Hycleus pintoi Bologna & Turco, 2007

Bologna, Marco A. & Turco, Federica, 2007, The Meloidae (Coleoptera) of the United Arab Emirates with an updated Arabian checklist, Zootaxa 1625 (1), pp. 1-33 : 19-21

Hycleus pintoi Bologna & Turco n. sp.

Type specimens. Holotype female, 3 females and 1 male Paratype: Saudi Arabia, Wadi Doga, 13.ii.1962, G. Popov coll., B.M. 1965-369 ( BMNH, 1 Paratype CB; M. Bologna det. 1992 as H. brunnipes ). 1 Paratype female: Saudi Arabia, Wadi Lasaba, 9.i.1946, L. A. Tillin coll. on Tamarix sp. ( BMNH; M. Bologna det. 1992 as H. brunnipes ). 2 male and 1 female Paratypes: Saudi Arabia, Hali & Yibia area, 9.ii.1962 G. Popov ( BMNH; M. Bologna det. 1992 as H. brunnipes ). 1 Paratype female: Saudi Arabia, Jidda, ii–iii.1936, R.C.M. Darling on Panicum ( BMNH; M. Bologna det. 1992 as H. brunnipes ). 1 Paratype female: Saudi Arabia, Hadhn, 23.vi.1934, H.St.J.B. Philby, ( BMNH; M. Bologna det. 1992 as H. brunnipes ).

Type specimens are greatly damaged, and we selected one better preserved female as Holotype, the remaining specimens lacking abdomen, or one or both antennae, or one or more legs. The gonostyli and basal piece of the single male Paratype ( CB) are lost, and its abdomen is damaged; so we figured only the aedeagus ( Fig. 15 ) .

Diagnosis. One Hycleus belonging to the group of H. brunnipes , strictly related to H. kaszabi Pardo Alcaide, 1968 because of the depressed and flattened frons, clypeus on the same level of frons and legs almost completely red, except coxae and throcanters, but immediately distinct from this last species because of the following features: head more elongate, particularly labrum and clypeus, and consequently mandibles less visible outside of the labrum; frontal suture well visible; temples more parallel and less narrowed posteriorly; antennae black with only middle antennomeres vaguely reddish; last antennomere slightly more robust in the last third; head and pronotum puncturation denser; elytra brown and partially reddish with two fore black spots transverse and not oblique.

Description. Body shiny and unicolor black, but legs red, except trochanters and coxae, elytra subopaque brown-orange with two anterior, transverse black spots, and two sinuate black fascia one on the middle and the second on the posterior third ( Fig. 12 ); setation denser and black on head and pronotum, sparser and obliquely recumbent on elytra, slightly denser at base. Pubescence sparse, black with silver reflexions on the ventral side of body; golden and very dense on the ventral side of fore tibiae and tarsi of male, where forms a pad. Maximal body length: 14.1mm.

Head transverse, with the maximum width at the level of eye; punctures scarcely deep, fine and relatively dense, intermediate surface unpuncturate, shiny, particularly on frons; frons evidently flat, with a middle wide and concave longitudinal depression extended posteriorly to the vertex, this one convex only on temples; eye globose, laterally extended on the entire gena ( Fig. 13 ), with the antero-dorsal margin slightly sinuate, at the level of the antennal insertion; temples short and subparallel, shorter than the longitudinal diameter of eye. Clypeus evidently narrower than the interocular width, slightly rounded on sides, flat and scarcely puncturate, positioned on the same level of frons, fronto-clypeal suture well visible; labrum shorter and narrower than clypeus, the fore margin almost straight, flat, sloping. Maxillary palpomeres subcylindrical and stout, IV flattened and slightly enlarged anteriorly, with black setae on the external side of the apex of each palpomere (except IV), particularly on III, without evident sexual dimorphism; maxillae not modified; labial palpi with long and dense setae, particularly on the penultimate palpomere. Mandibles falcate and evidently pointed, in lateral view slightly curved. Antennae with 11 antennomeres, I–V shiny, the following opaque, III–VI vaguely reddish at base; antennomere I subequal in length to II–III together; II subglobose; III–VI slender and subcylindrical, III slightly longer than IV; VII–IX similar in length, subtrapezoidal, apically enlarged on external side, increasing in width and length from VII to IX, X slightly narrower, XI at base almost as wide as X but two times longer, the apical half evidently narrowed, apex obtusely stout.

Pronotum elongate, slightly longer than wide and slightly narrower than head, scarcely sinuate on sides before the middle and then slightly narrowing anteriad; fore portion evidently depressed; a wide middle longitudinal depression extended in the middle, base depressed just in front of mesonotum; puncturation similar to that on head, but wider, more scattered posteriad; dorsal surface with a longitudinal medial deep furrow. Elytra parallel, dorsally convex, subopaque with dense but superficial, wide punctures; elytral pattern as in Fig. 12 . Mesosternum of the Mesogorbatus - type ( Fig. 14 ); fore margins of mesepisterna well defined, not greatly wide, concave and evidently depressed, at the same level of the sclerite; fore portion of mesosternum smooth and shiny. Legs slender, both tibial spurs on all legs slender, those of metatibiae rounded at apex; male protarsi with a distinct golden ventral pad.

Posterior margin of the penultimate male abdominal sternite almost straight, that of the last visible sternite deeply V-emarginated and medially very depressed. One single elongate aedeagus hook ( Fig. 15 ), endophallic hook small and slender.

Etymology. This new species is named after John D. Pinto, Professor Emeritus of the University of California at Riverside, specialist of blister beetles and Trichogrammatidae wasps, who is for us a brotherly friend and a true teacher in our studies on Meloidae .

Relationships. This species clearly belongs to the group of H. brunnipes , and seems extremely close to H. kaszabi , because of the shape of frons, labrum and mandibles, but differring because of the characters listed in the diagnosis. It represents the Arabian vicariant of H. kaszabi , which was described from the Sudanese coast of the Red Sea, but is distributed through the entire southern Sahara: we examined one specimen from Niger (Sahara, Air, between Talak and Iferovane, BMNH) and two from Mauritania (between Oujaf and Oualata, CB, BMNH); Pardo Alcaide (1968) cited the second known specimen of this species as doubtfully collected in Mauritania, and our records confirm this trans-Saharan distribution.

Figures

FIGURES 12–15. Hycleus pintoi n. sp. 12. right elytron; 13. head, lateral view; 14. mesosternal sclerites; 15. apex of the aedeagus. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.