones, triangular.Aedeagus ( Figs 21–24 ).

Female. Unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Philonthus cliens is similar to P. kenyanus in most characters, but differens as follows: head from posterior margin of eyes distinctly narrowed posteriad, pronotum longer, punctation of elytra coarser and somewhat sparser. Both species also differ by the shape of the aedeagus.

Bionomics. Unknown.

Distribution. Botswana, India (this paper); Nepal, Nigeria, Senegal, ‘Tanganyika’ (HERMAN 2001).

Figures

Figs. 12–24. 12–13 – Philonthus biguttulus Fauvel, 1907 (Côte d’Ivoire); 14–16 – P. bucorvus sp. nov.; 17–20 – P. caffer Boheman, 1848; 21–24 – Philonthus cliens Eppelsheim, 1890. 12, 14, 17, 21 – aedeagus, ventral view, 13 – paramere with sensory peg setae, ventral view; 15, 18, 22 – aedeagus, lateral view; 16, 20 – male sternite IX, ventral view; 19, 23 – aedeagus without paramere, ventral view; 24 – apex of paramere with sensory peg setae, ventral view.