Adlbaueria, Vitali, 2025

Vitali, Francesco, 2025, Notes, transfers, new combinations, and new taxa of some African genera of the tribe Cerambycini (Coleoptera Cerambycidae), Zootaxa 5620 (1), pp. 20-28 : 23-24

Adlbaueria n. gen.

Fig. 8 .

Type-species. Pachydissus samai Adlbauer, 2000 (monobasic).

Material examined. 1♂, 3♀♀, Togo, Plateux Region, Misahohe Forest Reserve , XI.2016, loc. coll., ex coll. D. Potanin, CFV .

Diagnosis. Body flattened, elongated. Head with an interantennal ridge extending to the anterior margin of the upper lobes and a deep longitudinal furrow prolonged on the neck; upper eye lobes close to each other; intergenal furrow straight. Antennal supports simple and flattened; antennae long, twice as long as body in male, ectoapically toothed and endoapically spined from antennomere V; scape slightly convex externally, imperceptibly wrinkled and sparsely punctured. Pronotum as long as wide, without lateral spines, dorsally convex and covered with irregular wrinkles. Elytra parallel-sided in both sexes, obtusely toothed at the marginal apex; elytral pubescence recumbent, extremely fine and uniform, tending to becoming evanescent. Procoxal cavities rounded; tibiae and femora without ventral ridges and mutic at apex.

Differential diagnosis. As Adlbauer (2002) himself remarked, the characters of P. samai (antennal spines, pronotum irregularly wrinkled and body uniformly pubescent) cannot be compared with other congeners. Actually, it cannot be compared with other genera of African Cerambycini as well. The shape of the head, in particular the interantennal ridge and the large upper eye lobes ( Fig. 8b ) imply that this species is not related to Pachydissus Newman, 1838 and allied genera but to Neoplocaederus Sama, 1991 and related genera ( Prosphilus Thomson, 1864 ; Teraschema Thomson, 1860 ), most of which are widespread in Australasia, i.e., Trirachys Hope, 1843 ; Aeolesthes Gahan, 1890 ; Pseudopachydissus Pic, 1933 ; Pseudaeolesthes Plavilstshikov, 1931 ; Carinolesthes Vitali et al., 2017 ; Furcaeolesthes Vitali, 2022 ; Calocerambyx Heller, 1905 .

Adlbaueria n. gen. is easily distinguishable from the above-mentioned African genera by the unarmed pronotum and the spined antennae ( Fig. 8a ), while it looks more related to the Australasian genera, some of which show just such characters.

Reduced pubescence, rounded pronotum and antennal spines are present in Hoplocerambyx Thomson, 1864 , which shows elongate head and a simple interantennal furrow. Reduced pubescence and rounded pronotum are reminiscent of Pseudopachydissus ,which does not show antennal spines, while the pronotal wrinkles are symmetrical, quite regular, and the femora are always red ( Vitali et al., 2015).

Amazingly, nearly all characters of Adlbaueria samai (Adlbauer, 2000) n. comb. align with those of the genus Trirachys , in particular to T. inhirsutus (Mutsushita, 1932) , a species endemic to Micronesia. Aside from minor differences (body more flattened, elytra rounded at apex, intergenal furrow straight, limbs thinner), which should be considered as species-specific since they are present in other congeners like T. sinensis (Gahan, 1890) , the only apparent generic character is the scape, which is simply punctured, whereas it is strongly and irregularly wrinkled in Trirachys . However, this character is also present in Trirachys subgenus Parolesthes Vitali et al., 2017 , which does not include species with the kind of pubescence found in the new genus ( Vitali et al., 2017a; 2017b; Vitali, 2022).

The peculiar characters that justify the definition of this new genus are primarily the interantennal ridge ( Fig. 8b ) and the structure of the antennal supports. The interantennal ridge extends to the anterior margin of the eyes in Adlbaueria n. gen., whereas it nearly reaches the posterior margin in Trirachys . The antennal supports are simple and flattened in Adlbaueria n. gen., while they are grooved, creating a pronounced ridge between the antennal supports and the interantennal ridge in Trirachys . In addition, the lateral lobes of the tegmen ( Fig. 8c ) are also shorter and more rounded in Adlbaueria n. gen. compared to those in Trirachys . However, these differences are not particularly pronounced, highlighting the close relationship between Adlbaueria n. gen. and Trirachys .

Derivatio nominis. I am proud to dedicate this new genus to Dr. Karl Adlbauer, eminent specialist of African Cerambycids, descriptor of the type-species and my dear friend, in recognition of his numerous, multifarious, richly illustrated and excellent works on the African and Palaearctic Cerambycoidea. Gender feminine.

Remarks. Several genera of Cerambycini closely related to Neoplocaederus are widespread across South America ( Martins, 2002), suggesting that Adlbaueria n. gen. belongs to an archaic lineage of Cerambycini that originated before the Jurassic breakup of Gondwana. The distribution in Western Africa makes problematic its relations with the aforementioned Australasian congeners; however, a similar biogeographical pattern is observed in the Australasian genus Batocera Laporte de Castelnau, 1840 , which also exhibits a disjunct distribution, with two species— B. wyliei Chevrolat, 1858 and B. granulipennis Rigout, 1988 —widespread in Western Africa ( Rigout, 1988).

Figures

FIGURE 7–10. 7. Trichoderolus gyllenhalii (Fåhraeus, 1872), male. 8. Adlbaueria samai (Adlbauer, 2000); 8a. Male; 8b. Head; 8c. Tegmen. 9. Afrodissus congolensis (Hintz, 1911), male, lectotype. 10. Pachydissus sericus Newman, 1838, male, holotype. (size of habitus proportional to sizes of specimens).