Metapogonia snizeki, Bezděk, 2020

Bezdek, Ales, 2020, Metapogonia snizeki sp. nov. and a previously unknown female of M. elgonensis (Burgeon, 1945) (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae, Diplotaxini), ZooKeys 963, pp. 131-140 : 131

publication ID	https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.963.54714
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E4306A1E-BFE4-4E26-B7E0-F32544799B28
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/5EBA52AC-A557-4722-A7AB-43A881518506
taxon LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:act:5EBA52AC-A557-4722-A7AB-43A881518506
treatment provided by	ZooKeys by Pensoft
scientific name	Metapogonia snizeki
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Metapogonia snizeki sp. nov. Figures 1 View Figures 1–5 , 2 View Figures 1–5 , 6 View Figures 6–11 , 7 View Figures 6–11 , 10 View Figures 6–11 , 12 View Figures 12, 13

Type locality.

NEE Tanzania, SSW of Pangani, environs of Pande.

Type material.

Type depositories.

HT and PT no. 1-19, 24-36, 41-84, 87-91, 94-129 in IECA, PT no. 20, 37 in BMNH, PT no. 21, 38 in ISNB, PT no. 22, 39 in MFNB, PT no. 23, 40 in MNHN, PT no. 85, 92 in MRAC, PT no. 86, 93 in NMPC.

Description of holotype

(male). Body length 7.9 mm. Body elongate, convex, surface brown, moderately shiny, anterior and basal margins of pronotum and sutura narrowly darkened (Fig. 1 View Figures 1–5 ). Antennae and palpi yellowish brown. Head (except for a few setae on eye-canthus), pronotum and elytra bare, epipleura covered with short but well-visible setae. Legs and ventral surface with sparse, pale setation.

Head. Clypeus transverse, broadly rounded, slightly emarginate in the middle, with coarse and dense punctures. Frons and vertex less densely punctate. Eye canthus prominent, largely fused with clypeus; borderline between eye canthus and clypeus invisible. Eye large, distinctly extended beyond the canthus. Antenna with 10 antennomeres; club trimerous, slightly shorter than antennal shaft. Antennomeres 1-7 with few isolated, erect setae; club sparsely covered with moderately long, erect setae. Labrum transverse, narrow, completely covered by clypeus, thus not visible from above, with coarse irregular punctures bearing moderately long, erect setae.

Pronotum transverse, convex, widest at about the middle, base broader than anterior margin. Anterior angles prominent, acute-angulate; posterior angles obtuse. Anterior margin with membranous border; anterior marginal line incomplete, interrupted in the middle. Lateral marginal line complete; basal marginal line absent. Punctation coarse, punctures separated by 0.5 or less of their diameter, but never confluent. Scutellum triangulate, approximately as wide as long; apex broadly rounded, sparsely punctate in basal half, nearly impunctate apically, completely bare.

Elytron convex, widest about at middle; sutural angle obtuse-angulate. Surface of elytron covered with coarse, irregular punctures. Basal half of epipleuron with a row of short, recumbent setae. Apical half of lateral margin of elytron with membranous border. Macropterous.

Protibia bidentate, basal teeth in some specimens subobsolete; terminal calcar present. Mesotibia and metatibia slightly expanded apically, covered with semirecumbent setae, at about the middle with short, incomplete, transversal carina armed with 2 or 3 short, thick setae. Terminal calcars of mesotibia and metatibia flattened, nearly blunt apically; upper calcar about 1.2 times as long as lower calcar. Protarsomeres 1-4 considerably dilated (Fig. 12 View Figures 12, 13 ); mesotarsomeres and metatarsomeres 1-4 slightly dilated. Tarsomeres 1-4 on all legs with remarkably shortly and densely macrosetaceous pads ventrally. Tarsomere 5 elongate, ventrally and dorsally with few isolated setae. Claws equal, cleft at the apex.

Ventral surface of thorax densely covered with setiferous punctures, setae short, recumbent. Abdominal sternites 3-7 covered with irregular punctures bearing short recumbent or semirecubent setae, setae becoming denser laterally. Abdominal sternites 6 and 7 distinctly narrowed at midline. Abdominal sternite 8 nearly completely retracted beneath abdominal sternite 7, bare, only apical margin with row of erect setae. Propygidium (= abdominal tergite 7) and abdominal sternite 7 completely fused. Pygidium extremely large, convex, irregularly coarsely punctate, apically covered with moderately long, semirecumbent setae, except of smooth depressed midline. Apical and lateral margins of pygidium distinctly bordered.

Male genitalia. Parameres symmetrical (Figs 6 View Figures 6–11 , 7 View Figures 6–11 ), complex, bare, fused basally.

Variability.

Male paratypes slightly differs in size (total body length 6.8-8.0 mm, 27 specimens measured), some of them are slightly darker than holotype.

Sexual dimorphism.

Female differs from male in the following characters: body length 6.8-7.8 mm (102 specimens measured); antennal club shorter, as long as 6 antecedent antennomeres. Tarsomeres without patches of macrosetae ventrally; pygidium less prominent, nearly flat, with distinct tooth in the centre of lateral margin (Fig. 10 View Figures 6–11 ).

Differential diagnosis.

Metapogonia snizeki sp. nov. and M. elgonensis are the only Metapogonia species with deeply bilobed parameres (Figs 6 View Figures 6–11 , 8 View Figures 6–11 ). All other Metapogonia species share parameres that are more simply shaped (see e.g. Figs 14-16 View Figures 14–16 ). The males of M. snizeki sp. nov. differ from those of M. elgonensis in the shape of the genitalia (compare Figs 6 View Figures 6–11 , 7 View Figures 6–11 and 8 View Figures 6–11 , 9 View Figures 6–11 ) and by the shape of protarsomeres, which are more dilated in M. snizeki sp. nov. (Figs 12 View Figures 12, 13 , 13 View Figures 12, 13 ). The females of these two species are very difficult to differentate from the dorsal view, the best identification character seeming to be the shape of the pygidium. The tooth of the pygidium is located nearly in the middle of its lateral margin in M. snizeki sp. nov. (Fig. 10 View Figures 6–11 ), but distinctly more basally in M. elgonensis (Fig. 11 View Figures 6–11 ).

There are three more Metapogonia species currently known from Tanzania: M. kaszabi (Frey, 1974), M. parvula (Moser, 1918), and M. platypus (Kolbe, 1899). They are easily distinguishable from M. snizeki sp. nov. by the shape of the male genitalia (Figs 14-16 View Figures 14–16 ) and smaller overall body size (length up to 6.2 mm).

Collecting events.

The majority of type material was captured when attracted to light (M. Snížek pers. comm.).

Etymology.

The species is named after Miroslav Snížek (Homole near České Budějovice, Czech Republic), one of the collectors of the new species.

Distribution.

Northeastern Tanzania (Fig. 17 View Figure 17 ).