Spiloscapha meghalaya, Schawaller, Wolfgang, 2012

Schawaller, Wolfgang, 2012, New species and records of the genus Spiloscapha Bates (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from the Oriental and Papuan Regions (part 2), Zootaxa 3336 (1), pp. 62-68 : 64-65

Spiloscapha meghalaya sp. n.

( Figs. 5, 6 )

Type material. Holotype: NE INDIA, %, Meghalaya , SW Cherrapunjee, 900 m, 21.V.2007, leg. P. Pacholátko, NHMB . Paratypes: NE INDIA, Meghalaya , SW Cherrapunjee, 900 m, 21.V. & 23.–25.VI.2007, leg. P. Pacholátko, 8 ex. NHMB, 4 ex. SMNS, 2 ex. BMNH .

Description. Shape and colour pattern of pronotum and elytra see Fig. 5 . Head, pronotum, and scutellum light brown; elytron light brown with two dark basal spots and a dark medial transverse band widely interrupted at suture; ventral side of body light brown. Head with somewhat coarser punctation than on pronotum; antenna unicoloured brown. Pronotum with fine punctures, distance between punctures 2–6 times longer than puncture diameter, surface between punctures shining; anterior margin medially unbordered, basal margin unbordered. Elytron with 7 somewhat irregular rows of punctures without striae, third row with approximately 48 punctures; intervals flat, with scattered punctures, surface between punctures shining; lateral margin visible from dorsal nearly on its entire length. Punctures on metaventrite and abdominal ventrites only slightly coarser laterally than medially. Aedeagus as in Fig. 6 . Body length 3.6–4.0 mm.

Diagnosis. Spiloscapha meghalaya sp. n. can be recognized by its body shape and dorsal colour pattern, and by the shape of aedeagus with broad apicale and short basale. The colour pattern is similar to S. assamica Kaszab, 1975 ( Fig. 1 ) from the same area and even from the same locality (see below), but this species is larger (5.0– 5.8 mm), the antennae are dark, the anterior margin of pronotum is completely bordered, and the aedeagus is different (figured in Schawaller 1997).

Etymology. Named after the Indian northeastern province Meghalaya , where the type series was collected.

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 10. Dorsal view of Spiloscapha species and aedeagus. S. assamica (1), S. grimmi (2), S. rufonotata comb. n. (3), S. toxopeusi sp. n. (4), S. meghalaya sp. n. (5, 6), S. bipunctata (7), S. bryanti sp. n. (8); S. cechovskyi sp. n. (9), Spiloscapha sp. (10).