Hesperus uelensis BERNHAUER 1932

Hromádka, L., 2012, Revision of the Afrotropical species of the genus Hesperus FAUVEL (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Philonthina), Linzer biologische Beiträge 44 (1), pp. 551-589 : 578-579

Hesperus uelensis BERNHAUER 1932 (Figs 79-81)

T y p e m a t e r i a l: Holotype: Democratic Republic of the Congo, ii.-iii.1923, L. Burgeon, Musée du Congo, // Hesperus uelensis TYPUS [ochre oblong label, handwritten] ( FMNH). Cotype: same label data as holotype ( FMNH).

R e d e s c r i p t i o n: Body length 7.8 mm, length of fore body (to end of elytra) 3.9 mm.

C o l o u r a t i o n: Head, pronotum and scutellum black, elytra red-yellow, abdomen, maxillary and labial palpi, and legs brown-red, tibiae slightly darker, antennomeres 1-2, 11 and base of antennomere 3 brown-red, remaining antennomeres black.

Head slightly wider than long (ratio 25: 23), slightly narrowed posteriad, posterior angles obtusely rounded, bearing one long black bristle. Clypeus with two very coarse punctures in the middle. Eyes very slightly projecting, longer than temples (ratio 10: 8). Posterior margin of eyes with four coarse punctures approximately arranged in shape of a square. Temporal area with scattered punctures. Surface without microsculpture.

Antennae long, reaching posterior sixth of pronotum when reclined, antennomeres 1-4 and 11 longer than wide, antennomeres 5-7 as long as wide, antennomeres 8-10 slightly wider than long. Antennomere 1 longer than antennomere 11, antennomere 2 shorter than antennomere 3.

Pronotum as long as wide, slightly narrowed anteriad, anterior angles bluntly rounded, bearing several bristles of unequal length, posterior angles conspicuously rounded. Base of pronotum almost straight. Each dorsal row with six coarse punctures, punctures 2-5 equidistant, distance between punctures 1-2 and 5-6 slightly larger than distance between previous punctures.

Scutellum very finely and sparsely punctate in posterior half, punctures as large as eyefacets, separated by two puncture diameters, anterior half impunctate. Surface without microsculpture; setation black.

Elytra longer than wide (ratio 47: 42), slightly widened posteriad. Punctation fine and dense. Punctures larger than that on scutellum, separated by one or one and half puncture diameters. Surface without microsculpture; setation brown-yellow.

Legs. Metatibia longer than metatarsus (ratio 21: 19), metatarsomere 1 vaguely longer than metatarsomere 5.

Abdomen very slightly gradually narrowed posteriad, first three visible tergites with two basal lines, elevated area between basal lines impunctate. Punctation at base of all visible tergites finer and sparser than that on elytra, gradually becoming finer and sparser towards posterior margin of each tergite. Surface without microsculpture; setation darker than that on elytra.

Male. Protarsomeres 1-3 slightly dilated and sub-bilobed, each covered with modified pale setae ventrally, protarsomere 4 narrower than preceding ones. Sternite IX (Fig. 81), aedeagus (Figs 79-80).

Female. Protarsomeres 1-3 of the same shape as in male.

C o m p a r a t i v e n o t e s Hesperus uelensis may be distinguished from the similar H. belonuchformis by the longer eyes, different colouration of the abdomen and by the different shape of the aedeagus.

D i s t r i b u t i o n: Democratic Republic of the Congo ( HERMAN 2001).