Philonthus dendroaspis, Hromádka, 2008

Hromádka, Lubomír, 2008, Revision of Afrotropical species of the Philonthus peripateticus species group (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Philonthina), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 48 (1), pp. 51-65 : 53-55

Philonthus dendroaspis sp. nov.

( Figs. 7-12 )

Type locality. Central Zambia, 140 km north-east of Kapiri Mposh, 40 km south-west of Serenje.

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: ♁, ‘ ZAMBIA C / 140 km NE of Kapiri Mposh / 40 km SW Serenje / 30.11.2004 / Snížek & Tichý lgt. [red oblong printed label]’ ( NMPC).

Description. Body length 10.2 mm (with stretched abdomen), length of fore body (to the end of elytra) 4.6 mm.

Colouration. Black, clypeus along anterior margin and antennal sockets narrowly brownyellow, maxillary and labial palpi brown, terminal palpomeres of either palpus somewhat paler, mandibles black, antennae black-brown, base of antennomere 2 brown-yellow, legs dark brown.

Head slightly wider than long (ratio 30: 25), sides from posterior margins of eyes distinctly narrowed in straight line towards neck, posterior angles rounded. Eyes slightly projecting and vaguely longer than temples (ratio 10: 9). Four punctures between eyes in straight line, distance between medial interocular punctures 4 times as large as distance between medial and lateral puncture. Temporal area with many punctures of different size. Surface without microsculpture.

Antennae stout, antennomeres 1-3 longer than wide, antennomeres 4-6 as wide as long, antennomeres 7-9 somewhat wider than long, antennomeres 10-11 of holotype missing.

Pronotum almost as long as wide (ratio 35: 34), narrowed towards base in almost straight line; anterior angles almost rectangular; posterior angles markedly rounded. Each dorsal row in anterior half of pronotum with 1 puncture; each sublateral row with 1 puncture, situated behind level of puncture in dorsal row. Surface without microsculpture.

Entire scutellum very densely and coarsely punctate, punctures somewhat larger than eyefacets, arranged into transverse rows. Distance between punctures very short.

Elytra at shoulders somewhat wider than pronotum, hardly wider than long (ratio 45: 43). Punctation very dense, coarser than that on scutellum. Punctures larger than eye-facets. Distance between punctures very short, punctures around suture almost contiguous in transverse direction. Setation grey-brown.

Legs. Metatarsus slightly longer than metatibia (ratio 30: 28), metatarsomere 1 as long as metatarsomere 5, metatarsomere 2 as long as metatarsomeres 3-4 combined.

Abdomen parallel-sided, slightly narrowed towards apex. Elevated area between two basal lines on first three visible tergites coarsely and densely punctate. Punctation of visible tergites dense, somewhat finer than that on elytra, most of punctures of raindrop shape. Setation similar to that on elytra.

Male. Protarsomeres 1-3 markedly dilated and sub-bilobed, each densely covered with modified pale setae ventrally, protarsomere 4 triangular, distinctly narrower than preceding ones. Sternite VIII ( Fig. 11 ), sternite IX ( Fig. 12 ), aedeagus with branches of paramere exceeding apex of median lobe by length of protarsomere 4 ( Figs. 7-10 ).

Female. Unknown to the author.

Differential diagnosis. Philonthus dendroaspis sp. nov. may be distinguished from the habitually similar P. colius sp. nov. by the narrower head and by the different shape of the aedeagus.

Etymology. The name of this species, a noun in apposition, is the Latin generic name of the African black mamba Dendroaspis polylepis (Günth, 1864).

Bionomics. Unknown.

Distribution. Central Zambia.

Figures

Figs. 1-10. 1-6 – Philonthus colius sp. nov.; 7-10 – P. dendroaspis sp. nov. 1-3, 7-9 − aedeagus: 1, 7 − ventral view, 2, 8 – lateral view, 3, 9 – dorsal view; 4, 10 – underside of paramere, with sensory peg setae; 5 – apical portion of sternite VIII, ventral view; 6 – sternite IX, ventral view.

Figs. 11-19. 11-12 – Philonthus dendroaspis sp. nov.; 13-18 – P. katangaensis Levasseur, 1967; 19 – P. lamtoensis Levasseur, 1967. 11, 18 – apical portion of sternite VIII, ventral view; 12 – sternite IX, ventral view; 13, 19 – head; 14-16 − aedeagus: 14 – ventral view, 15 – dorsal view, 16 – lateral view; 17 – underside of paramere, with sensory peg setae.