Diaclina ovalis Gebien, 1921, 2019

Schawaller, Wolfgang, 2019, The species of the genus Diaclina Jacquelin du Val (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Alphitobiini) from Sub-Saharan Africa, Zootaxa 4609 (3), pp. 499-508 : 504

Diaclina ovalis Gebien, 1921 stat. nov.

( Figs. 6 , 17)

Diaclina decellei Ardoin, 1969 syn. nov.

Examined type specimens: Cameroon (labelled as Kamerun), without further data, leg. Conradt, 3 syntypes of ovalis NHMB , 1 ex. designated herewith as lectotype.— Ivory Coast, Bingerville , V.1964, leg. J. Decelle, holotype of decellei MRAC .— Same locality, 1963–1964, 4 paratypes of decellei MRAC .

Additional specimens: Cameroon, N’Kongsamba , VI.1957, leg. J. Cantaloube, 2 ex. HNHM , 1 ex. SMNS (det. Ardoin as ovalis ).— Cameroon, Manengole , IV.1949, leg. R. Tesárek, 1 ex. NMP .— Congo, Haut Uelé, Watsa , 1922, leg. L. Burgeon, 2 ex. TMSA , 1 ex. SMNS.— Congo, Bomassa , 7.–22.IV.1993, leg. D. H. Chadwick, 1 ex. SMNS .— Congo, Brazzaville, Bouenza , 30.XI.1963, leg. S. Endrödy-Younga, 4 ex. HNHM .—E Gabon, Ogooué- Ivindo Prov., Ivindo NP, 480–520 m, 21.–25.VI.2016, 3 ex. CDT , 1 ex. SMNS.— Ghana, Ashanti Region, Abofour, Opro River , 320 m, 7.IV.1966, leg. S. Endrödy-Younga, 1 ex. HNHM .— Ghana, Ashanti Region, Kumasi, Nhiasu , 330 m, 1967–1968, leg. S. Endrödy-Younga, 6 ex. HNHM .— Ghana, Ashanti Region, Kwadaso , 320 m, V.1969, leg. S. Endrödy-Younga, 6 ex. HNHM .— Ghana, Eastern Region, Atewa Range , 19.–23.III.2009, leg. E. Kondorosy, 1 ex. HNHM .— Ghana, Volta Region, Amedzofe , 780 m, 10.III.2009, leg. E. Kondorosy, 1 ex. HNHM .—W Kenya, Kakamega Forest NR, Buyango Hill , 1667 m, 30.I.2004, leg. J. Holstein & A. Zahm, 1 ex. CRG .

Synonymy: Koch (1953) erroneously synonymised D. ovalis Gebien, 1921 with D. gracilis (Fåhraeus, 1870) , but the types of D. ovalis from central Africa are different from specimens of D. gracilis from South Africa. Obviously, also Ardoin did not accept the synonymisation of Koch, because still in 1958 he labelled some specimens in different collections as D. ovalis . Examined type specimens of D. ovalis and D. decellei show no distinct differences, thus D. decellei Ardoin, 1969 is considered as junior synonym of D. ovalis Gebien, 1921 .

Distribution: Cameroon (type locality of ovalis ); Ivory Coast (type locality of decellei ); Guinea ( Ardoin 1963); Gabon, Ghana, Congo, Kenya.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Dorsal view of African species of Diaclina. 1 D. ashantica sp. nov., holotype HNHM. 2 D. brevicollis, lectotype NHMB. 3 D. gracilis, non-type South Africa SMNS. 4 D. minuta, lectotype NHMB. 5 D. muehlei sp. nov., holotype HNHM. 6 D. ovalis (holotype decellei syn. nov.) MRAC. Scale: 1 mm.