Dromica praticola, Schüle, 2007

Schüle, Peter, 2007, Revision of the genus Dromica. Part IV. Species closely related to Dromica albivittis (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae), African Invertebrates 48 (2), pp. 233-244 : 241-243

Dromica praticola sp. n.

Figs 12–17

Pseudodromica ? albivittis Chaudoir, 1865 sensu Cassola 2002: 33 (partim).

Diagnosis: D. praticola resembles D. albivittis and D. heinemanni in the elytral maculation and sculpture, but differs in the shape of the aedeagus, which is slender and sigmoid, ending in a subrectangular apical beak ( Figs 15, 16 ). The aedeagus in D. heinemanni is massive and bulging, with a short, regularly tapering apex ( Fig. 11 ), whereas the aedeagus in D. albivittis is slender and sigmoid, but ends in a short, discshaped, almost circular apical beak ( Fig. 5 ).

Description:

Body length: 12.0–14.0 mm.

Head: Large, dorsally with X-shaped impression on disc between orbital plates; each orbital plate with longitudinal impression apically and smaller circular one basally, another slight impression above frons; discal surface of head striate-rugose, rugae coarse, parallel and curved on orbital plates, parallel, straight in the middle of vertex, diagonal on posterior portions, transverse and finer behind eyes; near anterior margin of pronotum wavy, composing oval-concentric ornament in the middle of vertex; transverse above frons; frons laterally with fine longitudinal rugae, smooth in centre and above antennal insertions; two supra-orbital setae near both eyes; frons with one seta on each side near antennal base; genae glabrous, longitudinally striate-rugose, striae finer towards base of mandibles; dorsal colour of head, frons and clypeus black with coppery and goldengreen reflections; genae black with metallic green and coppery reflections, laterally behind eyes bluish green to violet and coppery; mandibles slender, black, except longitudinal, yellowish patch basally on outer edge and rufescent patch near base of basal tooth; ventro-lateral base with some metallic green reflections; apical tooth long, two central teeth small, one basal tooth slightly bigger than central teeth; labrum of males wider than long, four setae, two sub-lateral impressions basally, centre longitudinally vaulted; median part of labrum protrusive, truncate with rounded edges, outer edges of labrum with two small teeth; colour yellowish, outer margin and around insertions of setae black ( Fig. 13 ); labrum of females proportionally longer, median part more protrusive, median teeth more prominent; colour yellowish, outer margin and centroapical portions except yellowish median area black ( Fig. 14 ).

Maxillary and labial palpi testaceous, except terminal palpomeres black; penultimate labial palpomere long, parallel-curved, moderately thickened.Antennae short in males, reaching base of elytron; scape and antennomeres 2–4 black with strong metallic green, golden and coppery reflections, four erect setae near tip of scape, five spiniform setae on ventral margin of third and one spiniform setae on ventral margin of antennomere 4; antennomeres 5–11 dark brown to black, finely and evenly pubescent, antennomeres 5–8 slightly thickened, from antennomere 9 narrowing towards tip.

Thorax: Pronotum wider than long, subrectangular, base slightly narrower than apex, anterior and posterior sulcus well pronounced, curved to mid-line; anterior and posterior lobes very narrow, two longitudinal, gibbous protuberances on median lobe, more bulging basally; pronotal surface striate-rugose; rugae coarse, irregularly transverse on disc between protuberances and in median portions of basal and apical lobes, finer and irregularly wavy along lateral margins; oblique, coarse and less dense on protuberances of middle lobe, descending on disc of basal portion of protuberance; dorsal colour same as head; prosternum and mesosternum black, with slight metallic green reflections, glabrous; proepisterna black, with slight metallic violet lustre, glabrous.

Elytra: Elongate, oval, maximum width near middle; humeri indistinct; apices ending in short but pointed sutural spine in males; apex of female with rounded outer edges and short relegated sutural spine; discal punctation of elytra fine, dense, more or less merging together transversely, slightly smaller towards apex; maculation consisting of whitish, slightly elevated supra-marginal band, reaching from base to apex; punctation of lateral area between band and elytral margin less dense, interstices more glossy; elytral disc with row of four or five oblique, disconnected costae, between basal costa and elytral suture another short costa parallel to suture; dorsal colour black with strong coppery and green lustre; epipleura black with metallic reflections; metasternum and metepisternum glabrous.

Legs: Femora black, except ‘knees’ rufescent; tibiae and tarsi basally rufescent, slightly darkened apically; procoxae and mesocoxae anteriorly with white pubescence; metacoxae distally with seven setigerous punctures; one seta near hind outer edge; protrochanters and mesotrochanters pitch-black, with subapical seta.

Abdomen: Abdominal sterna glabrous except one sensorial seta near hind margins on each side; colour black.

Aedeagus slender, sigmoid, ending in long, dorsally subrectangular apical beak; sclerites within inner sac; see Figs 15, 16 .

Holotype: ơ ‘SA, KwaZulu-Natal, Kamberg , 29.3752 ° S: 29.62859 ° E, 1818 m, Grassland \ 8 November 2005, Site 14, Active searching. MDTP No: 50862 \ HOLOTYPUS, Dromica praticola, P. Schüle det. 2007 [red card]’ ( TMSA) .

Paratypes: SOUTH AFRICA: KwaZulu-Natal: ‘ Giant’s Castle SE 29 29 Ad., xii – 1979, C.A: Scholtz [handwritten, transparent on black film] \ coll. Pretoria [handwritten] \ DROMICA albivittis Chd. [handwritten], Det. F. Cassola , 1981 \ PARATYPUS, Dromica praticola, Schüle det. 2003 [red card]’ (1ơ TMSA); ‘SA, KwaZulu-Natal, Kamberg, 29.37331 ° S: 29.62798 ° E, 1814 m, Grassland \ 8 November 2005, Site 13, Active searching. MDTP No: 514 \ PARATYPUS, Dromica praticola, P. Schüle det. 2007 [red card]’ ( 1^PSC); same label data except for MDTP No: 1378 and MDTP No: 1480 ( 2^PSC); ‘SA, KwaZuluNatal, Kamberg, 29.37520 ° S: 29.62859 ° E, 1818 m, Grassland \ 8 November 2005, Site 14, Active searching .

MDTP No: 6010 \ PARATYPUS, Dromica praticola, P. Schüle det. 2007 [red card]’ ( 1^TMSA) ; same label data except for MDTP No : 6586 (1ơ NMSA) ; same label data except for MDTP No :55797 ( 1^TMSA) ; same label data except for MDTP No : 3080 (1ơ PSC) ; ‘ SA, KwaZulu-Natal, Kamberg, 29.38472 ° S: 29.65361 ° E, 1750 m, Grassland \ 13 November 2005, Site 17, Active searching. MDTP No: 6689 \ PARATYPUS, Dromica praticola, P. Schüle det. 2007 [red card]’ ( 1^TMSA) ; ‘ 27.xi.2000 P. Schüle, RSA KWAZULU/NATAL, Loteni Game Reserve , 1800 m -30- \ PARATYPUS, Dromica praticola, Schüle det. 2003 [red card]’ (1ơ PSC) .

Distribution: South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg).

Habitat: D. praticola was collected by the author on Mountain Grassland at about 1800 m a.s.l. in the Loteni Nat. Res. and occurs sympatrically with Lophyra pseudominax Wiesner, 2001 . The specimen was walking slowly on a grassy area on top of a mountain ridge.

Figures

Figs 12–16. D. praticola sp. n., paratypes, all from KwaZulu-Natal: (12) habitus, male, Loteni Nat. Res.; (13, 14) labra: (13) male, Loteni Nat. Res., (14) female, Kamberg Nat. Res.; (15, 16) aedeagus, left and right lateral view, Loteni Nat. Res. Scale bars = 5 mm in Fig. 12 and 1 mm in Figs 13–16.

Fig. 17. Distribution of D. albivittis, D. heinemanni and D. praticola.

Figs 6–11. D. heinemanni sp. n.: (6) habitus, holotype, male, Mpumalanga, 10 km NE Badplaas; (7) elytron, male, KwaZulu-Natal, Carolina; (8) elytron, male, Limpopo, Woodbush Drive; (9, 10) male and female labra, KwaZulu-Natal, Carolina; (11) aedeagus, holotype. Scale bars = 5 mm in Figs 6–8 and 1 mm in Figs 9–11.

Figs 3–5. D. albivittis, holotype, male, KwaZulu-Natal, Durban: (3) habitus, (4) labrum, (5) aedeagus. Scale bars = 5 mm in Fig. 3 and 1 mm in Figs 4, 5.