Namaquania, 2021

Meregalli, Massimo, Borovec, Roman, Cervella, Piero, Santovito, Alfredo, Toševski, Ivo, Ottati, Sara & Nakládal, Oto, 2021, The Namaini, a new weevil tribe with six new genera from South Africa (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 193, pp. 95-123 : 105

NAMAQUANIA BOROVEC & MEREGALLI , GEN. NOV.

Zoobank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:FBD76D02-3A0B-4BD0-BF03-35A0E599D73F

Type species: Namaquania andreai Borovec & Meregalli , here designated.

Diagnostic description: Middle-sized Namaini 2.4–4.1 mm long; rostrum continuous with head, with U-shaped stria on epifrons; ventral border of rostrum in profile short, conspicuously shorter than rostral thickness; frons densely squamose; gena and subgena densely squamose; antennal sockets in dorsal view narrowly reniform, in profile not reaching eyes, enlarged posteriad, directed towards eyes; antennal scapes slender, at apex as wide as clubs; metaventral process 1.5 × wider than transverse diameter of metacoxa; tibiae long and slender; tarsi long and slender, onychium distinctly longer than segment 3; ventrites squamose; suture between ventrite 1 and 2 slightly sinuose; tegmen with weakly sclerotized short parameres; female sternite VIII with long and slender apodeme terminating at base of plate and forming short basal margins, its plate small, rhombus-shaped to oval.

Etymology:The genus name refers to the Namaqualand, an arid region of South Africa (Northern Cape Province) and southern Namibia, originally inhabited by Nama and Khoisan tribes, from where the majority of the species were collected. The gender is feminine.

Included taxa and distribution: In addition to the type species, seven additional taxa are included in Namaquania , based on the mt-Cox1 analysis and/or their morphology. They are distributed in South Africa: Northern Cape, northern part of Southern Cape and in southern Namibia ( Fig. 13) .

NAMAQUANIA ANDREAI BOROVEC & MEREGALLI , SP.