Iselma fontisamarae, Pitzalis & Bologna, 2008

Pitzalis, Monica & Bologna, Marco A., 2008, Taxonomy and faunistics of the southern African genus Iselma, with the description of nine new species (Coleoptera: Meloidae: Eleticinae), Zootaxa 1876 (1), pp. 35-59 : 42-43

Iselma fontisamarae sp. n.

Diagnosis. A middle sized Iselma , completely black without metallic reflection; head short and pronotum slightly longer than wide, with depressions; last maxillary palpomere parallel on sides and securiform at apex; mandibles not evidently curved in the apical third. Head, pronotum and elytra with isolated longer black setae mixed with light with brownish reflection, dense, short and recumbent setae; elytra convex, without humeral depression; legs with elongate black setae.

Description. Body uniformly black. Head and pronotum setation with isolated, longer, black setae mixed with dense, short, light and recumbent setae; elytral and ventral setation similar to that on head and pronotum but the light setae on elytra are denser and with brownish reflection, the black ones are longer on sides and on apex of elytra; legs with elongate black setae. Body length (apex of mandibles-apex of elytra): 10.5 mm; pronotum length: 1.8 mm; elytral width (greatest at posterior third): 3.0 mm.

Head short ( Fig. 1e ), only slightly longer than wide at eye level (excluding the mandibles); mandibles shorter than head capsule; tempora subsquared; front quite flat, frontal suture almost subarcuate; punctures very dense, approached and quite deep, except in the middle, intermediate surface shiny; labrum slightly longer than clypeus. Antennae slender, antennomeres subcilindrical, III–X subequal in length, but IV slightly shorter; antennomere I–II with normal elongate setae, III–XI with dense microsetae.

Pronotum only slightly longer than wide, with sides progressively widened and evidently convergent in the fore third; maximal width in the middle, evidently wider than head at eye level; punctures as on head, but wider. Mesonotum elongate, parallel on sides and subrounded at apex. Elytra elongate, convex, without tracks of venation and with a vague humeral depression, about twice as wide as pronotum at base; punctures dense, subrugose and less deep than on head and pronotum. Legs slender, finely punctate; fore and middle tibial spurs slender; both hind spurs massive and spoonlike, the inner slightly longer than external spur, both shorter than half tarsomere I.

Type material. Holotype female ( CB) “ South Africa, Western Cape, 14 km NE of Bitterfontein ( R368 ), 350 m a.s.l., low karoo vegetation, 14.IX.1994, M. Bologna leg.”. We added the labels “ Holotypus female Iselma fontisamarae sp. n. M. Bologna & M. Pitzalis des. 2008”. Antennomeres III–XI of both antennae are cut off and glued on the label.

Type locality. South Africa, Western Cape, 14 km NE of Bitterfontein ( R368 ), 350 m a.s.l.

Etymology. The name of this species refers to the Afrikaans name of the type locality, the town of Bitterfontein. In Latin, “bitter” is amarus (– a –um) and “fontein” (in English “spring”) is fontis.

Affinities. This new species belongs to the group of I. ursus , but its affinities are still uncertain as the male remains unknown.

Remarks. This species was cited by Bologna et al. (2001) as “ Iselma sp. n. A”. In that paper, the date of collection was erroneously indicated as “1993” instead “1994”.

Figures

FIGURE 1. (a) Iselma brunneipes head and pronotum; (b) I. mimica sp. n. head and pronotum; (c) I. hobohmi head and pronotum; (d) I. kamanjabi sp. n. head and pronotum; (e) I. fontisamarae sp. n. head; (f) I. audisioi sp. n. antenna.