Khoisan oneili Meregalli & Borovec, 2025

Meregalli, Massimo & Borovec, Roman, 2025, Khoisan, a new genus of Cyclominae from South Africa, with nine new species (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Zootaxa 5646 (1), pp. 1-37 : 30-33

Khoisan oneili Meregalli & Borovec , sp. nov.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:38E1C584-9F7F-4995-953C-9007D3080DCB

Figure 17

Type locality: South Africa, Eastern Cape, Uitenhage .

Material examined: Holotype: ♀, Uitenhage [-33.77°, 25.40°], Cape Col., Rev. O’Neil ( NHMUK) . Paratypes: same data as the holotype, 1 ♀ ( NHMUK); 1 ♂, Dunbrody [-33.46° 25.54°], 13/2/04 ( NHMUK) .

Description. Body length 2.25–2.70 mm, holotype 2.70 mm. Body brownish, apical half of antennae and tarsi darker. Scales pale ochre-coloured, concave, those on tubercles pedunculate, erect on pronotum and elytra, anterior margin of pronotum, base of elytra, and dorso-lateral sides of rostrum, smaller and sub-erect on head, rostrum, anterior part of scapes, legs and underside; on pronotum sparse, distantly spaced on dorsum, denser on anterior margin and tubercles, on elytra aligned in one–two irregular rows on interstriae, reciprocally isolate, not obscuring integument, rather dense, distance between two adjacent scales at most as long as length of one scale, scales on tubercles dense, tightly packed, on tubercles of interstriae 7 mainly inserted on apical part, base of tubercles unscaled; setae very thin, pale brown, inserted on top of tubercles on pronotum, elytra and tibiae, surface of pronotum with few very thin hair-like setae.

Rostrum 3× as long as wide in both sexes, in males more robust, sides linearly slightly convergent basad, in lateral view strongly curved before point of antennal insertions in males, in female more regularly curved, in male as long as pronotum, in female slightly longer than pronotum; in both sexes with apical part slightly enlarged apicad with slightly concave sides. Antennal insertions between midlength and apical third.

Scapes 1.35× as long as funicle, at apex 0.6× as wide as width of club; funicles 5-segmented, first segment long, others short, segment 1 1.8–1.9× as long as wide and 2× as long as segment 2, this 1.2–1.3× as long as wide, segment 3 1.1× as long as wide, segments 4 and 5 1.1–1.2× as wide as long, 4 slightly smaller than 5; clubs 2× as long as wide.

Pronotum slightly transverse, 0.94× as long as wide, strongly constricted behind anterior margin, ratio width before constriction / width at apex 1.6–1.7; disc flat, with two median high tubercles and two humps before posterior margin, anterior margin with four tubercles, margin prominent above head between median tubercles, sides with strong anterior lateral tubercle, with another tubercle behind and additional smaller tubercle near lower margin, in intermediate position between other two; sides distinctly convergent basad, base arched.

Elytra in ♂ 1.05× as long as wide, in ♀ 1.08× as long as wide, striae with narrow punctures, smaller than interstriae; interstriae 2 with low tubercle at beginning of declivity, interstriae 3 with two conical tubercles on dorsum, followed by a high tubercle on declivity and a lower one at apex, interstriae 5 with three tubercles, interstriae 7 with four long conical tubercles, more raised than those on dorsum, as long as wide at base, equally spaced from base to apex.

Legs short, protibiae short, 2.45× as long as wide at point of maximum width, triangularly broadened before apex, with external subapical tubercle, narrowed at apex, with very short apical spines.

Penis short, 1.8× as long as wide, widest at basal two thirds, here narrowly curved with sinuate sides, in apical third constricted, apex very shortly rounded; in lateral view regularly curved, evenly tapered apicad, sharply regularly pointed. Endophallus with small rounded sclerite.

Spermatheca with slender curved cornu; corpus rounded; ramus indistinct, very small, hump-shaped; collum tube-shaped, short, directed upwards.

Bionomics. No data available

Derivation of the name. This species is named after Rev. Joseph A. O’Neil (1867–1952), who was among the first entomologist to carry out extensive research in the Uitenhage District ( Plug, 2020) and collected all the known specimens of this species.

Distribution. South Africa, southern part of Western Cape, in the surroundings of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) ( Figure 18 ).

Remarks. Among the species of Khoisan with 5-segmented funicles, K. javelae differs from K. oneili in having the anterior lateral tubercles of the pronotum moderately expanded outwards, with the maximum width behind the tubercles, the sides less constricted anteriorly, the apex broader (ratio of maximum width/width at apex 1.40–1.45), the elytra with dense raised scales on the declivity, the protibiae scarcely thickened and enlarged before the apex, the elytra in profile with scarcely raised tubercles and the penis shorter, with the sides apically elongate between the first constriction and the apical curvature, whereas K. maddocki differs in having very high elytral tubercles, the pronotum longer than wide, the rostrum moderately curved in lateral view and the penis with elongate apical lamella and K. karooicus differs in having broader elytra, with striae wider than interstriae, with the scales arranged in two to three rows, the pronotum with sides subparallel towards the base and the penis with shortly convergent sides.

Figures

FIGURE 17. Khoisan oneili. Body, dorsum (a), side (b); head with rostrum, dorsal view (h), lateral view (c); antenna (1); pronotum, dorsal view (i), lateral view (d); elytra, dorsolateral view (g), dorsal view (e); protibia (j); penis, ventral view (f), profile (k). Scale bar 1 mm; figures not to scale.

FIGURE 18. Distribution map. Symbols with a black dot indicate the locality of the holotype. Map generated from https:// www.openstreetmap.org.