Dicronychus aldhaferi, Platia & Pedroni, 2025

Platia, Giuseppe & Pedroni, Guido, 2025, Five new species and new records of click beetles from Saudi Arabia with an updated catalogue (Coleoptera, Elateridae), Faunitaxys 13 (5), pp. 1-12 : 4

Dicronychus aldhaferi n. sp.

( Fig. 3, 9, 14, 19)

ZooBank: https://zoobank.org/ A8283429-6AE5-4460-87FA-29BEAEE95A45

Holotype, ♂, SW Saudi Arabia: 10 km W of Al Bahah (19°56’45”N, 41°23’32”E), 2.XI.2023, K. Orszulik. ( CPG).

Diagnosis. – A species that can be compared with D. talhouki Platia & Schimmel, 1997 for the similar colours of the integuments, it can be separated essentially for the smaller size and the shape of pronotum only long as wide.

Description of the holotype

Coloration. – Shiny; bicoloured; head, pronotum and scutellum darkbrown; elytra bicoloured, nearly entirely blackish except for two humeral, yellow, spots extending to the sides but not reaching the suture; antennae and legs yellow; covered with dense, declined, yellowish pubescence.

Head. – With frons slightly convex on the vertex, flat before the anterior margin, the latter sub-arcuate, just protruding above the clypeus;frontal-clypeal space regularly developed; punctuation dense, with punctures simple, approximately of the same diameters, with shiny, shortest intervals.– Antennae reaching theposteriorangles of pronotum,slightlyserratedfrom the third article on; second article sub-cylindrical, shorter than the third; third-tenth conical, on average twice longer than wide, last long as the penultimate,sub-ellipsoidal.

Pronotum. – Long as wide, widest at the middle, strongly convex, without any depressions, abruptly sloping to sides and particularly at base; sides very arcuate, from the middle regularly narrowed to the anterior margin and backwards, distinctly sinuate before the posterior angles, the latter short, obliquely truncate with a very short carina directed inside; lateral suture-like margin complete and not visible in a dorsal view; punctuation dense with punctures simple, approximately of the same size with shortest, shiny, intervals.

Scutellum. – Heart-shaped long as wide, emarginate at middle of the base, gently pointed at apex, slightly impressed in the middle with very fine punctures.

Elytra. – 2.3x longer than pronotum, 2.03x longer than wide, convex; sides widest at the middle, apices rounded, striae regularly developed and punctured, interstriae flat to sub-convex with very fine punctures.

Wings. – Perfectly developed.

Prosternum. – Without impressed V-shaped lines running sub-parallel to the prosternal sutures.

Claws. – Toothed in the first half.

Aedeagus. – As in the Fig. 3 (length 0.825 mm).

Female. – Unknown.

Size. – Length 5.06 mm; width 1.56 mm.

Etymology. – The species is dedicated to the Saudi colleague H. M. Al Dhafer.