Stegopterus septus Burmeister & Schaum, 1840

Ricchiardi, Enrico, Perissinotto, Renzo & Strümpher, Werner, 2025, Revision of the Western Cape endemic genus Stegopterus Burmeister & Schaum, 1840 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae, Trichiini), African Invertebrates 66 (1), pp. 151-191 : 151-191

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.3897/afrinvertebr.66.140593
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D4CE878A-FE1E-4449-B9B3-CDDB935BE4B1
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14933225
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/E6B0A890-CB5F-5E7B-B331-0C87FBDAAF8D
treatment provided by	African Invertebrates by Pensoft
scientific name	Stegopterus septus Burmeister & Schaum, 1840
status

Treatment

Stegopterus septus Burmeister & Schaum, 1840 View in CoL

Fig. 17 View Figure 17

Stegopterus septus Burmeister & Schaum, 1840: 406 (original description); Burmeister 1842: 745; Harold 1869: 1342; Péringuey 1907: 299; Schenkling 1922: 14; Krajčik 1999: 49. View in CoL

Type material.

Lectotype, here designated. South Africa – WCP • ♂; Caffria; Schaum Type ; Coll. Melly; MHNG: MHNG ENTO 0119900 .

Other material examined.

South Africa – WCP • 1 ♂; Hott. Holl. Mts. [Hottentot-Holland Mountains], Steenbras , Nov. 1932; K. H. Barnard leg.; SAMC: SAM-COL-A 043575 .

Diagnosis.

Stegopterus septus differs from S. lamellus sp. nov., the closest species, by its protibia being externally tridentate and exhibiting all three teeth equally spaced. Its mesotibia is bent ventrally and bears a lower spur much shorter than the upper one (about 30 %). Its antennal clubs are very long, about 2.1 × longer than the clypeal length.

Distribution.

Although the locality reported on the LT label specimen is far too general and equivocal, the available male from the Hottentots-Hollandberge sets the range of this species in the mountain area between the towns of Somerset West and Grabouw (Fig. 21 View Figure 21 ).

Remarks.

The syntype preserved in the Melly Collection (MHNG, Fig. 17 View Figure 17 ) and labelled “ Schaum Type ” was reported in Burmeister and Schaum (1840, p. 406) as preserved in Germar’s Collection. Burmeister (1842, p. 745) later specified that there were two males in Germar’s Collection but only one is labelled as “ Schaum Type ”. For this reason, the “ Schaum Type ” preserved in the MHNG, cannot be regarded as the holotype and is therefore designated here as a lectotype.

Péringuey (1907, p. 299) redescribed S. septus on the basis of a male collected in Clanwilliam (WCP), which he misidentified as such. That specimen is herein redescribed as the holotype of S. rotundiceps sp. nov. Péringuey (1907, p. 299) also reluctantly attributed a second specimen from Knysna to S. septus , but we were unable on this occasion to trace and analyse this specimen.

The species is very rare and among all the Stegopterus specimens studied, we could identify only two males belonging to S. septus . Females remain unknown.