Pseudohesperus eccoptomus ( Tottenham, 1962 ) Hromádka, 2010

Hromádka, Lubomír, 2010, Revision of the Afrotropical species of the genus Pseudohesperus, with taxonomic notes on other Afrotropical species of the subtribe Philonthina (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 50 (2), pp. 495-516 : 503-505

Pseudohesperus eccoptomus ( Tottenham, 1962) comb. nov.

( Figs. 33–36 )

Philonthus (Eccoptolonthus) eccoptomus Tottenham, 1962: 231 .

Type locality. Republic of South Africa, Natal.

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE: J, ‘Natal, Sharp Coll. 1905-313, // Philonthus eccoptomus Tottenham , TYPE [ochre oblong label, handwritten] // Holotype: J, Philonthus eccoptomus Tottenham , det. 1962 R.G., Booth, 2009 [white oblong label, handwritten]’ ( BMNH) .

Redescription. Body length 9.1 mm, length of fore body (to end of elytra) 4.7 mm.

Colouration. Head, pronotum and abdomen black, scutellum and elytra dark brown-violet, maxillary, labial palpi, mandibles and legs yellow-brown, antennomeres 1–3 dark brown, remaining antennomeres black. Abdomen with very conspicuous, golden to rainbow-coloured iridescence.

Head transverse, distinctly wider than long (ratio 32: 26), posterior angles rounded, bearing one long black bristle. Four coarse punctures present between eyes, distance between median interocular punctures three times as large as distance between medial and lateral puncture. Medial punctures shifted anteriad. Eyes flat, longer than temples (ratio 11: 8). Surface except wide area along midline and clypeus finely and irregularly punctate. Diameter of punctures markedly larger than eye-facets, distance between punctures irregular. Surface without microsculpture.

Antennae slender and long, all antennomeres longer than wide, exceeding posterior margin of pronotum by antennomere 11 when reclined. Relative lengths of antennomeres 1–11: 1 = 11 units, 2 = 6.5 units, 3 = 7.5 units, 4–8 = 5.5 units, 9 and 10 = 5 units and 11 = 5.5 units.

Pronotum highly convex, parallel-sided, wider than long (ratio 37: 35), anterior angles conspicuously deflexed, vaguely obtusely rounded, with several punctures, posterior angles markedly rounded. Wide midline impunctate, each side along midline with many variably large punctures. Surface without microsculpture.

Scutellum very finely and densely punctate, punctures as large as eye-facets, separated by one puncture diameter or slightly smaller distance.

Elytra wider than long (ratio 37: 35), slightly widened posteriad. Punctation fine and dense, punctures larger than those on scutellum, separated by distance mostly smaller than one puncture diameter in transverse direction. Surface without microsculpture; setation brown.

Legs. Metatarsus longer than metatibia (ratio 29: 27), relative lengths of metatarsomeres 1–5: 1 = 9 units, 2 = 5 units, 3 = 4 units, 4 = 3 units and 5 = 7 units.

Abdomen wide, very gradually narrowed from visible tergite III towards apex. First three visible tergites with two basal lines, elevated area between lines with scattered punctures. Punctation at base of all tergites coarser and sparser than that on elytra, becoming finer and sparser towards posterior margin of each tergite. Surface without microsculpture; setation similar to that on elytra.

Male. Protarsomeres 1–4 simple, each with few modified pale setae laterally. Sternite IX ( Fig. 36 ), aedeagus ( Figs. 33–35 ).

Female. Unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Pseudohesperus eccoptomus is quite similar to P. tyto sp. nov., but differs from the latter by longer eyes, coarser punctation of abdomen and a different shape of the aedeagus. Moreover, it may be distinguished from P. proselytus by longer eyes and a very conspicuous, golden to rainbow-coloured iridescence of the abdomen.

Distribution. Republic of South Africa.

Figures

Figs. 28–36. 28–32 – Pseudohesperus varanus sp. nov. (28 – aedeagus, ventral view; 29 – aedeagus, lateral view; 30 – apex of paramere with sensory peg setae, ventral view; 31 – apical portion of male sternite VIII, ventral view; 32 – male sternite IX, ventral view). 33–36 – Pseudohesperus eccoptomus (Tottenham, 1962) (33 – aedeagus, ventral view; 34 – aedeagus, lateral view; 35 – apex of paramere with sensory peg setae, ventral view; 36 – male sternite IX, ventral view).