Notoxus yelamala, Telnov, 2025

Telnov, Dmitry, 2025, First Notoxus Geoffroy, 1762 (Coleoptera: Anthicidae) from the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats with new faunistic records, Zootaxa 5665 (1), pp. 144-150 : 145-146

Notoxus yelamala sp. nov. ( Figures 1–2 )

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:2A8E2E4A-FA5A-4E45-A64F-E16B75AE8F56

Type material designated. Holotype ♂ MZUF: S-India, Kerala, Peryar [sic!] nat. Reserve: Kumily , alle luci 23.X.1997 legit A. Sforzi & L. Bartolozzi (num. Mag. 2091) [printed] // Notoxus [printed] andrewesi Krek. [handwritten] det. G. Uhmann 19 [printed] 99 [handwritten] // “La Specola„ Firenze [printed] 10935 [handwritten] [label black framed]. The correct name for the type locality is spelled as Periyar.

Paratype 1♂ MZUF: same labels as holotype .

Derivatio nominis. Toponymic. Named after the Yela Mala, the Tamil name for the Cardamom Hills, the type locality of this species. Noun in apposition.

Measurements, holotype male, total body length 3.6 mm; head length 0.8 mm, head width across compound eyes 0.7 mm, pronotal length 1.3 mm, maximum pronotal width 0.8 mm, pronotal horn length 0.55 mm, maximum width 0.3 mm, elytral length 2.1 mm, combined maximum elytral width 1.2 mm. Male paratype is 3.8 mm long.

Description. Forebody dorsally and ventrally pale rufous brown. Elytra uniformly brown with indistinct khaki metallic shine. Antenna yellowish rufous, two terminal antennomeres brown. Maxillary palpus and legs yellowish brown, tibiae shortly darkened at their articulations. Abdomen brown. Head elliptical, slightly longer than wide, moderately glossy. Frons shallowly impressed, vertex barely convex in dorsal aspect. Compound eyes large, irregularly oval in lateral view, strongly protruding from lateral outline of head, longer than converging tempora. Head base truncate. Head with dorsal punctures dense but shallow on frons, becoming sparser on vertex. Dorsal cranial setae yellowish, long and dense, not fully appressed. Several significantly longer erect tactile setae on tempora and along inner eye margin, some longer, some shorter than eye length. Antenna moderately long, slightly widened distally, extending slightly beyond base of elytra when directed posteriad. Terminal antennomere irregularly fusiform, nearly twice as long as penultimate antennomere. Pronotum slightly wider than head across eyes, slightly transverse (not counting pronotal ‘horn’), dorsally slightly convex, laterally regularly rounded. Pronotal disc glossy, with complete narrow median longitudinal sulcus which is less prominent in the holotype compared to the paratype. Pronotal antebasal median bulge present but indistinct in dorsal and lateral view ( Fig. 1B ). Pronotal punctures sparse, distributed irregularly on pronotal disc but distinctly denser medially at base, variably deep, intervening spaces generally significantly wider than puncture diameters. Pronotal setae yellowish, long and dense, not fully appressed. Several very long erect tactile setae present on lateral sides of pronotum. Antebasal sulcus with very dense whitishyellowish setae shorter than setae on pronotal disc, effectively concealing structure of sulcus but widely interrupted at median portion of pronotal base. Pronotal ‘horn’ robust, moderately long, ~ 1.8× as long as wide across its base, slightly narrowing towards apex, lateral margins with 3-5 distinctly protruding rather large lobules present for basal two-thirds of length. Apical third of pronotal ‘horn’ continuously fringed. ‘Horn’ crest moderately wide, distinctly raised, evenly sloping anteriorly, distinctly marked laterally by row of subcontiguous rugules, medially with same sized and dense rugules arranged into 2–3 irregular longitudinal rows. ‘Horn’ area between crest and lateral edge with dense, rather large rugules, preapically flattened and with several radial notches, some of which continue into lateral fringe of horn. Scutellar shield small, subtriangular, rounded apically. Elytra elongate, about 1.7–1.8× as long as wide, widest at midlength, dorsally slightly convex. Postbasal transverse impression shallow but present. Humerus broadly rounded. Apical sutural angle obtuse angulate, elytral apex truncate, with small, nearly circular pore of secretory channel at outer apical angle of each elytron. Elytral surface moderately glossy, dorsal punctures large, deep and dense, becoming smaller and shallower on apical fourth. Intervening spaces in part smooth to microscopically wrinkled, about as wide as to twice as wide as puncture diameters. Elytral setae double, moderate and long: yellowish, long, rather dense, suberect and intermixed with significantly longer, erect tactile setae. Metathoracic wing fully developed (functional). Latero-basal fovea of sternite III rounded, moderately deep along basal sulcus of sternum. Legs long and slender, simple, setae moderately densely and appressed. Basal metatarsomere slightly longer than combined length of remaining metatarsomeres. Tergite VII broadly rounded at posterior margin ( Fig. 2A ). Sternite VII subtruncate at posterior margin ( Fig. 2B ). Tergite VIII as in fig. 2C–D, microscopically mamillate dorsally at posterior margin. Sternite IX short and narrow, rod-like ( Fig. 2E ). Aedeagus as in fig. 2F–H, paramere apex in lateral view with small and shortly setose preapical bulge ( Fig. 2H ).

Sexual dimorphism. Female is unknown.

Differential diagnosis. The new species is another representative of the informal N. ravana Kejval, 2011 species-group (see Kejval 2011 for the definition) confined to the Indian Subcontinent as presently known. Notoxus yelamala sp. nov. resembles N. brunneorufus Bonadona, 1989 ( India: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan) in the general appearance, but the lateral margin of the pronotal crest is distinctly lobulate for the basal portion (only few small basal lobules present in N. brunneorufus ) and the aedeagus is very different, with a strongly widened and peculiarly shaped median lobe.

Ecology. Attracted to light.

Distribution. So far known only from Periyar National Park in the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats, Kerala, India and is likely endemic to the South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests ecoregion.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Notoxus yelamala sp. nov.A—Holotype ♂, habitus, dorsal view; B—ditto, lateral view; C—Paratype ♂, pronotum, dorsal view [not to scale].

FIGURE 2. Notoxus yelamala sp. nov., holotype ♂, terminalia and genitalia. A—Tergite VII, dorsal view; B—Sternite VII, ventral view; C—Tergite VIII, dorsal view; D—ditto, magnified; E—Sternite IX; F—Aedeagus; G—ditto, lateral view; H— ditto, paramere apex, lateral view [not to scale].