Zonitodema friedmani, François, 2018

François, Mickaël, 2018, Description of a new species of Zonitodema Péringuey (Coleoptera: Meloidae), with synonymic notes on the genus, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 48 (1), pp. 99-104 : 100-103

Zonitodema friedmani n. sp.

( Figs 1–5)

LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:A3C31DDD-A065-4DBD-BD69-42BD0AE54CE0 .

Etymology: The new species is named after Laibale Friedman, the Coleoptera collection manager at the SMNHTAU, who collected all the specimens and sent the African Meloidae material on loan to me.

Description: Length: 5–6.5 mm (males) and 5.5–7 mm (females).

Body ( Fig. 1) dark brown, head black, pronotum and end of abdomen orange (with no sign of variation among all six type specimens), completely covered with dense, short and erected pubescence consisting of brown hairs.

Head transverse (breadth/length ratio, 1.4) and rectangular (without mouthparts and clypeus). Head surface scarcely convex, shining, with dense and strong punctuation, with more or less distinct median longitudinal area devoid of punctuation. Anterior part of head with shallow but wide depression in middle. Temples almost parallel, half as long as eye, rounded. Occiput slightly rounded, not prominent. Eyes small and ovate. Clypeus trapezoid, weakly transverse, anterior third smooth and lightened. Labrum wide, distinctly bordered anteriorly with median longitudinal smooth line. Mandibles quite short and distinctly widened.

Maxillary palpi quite short, first segment evenly widened till apex, second palpomere one­third shorter than first one, subtriangular, last palpomere twice as long as second one, widest at midlength with its apex as wide as its base. Labial palpi thin, first segment very narrow, second segment faintly broadened at middle. Maxillary galeae very long, at least as long as antennae.

Antennae quite long, reaching first quarter of elytrae, with antennomeres rather flattened and broadened. First antennomere quite short and fairly widened at apex, second antennomere as long as first one and quite widened at apex too, third antennomere longer and slightly wider than II, antennomeres IV–X similar in size and shape, smaller than first one, last antennomere as long as III but thiner and greatly tapered.

Pronotum only slightly transverse (breadth/length ratio, 1.1), as wide as head, broadest before its midlength. Its anterior half widely rounded on each side, then converging till posterior margin, except sinuosity just before rounded posterior angles. Punctuation deep and large, but sparser than on the head, with a smooth poorly defined longitudinal median area; intermediate surface shining, dorsally weakly convex.

Scutellum rather large, weakly rounded at apex with same coloration and punctures as elytrae.

Elytra a little longer than twice their combined breadth, 1.5× as wide as pronotum, parallel-sided from their base till posterior third, then narrowing. Punctuation denser than on head, sometimes coalescent. Humeri distinct but not prominent.

Ventrum with punctuation sparser than dorsally. Mesosternum fairly wide with short apex. Metasternum with median longitudinal smooth line without hairs and punctuation, with acute apex.

Legs quite robust, femora thick, tibiae as long as femora of corresponding legs, tarsi longer. Penultimate segments of fore and mid legs very small. Hind protarsi distinctly shorter than 3 following segments together. Hind tibial spurs widened, external one strongly widened and spoon­like. Spurs of other legs very thin and acute. Dorsal blade of hind tarsal claws with very few teeth (around 5), claws not darkened.

Male genitalia ( Figs 2, 3) peculiar, with phallobase very wide in ventral view, as wide as long, heart-shaped. Gonoforceps in ventral view distinctly subtriangular, not very long, apex bilobed, in lateral view thickened and recurved perpendicularly to main axis of gonoforceps. Aedeagus compressed, recurved, without hook and with well marked ventral lobes.

Sexual dimorphism: The last two male sternites are orange, other sternites are completely brown. The last two female sternites are orange too, but the antepenultimate sternite is brown at base to orange at apex, distinct from the sharp difference of coloration in males. The posterior half of the last sternite of male has a cleft.

Differential diagnosis: Out of 14 known Zonitodema species, 12 possess green or blue metallic elytras. Only two other species have non-metallic yellow-orange (as pronotum) elytrae, i.e. Z. hayekae Kaszab, 1954 and Z. rufipennis Pic, 1939 . The former species has testaceous legs, head not shiny and wrinkled, antennae slender and long (reaching body midlength) and hind protarsi as long as three following tarsomeres together. Zonitodema rufipennis has maxillary palps slender and longer, pronotum irregularly and sparser punctate and abdomen completely light brown. I could not compare the male genitalia of these two species, but most of the Zonitodema species have a phallobase quite wide, twice long as wide, and the apex of the gonoforceps slightly bilobed, more acute and not or just a little bent backwards. Thus the new species differs significatively from other species of the genus.

Holotype: ♂ Tanzania: Tanga province, Buiko [04°42'S 38°07'E], 400 m, 19.viii.2003, L. Friedman ( SMNHTAU).

Paratypes: 2 ♂ 3 ♀, same data as holotype (4 specimens in SMNHTAU and 1 in MFC) .

Biology: The species was collected in Acacia savanna probably on flowers.