Falsopedilus grossepunctatus, Gompel & Telnov, 2023

Gompel, Nicolas & Telnov, Dmitry, 2023, On the taxonomic status of the tenebrionoid genera Falsopedilus Pic, 1924 and Hintonosia Báguena Corella, 1948 (Coleoptera: Mycteridae) with descriptions of new species, Zootaxa 5318 (3), pp. 421-431 : 429-430

Falsopedilus grossepunctatus sp. nov. ( Figures 1F and 2D, H, L )

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Type material designated. Holotype ♁ BMNH: S. Africa. R. E. Turner. Brit. Mus. 1934–6. [printed] // Fort St.John. [~ 31°36’S 29°34’E] Pondoland . Nov. 1923. [printed] // Hintonosia sp. [handwritten] det. T.L. Grzymala 20 [printed] 12 [handwritten] [label black framed].

Paratype 1 ♁ BMNH: same labels as holotype .

Derivatio nominis. Named from Latin “grossus” (coarse) + “punctatus” (punctate) to point to large, coarse dorsal punctures in the new species.

Measurements. Holotype, total body length about 2.9 mm; head about 0.5 mm long, across compound eyes 0.6 mm broad, pronotum about 0.5 mm long, maximum width about 0.5 mm, elytra 1.9 mm long, combined maximum width 0.85 mm. Paratype ♁ 3.1 mm long.

Description. ♁ holotype. Dorsum and venter uniformly brown, narrow area along elytral suture and base of pronotum yellowish brown. Mouthparts brown to yellowish brown, legs uniformly brown. Basal antennomere brown, antennomere two yellowish, remaining antennomeres yellowish basally and distally, brown medially including lateral lobes. Body strongly elongate, flattened dorso-ventrally. Head slightly glossy dorsally and ventrally, anterior part slightly inclined. Frons wide, narrows anteriad, about 1.2× as wide as dorsal eye length. Compound large, hemispherical, occupying most of head side, very strongly protruding from lateral and dorsal outline of head, rather deeply emarginate at anterior margin, not touching insertion of antenna. Tempus about one third dorsal eye length, constricted towards cranial ‘neck’. Head dorsal punctures coarse and dense. Intervening spaces smooth, narrower than to somewhat wider than punctures. Head setae whitish, rather short, subdecumbent, slightly curved. Antenna long, extending beyond metacoxal cavity when directed posteriad, strongly pectinate. Antennomere two short and narrow, about half as long as basal antennomere. Antennomere three nearly as long as antennomere three, about 4× as long as antennomere two. Antennomeres 3–10 strongly pectinate, each with subequally long median lobe, of which lobe of antennomere three is the shortest; lobes of antennomeres 4–10 longer than corresponding antennomere, lobe of antennomere three shorter, antennomere ten—about as long as corresponding antennomere. Terminal antennomere clavate, about 0.7–0.8× as long as penultimate antennomere, apically rounded. Pronotum as long as wide, much narrower than head across compound eyes, flattened in dorsal aspect. Anterior and posterior margin. Lateral pronotal margins subparallel. Dorsal pronotal punctures similar to those on head. Intervening spaces narrower than to about as wide as punctures. Dorsal pronotal setation moderately long and dense, subdecumbent, curved. Scutellar shield semicircular. Elytron strongly elongate, moderately glossy, dorsally flattened, parallel-sided. Apicoventral binding patch inconspicuous, area of it not convex, marked with somewhat longer, stronger appressed setation. Dorsal elytral punctures generally larger than those on forebody, becoming smaller in apical third of elytron. Intervening spaces smooth, narrower than to about as wide as punctures. Elytral setae whitish on drown, yellowish on yellowish background, moderately long and dense, subdecumbent. Those setae along suture in apical fourth of elytron directed slightly obliquely laterally. Legs long, slender. Tibial terminal spurs paired, short. ♁ basal metatarsomere about as long as combined length of remaining metatarsomeres. Genital organs as in Figure 2D, H , paramere wide and strongly curved inwards apically. ♁ tergite VII and VIII, ♁ morphological sternite VII broadly rounded at posterior margin. ♁ morphological sternite VIII bipartite (deeply cleft at posterior margin, shortly interconnected at about midlength), posterior margin subtruncate, with several long setae.

Sexual dimorphism. ♀ is unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Most similar to F. elongatus ( Pic, 1921) from S Africa, differs in the comparatively smaller ♁ compound eyes and the wider frons, the much longer lobes of the ♁ antennomeres 3–10 (the antennomere three not pectinate in F. elongatus ), the apicoventral binding patch of the ♁ elytron not convex, the compound eye somewhat distant from the insertion of the antenna, and the apical part of the paramere comparatively thicker and stronger curved inwards.

Ecology. Unknown.

Distribution. Eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa.

Figures

FIGURE 1. External morphology of Falsopedilus species. A:Abdominal sternites (III–VII) of Falsopedilus bismacrocephalus (Báguena Corella, 1948). Note the apparent separation of ventrites III and IV (double white arrowheads). B, B’: Falsopedilus bismacrocephalus (Báguena Corella, 1948), mouthparts (B) and outline of left maxilary palpomere (B’). C, C’: Elonus gruberi Gompel, 2017, mouthparts (C) and outline of left maxilary palpomere (C’). D–H: Habitus of Falsopedilus: Falsopedilus bismacrocephalus (Báguena Corella, 1948) (♁ holotype) (D); Falsopedilus aristophanousi, n. sp. (♁ holotype) (E); Falsopedilus grossepunctatus, n. sp. (♁ holotype) (F); Falsopedilus elongatus (Pic, 1921) (♁ holotype of Falsopedilus modestus Pic, 1924) (G); Falsopedilus elongatus (Pic, 1921) (♀ holotype) (H). Scale bars: A, D–H: 1 mm; B–C, B’–C’: 100 µm.

FIGURE 2. Antennae and ♁ genitalia of Falsopedilus species. Tegmen (A–D), aedeagus (E–H), and right ♁ antenna (I–L) of Falsopedilus bismacrocephalus (Báguena Corella, 1948) (A, E, I); Falsopedilus elongatus (Pic, 1921) (B, F, J); Falsopedilus aristophanousi, n. sp. (C, G, K) and Falsopedilus grossepunctatus, n. sp. (D, H, L). M, ♀ ovipositor of Falsopedilus elongatus (Pic, 1921). Note the different conformation of antennomeres 3 (arrowhead) and 11 (arrow) among these species. Scale bars: 100 µm.