Lophorrhinides muellerae, Perissinotto, Renzo, Clennell, Lynette & Beinhundner, Gerhard, 2019

Perissinotto, Renzo, Clennell, Lynette & Beinhundner, Gerhard, 2019, Lophorrhinidesmuellerae (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae): a new genus and species from southern Tanzania, ZooKeys 833, pp. 75-84 : 76-80

Lophorrhinides muellerae sp. n. Fig. 1 A–F

Type material.

Holotype male: Manow DO Afr, Sammlung Schürhoff (TMSA). Paratype female: Tanzania, Rungwe Mts, 02.2006, leg. V Kayombo (PCGB).

Diagnosis.

This is the only species currently recognised within the newly erected genus. Thus, its diagnostic characters are the same as those highlighted above under the description of Lophorrhinides gen. n., in comparison to its sister genus Lophorrhina . Within Lophorrhina , the species that most closely resembles Lophorrhinides muellerae sp. n. is L. donckieri , but only as far as female superficial characters are concerned. Indeed a photo of the paratype female of L. muellerae sp. n. was originally included in a series illustrating that species in the recently published iconographic monograph of Beinhundner (2017: 990, fig. 18). The females of the two species, however, differ remarkably in their clypeal shape, scutellum width/length ratio, body pilosity and general shape, as well as mesometasternal process. As sexual dimorphism is very developed in Lophorrhina , but barely recognizable in Lophorrhinides gen. n., the males of the two genera are drastically different, aside from their aedeagal shape where some similarities can be observed. The key differences between the two genera can be assessed through the comprehensive set of high quality images, illustrating all the diagnostic characters of three species of the genus Lophorrhina , i.e. L. heinkeli Beinhundner, 2015, L. macularia (Bates, 1888), L. rigouti (Allard, 1985), published recently by Beinhundner (2015: pls IV, V).

Derivatio nominis

This species is dedicated to Ruth Müller, Senior Curator at the Ditsong Museum of Natural History (Pretoria, formerly Transvaal Museum), who has a long-term record of collaboration with the first author. In 2017, she sent us the male holotype here described, along with other cetoniines currently under study for identification, with the belief that they may represent taxa yet unknown to science.

Description of male holotype

Size. Length 17.9 mm; width 9.8 mm.

Body: Black and ochraceous, without cretaceous markings; black areas shiny, but otherwise matte to velutinous; fine to ultrafine punctures covering virtually entire surface, with yellow to brown, long to very long setae emerging at centre of each puncture (Fig. 1A).

Head. Completely black and shiny; clypeus widening anteriorly, deeply concave and sharply upturned at anterior margin to form a horn-like protuberance at middle (Fig. 1C); lateral angles smoothly rounded and clypeo-lateral margins vertically declivous; presence of prominent tubercle at centre of vertex, between supra-ocular tubercles; surface covered in fine and scattered punctures, with yellow-orange setae emerging at centre of most punctures and becoming particularly long towards vertex (Fig. 1C); antenna dark brown, with club slightly longer than flagellum; pedicel dark brown with lighter head attachment and bearing clusters of long, erect yellowish setae.

Pronotum. Black and shiny, with two symmetric ochraceous and oblong maculae on each anterior margin of disc; with numerous but well-spaced fine punctures and long straw-coloured setae emerging at centre of punctures; shape semicircular to hexagonal with lateral margins perfectly rounded; antero-lateral margins smoothly rounded, postero-lateral with pronounced angle; posterior margin strongly sinuate with pre-scutellar arch smooth (Fig. 1A).

Scutellum. Completely black and shiny; exhibiting identical sculpture and pubescence as pronotum; equilateral triangular in shape with sharp apex; lateral grooves shallow and poorly defined (Fig. 1A).

Elytron. Matte to velutinous; ochraceous to orange, with black sutural margin and dark brown to black maculae on humeral and apical callus as well as on upper and central parts of disc, adjacent to sutural margin; costae barely developed and virtually obsolete; sub-humeral arch with very weak sinuation; humeral and apical calluses prominent and with distinct colouration; ultrafine punctures regularly spaced across entire surface, with medium length and erect brown setae emerging at centre of most punctures; apical margin smoothly rounded, without any signs of proximal spines/protuberances; apical and postero-lateral declivities deep but smooth, imparting rather compact and globose body shape (Fig. 1A).

Pygidium. Triangular in shape, with very wide base; slightly convex; completely black and covered in regularly spaced horseshoe sculpture; fine but long yellow setae scattered throughout surface (Fig. 1D).

Legs. Black and robust, with tarsal segments moderately elongate, with apical tarsal segments at least twice as long as preceding ones; protibia laterally expanded and tridentate, but with second and third teeth virtually obsolete; with longitudinal lines of fine to round punctures and short yellow setae on inner margin; meso- and metatibia with longer and denser yellow setae, densely sculptured and with mid spine on outer carina sharp or moderately developed, respectively; spurs moderately long, slender and acuminate, approximately twice as long in metatibia than in mesotibia (Fig. 1A, B).

Ventral surface. Black to dark brown and shiny; with ultrafine sculpture scattered throughout surface, less dense on mesometasternal lobe and on central area of abdominal sternites; with dense pubescence consisting of long yellow to orange setae, shorter and scattered on abdomen and absent on mesometasternal lobe; mesosternal lobe smoothly rounded and not expanded anteriorly or laterally; abdominal sternites with visible concavity at centre (Fig. 1B).

Aedeagus. Parameres compact and not particularly elongate; dorsal lobes drastically narrowing anteriorly, with longitudinal groove depression towards mid length and expanding then at apex to form triangular protrusion on each side; apex smoothly rounded and bearing very short scattered setae at margin (Fig. 1E, F); ventral lobes substantially wider and lighter than dorsal lobes (Fig. 1E).

Paratype female

Size. Length 18.0 mm; width 9.5 mm.

Differences to male. In comparison to the male, the female specimen exhibits a slightly reduced clypeal armature (Fig. 2C), a shinier and markedly less hairy dorsal surface (Fig. 2A), as well as better-defined teeth on all the tibiae. Both elytral and pro notal ornaments are more expanded than in the male, especially the dark maculae on the elytral disc and umbones (Fig. 2A). As in all closely related species, the abdominal segments of the female show a slight ventral convexity (Fig. 2B, D), rather than the typical grooved concavity of its male counterpart.

Distribution

Both known specimens come from the southern highlands of Tanzania, from Manow and Rungwe respectively (Fig. 3). The two localities are approximately 20 km apart at altitudes of 1700-2900 m asl.