Machleida zofiae Kaminski

Kaminski, Marcin J., Kanda, Kojun & Smith, Aaron D., 2019, Taxonomic revision of the genus Machleida Fahraeus, 1870 (Tenebrionidae, Pimeliinae, Asidini), ZooKeys 898, pp. 83-102 : 83

Machleida zofiae Kaminski sp. nov.

Type material.

Holotype (Transvaal Mus.): "Transkei: coast / Dwesa for. Res. / 32.17 S– 28.50E ", "26.2.1985; E-Y: 2165 / groundtraps, 7 days / leg. Endrody-Younga", "groundtrap with / banana bait".

Diagnosis.

Easily distinguishable from other congeners by the specific structure of pronotum: disc with median carinae interrupted in the middle of pronotal disc ( Fig. 1A ); lateral tubercles situated below the half pronotal length ( Fig. 1A ). This is also the only Machleida species with relatively large tuberculate horns on frons. Superficially this species can be confused with M. flagstaffensis . However, besides the characters listed above those two species can be distinguished by different structure of elytral slope, i.e. steep in flagstaffensis (falling at angle of 75°) versus gradually falling in zofiae (at angle of 50°).

Description.

Length 11.5 mm, width of elytra 5.5 mm. Integument brownish, densely coated with debris. Head: frons with pair of tuberculate horns, densely punctate (~0.2 diameters apart), each puncture with short yellowish acuminate seta; frontoclypeal suture medially indistinguishable, indented at margins, with pair of lateral depressions; apical clypeal margin broadly and shallowly emarginate; clypeus slightly projected toward front of body; apical margin of labrum strongly emarginate, densely punctate apically (~0.2 diameters apart), each puncture with short, yellowish seta. Eye elongate oval, length approximately 4 × width, weakly emarginate around epistomal base. Mentum with rounded base, not fully filling buccal cavity, anterior margin medially emarginate; sparsely punctate, each puncture with single seta. Submentum semicircular, concave, impunctate. Antenna moderately clothed in erect acuminate clear to yellowish setae; length of antennomeres 10+11 equal that of antennomere 3 ( Fig. 1D ); length of antenna equal to 0.85 of pronotal length. Prothorax: pronotal lateral margin sinuate, strongly raised, densely covered with setae. Pronotum widest in middle. Disc with median carinae not merging in middle ( Fig. 1A ); lateral tubercles located below half pronotal length; surface moderately to densely punctate (0.2-2.0 diameters apart), punctures with flattened setae; anterior margin strongly emarginate, anterior apices strongly produced; base bisinuate. Hypomeron with shallow antennal sulcus, sparsely punctate or impunctate. Prosternal process strongly convex, densely covered with short scale-like setae, longitudinally depressed in middle (ventral view). Pterothorax: scutellum with median longitudinal grove ( Fig. 3C ). Elytra widest behind middle, impunctate; two marginal rows of tubercles present, apex of each tubercle densely covered with acuminate setae, marginal branch extending to approximately base of 4th abdominal ventrite, dorsal branch extending to middle of 3th abdominal ventrite; terminal tubercles of both rows enlarged; disc without any trace of intervals, covered with tubercles distributed in two rows near suture, each tubercle apically with dense patch of setae, surface of disc glabrous between tubercles; ventral portion of elytra, mesanepisternum, mesepimeron, and metepimeron impunctate, sparsely covered with short brownish setae. Elytral slope gradually falling towards elytral apex. Epipleuron clearly distinguishable. Meso- and metaventrite moderately punctate and covered with yellowish setae. Lateral regions of metaventrite extremely short. Legs: apex of profemora with small denticle on outer margin. Femora and tibia densely punctate and setose. Tarsi cylindrical, not flattened. Abdomen: ventrites 1-4 sparsely covered with short, brownish setae; ventrite 5 moderately punctate and setose, (yellowish setae) without submarginal sulcus. Terminalia: single holotype was not dissected.

Etymology.

Machleida zofiae is named in honour of the first author's daughter, Zofia Irena Kamińska, born on November 3, 2018 (Flagstaff, USA).

Distribution.

The holotype of this species was collected in the following ecoregion of South Africa ( Fig. 5 ): KwaZulu-Cape coastal forest mosaic.

Figures

Figure 1. Selected diagnostic characters proposed for Machleida and its species. A, B Pronotal disc with specific surface modifications C ventral aspect of postoral regions D antenna E, F dorsal aspect of head. Illustrated species: A, D Machleida zofiae B M. nodulosa C M. tarskii E M. devia F M. flagstaffensis.

Figure 3. Morphological details of selected Machleida species. A, B Lateral aspect of elytron C scutellum and D, E elytral disc. Illustrated species: A Machleida tarskii B M. banachi C M. zofiae D M. devia E M. nodulosa.

Figure 5. Distribution of species of the genus Machleida.