Triodontus lemoulti Frolov, Montreuil & Akhmetova

Frolov, Andrey V., Montreuil, Olivier & Akhmetova, Lilia A., 2016, Review of the Madagascan Orphninae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) with a revision of the genus Triodontus Westwood, Zootaxa 4207 (1), pp. 1-93 : 70-72

Triodontus lemoulti Frolov, Montreuil & Akhmetova , new species

( Figs. 35 A–H)

Triodontus nigritus: Paulian, 1977: 1217 , incorrect identification.

Type material. Holotype ( Figs. 35 A–B, D—F), male, “ MADAGASCAR Plantations du Sambirano Collection Le Moult / MUSÉUM PARIS 1938 COLL . A. BOUCOMONT / Triodontus nigritus Brancs. R. Paulian det. / HOLOTYPUS Triodontus lemoulti Frolov et al. 2010 ” (MNHN).

Paratypes: three specimens with the same locality data as the holotype, one male ( MHNG), one male ( IRSNB), one male ( MNHN) ; one male and one female, “ Sambirano [ Sambirano River ] N.O. Madagasc. ” ( MHNG) ; one male and one female, “ Mandritsara [Mahajanga: Randiantsileo, Mandritsara District ] XII-37 Vadon!” ( MNHN) ; one male and two females, “ C. Katsepy ( Majunga ) [15°46′00″S, 46°13′59″E] 24–31.XII.1997 P.Pacholatko leg.” ( NHMB) ; four males, “ MADAGASCAR: Mahajanga Prov., Parc National Tsingy de Bamaraha, 3.4 km 93° E Bekopaka, Tombeau Vazimba elev. 50m, 6–10 Nov 2001 / Parc National Tsingy de Bamaraha , 3.4 km 93° E Bekopaka, Tombeau Vazimba , 50 m a.s.l., pitfall trap in tropical dry forest [19°08′31″S, 44°49′41″E] / 19°8′31″S, 44°49′41″E coll. Fisher, Griswold et al . California Acad. of Sciences, pitfall trap in tropical dry forest, code:BLF4230” ( CASC) ; one male, “ Madagascar Sahapetraka, 10.12.2006, cow dung pasture, Hanski group leg. / (GPS 855) Elev. 1288m, S19 03'05.1'' E 0 46 44'29.8''” ( ZIN) ; two males, “ MADAGASCAR Baie de Baly Jan 2004 dry forest fish baited trap [16°02′31″S, 45°14′45″E] Ilkka Hanski leg.” ( ZIN) .

Diagnosis. Triodontus lemoulti is similar to T. ankarafantsikae in having the abdominal sternite 8 with a more or less developed tubercule medially, but differs from it in having the tubercule concave apically (as opposed to being convex in T. ankarafantsikae ) and lateral lobes of parameres without keel-shaped processes on proximal parts but with semicircular notches (in dorsal view, Fig. 35 E).

Description. Holotype, male. Body length 10.2 mm. Body strongly shiny ( Figs. 35 A–B, D–F). Color of head, pronotum, and elytra dark brown; legs, antennae, and underside of the body brown.

Frontoclypeus convex anteriorly, rounded laterally, anterior margin slightly crenulate and setose in dorsal view. Eyes relatively small (diameter slightly smaller than the distance between eye and gula in ventral view), incompletely divided by canthus into small dorsal and large ventral parts. Frontoclypeus with small tubercles mediad of each eye and with a short, conical horn in the center of the frontoclypeus. The horn is somewhat curved caudally.

Pronotum convex, almost smooth, feebly excavated anteriorly, with 2 feebly distinct tubercles medially. Anterior margin with wide, smooth border, feebly sinuate medially. Posterior margin with fine border, not crenulate, punctate with small, narrow punctures.

Scutellum rounded apically, visible part is about 1/15 length of elytra.

Elytra convex, with distinct humeral humps. Maximum width approximately at the middle. Elytra with 10 feebly visible striae and with oblique line from base of 6th stria to approximately middle of 8th stria. Stria with small, indistinct punctures. Intervals with minute punctures, almost smooth. Base of elytra with an irregular row of coarse punctures each bearing small, yellow seta.

Abdominal sternite 8 with a developed tubercule medially, the tubercule is concave apically ( Fig. 35 G).

Parameres have outer lobes with semicircular notches on proximal parts (in dorsal view, Fig. 35 E) and long feebly sclerotized apices. Internal sac of the aedeagus with 1 strongly sclerotized sclerite, and 2 additional similar sclerites ( Fig. 35 F).

Female. Females differ from males in having long apical spur on protibiae, rugose punctation of head, and small frontoclypeal tubercle ( Fig. 35 C).

Paratypes. Body length of the paratypes varies from 8.5–11.0 mm in males and from 10.0– 10.5 mm in females. Larger male paratype has slightly larger pronotal excavations and smaller males have almost no excavations and very short frontoclypeal tubercle.

Distribution. This species is known from a few localities in western and central Madagascar ( Fig. 35 H). Apparently its distribution range is limited to the dry tropical forests.

Remarks. Paulian (1977) considered the specimen designated here the holotype of T. lemoulti as T. nigritus . Both syntypes of T. nigritus are females but they are similar to females of T. hova in head sculpture, whereas the female of T. lemoulti differs in having a small but distinct frontal tubercle. Collecting localities of the specimens also suggest that T. nigritus is conspecific with T. hova . The former species was described from Nosy Be Island.

Etymology. This species is dedicated to the memory of E. Lemoult, French entomologist and collector of the first half of 19th century.

Figures

FIGURE 35. Triodontus lemoulti¸ holotype male (A, B, D, E), paratype male (F, G), paratype female (C). Habitus in dorsal (A, C) and dorsolateral view (B), labels (D), aedeagus in lateral view and parameres in dorsal and ventral view (E), internal sac of aedeagus (F), abdomen (G), distributional records (H).