Triodontus inexpectatus Frolov, Montreuil & Akhmetova

Frolov, Andrey V., Montreuil, Olivier & Akhmetova, Lilia A., 2016, Review of the Madagascan Orphninae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) with a revision of the genus Triodontus Westwood, Zootaxa 4207 (1), pp. 1-93 : 88-91

Triodontus inexpectatus Frolov, Montreuil & Akhmetova , new species

( Figs. 46 A–F)

Type material. Holotype (46 A–E), male, “ MADAGASCAR E . Masoala, 50–470 m R. Antsamanarana 3–7/xii/ 1993, Flight Intercept Trap BMNH(E) 1994-138 / Holotypus Triodontus inexpectatus Frolov et al. 2010 ” (BMNH).

Diagnosis. Triodontus inexpectatus is most similar to T. hanskii but can be separated from it in having inner lobes of the parameres relatively larger (in lateral view) and outer lobes as long as the inner lobes.

Description. Male. Body length 12.5 mm, width 6.5 mm. Body strongly shiny, uniformly colored ( Figs. 46 A– B). Color of head, pronotum, and elytra dark brown; legs, antennae, and underside of body brown.

Frontoclypeus convex anteriorly, rounded laterally, anterior margin crenulate and setose in dorsal view. Eyes relatively small (diameter slightly smaller than the distance between eye and gula in ventral view), incompletely divided by canthus into small, dorsal and large, ventral parts. Frontoclypeus with tubercles mediad of each eye and with short obtuse horn in center of frontoclypeus.

Pronotum convex, without tubercles or ridges, with shallow concavity in the middle. Lateral margins with wide border appearing somewhat crenulate in dorsal view. Anterior margin with wide, smooth border. Posterior margin with fine border; not crenulate; punctate with narrow, longitudinal punctures laterally. Surface of pronotum mainly smooth, anterior angles with a few coarse punctures.

Scutellum rounded apically, visible part is about 1/15 length of elytra.

Elytra convex, with distinct humeral humps. Maximum width approximately at middle. Elytra with 10 feebly visible striae and with oblique line from base of 6th stria to approximately middle of 8th stria. Stria marked with small, indistinct punctures. Intervals with minute punctures, almost smooth. Base of elytra with an irregular row of coarse, semicircular punctures each bearing small, yellow seta.

Sternite 8 medially about 2 times as short as other sternites combined, slightly sinuate apically, without tubercles or concavities in the middle ( Fig. 46 E).

Parameres with apices of upper lobes being obtusely rounded, strongly sclerotized; upper lobes deeply sinuate laterally, the sinuation forms a tooth in dorsal view ( Fig. 46 D). Internal sac of aedeagus with a somewhat pentagonal main sclerite.

Female. Unknown.

Distribution. The species in known from a single specimen collected in the Masoala Peninsula ( Fig. 46 F).

Etymology. From Latin, “ inexpectatus ” for unexpected. This name is an adjective in the nominative singular.

Figures

FIGURE 46. Triodontus inexpectatus, holotype male. Habitus in dorsal (A) and dorsolateral view (B), labels (C), aedeagus in lateral view and parameres in dorsal and ventral view (D), abdomen (E), distributional records (F).