Penthicus pakistanicus Nabozhenko & Mofrad, 2025, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Nabozhenko, Maxim V.
name: Mofrad, Farhad Eshraghi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Tenebrionidae
Penthicus
Penthicus pakistanicus

description: Penthicus pakistanicus sp. nov.
(Fig. 72)
Type material. Holotype, sex unknown (HNHM): Pakistan, “ Nushki Dist. Baluchistan ”,“ E.Vredenburg ”, “ Lobodera sp. aff. villiersi Kaszab det. Kaszab ”, “ Lobodera sp. Dr. Z. Kaszab det., 1983”. The holotype has not middle and hind legs and abdomen, left antennae not full, right one is absent, left protarsus has only two protarsomeres, right one only one.
Description. Body robust, moderately convex, dull, black, dorsally glabrous (Fig. 72A).
Head widest across gena. Lateral margins of genae subparallel at base and slightly roundely converging to epistome in apical half. Widest are of gena located ahead of eye. Head finely and sparsely punctured by circular punctures in median portion of frons and coarser and denser punctured by slightly raduliform punctures around frons, on genae and epistoma (this surface also covered by short recumbent setae). Eye dorsally subequal in length and width. Head ventrally with dense granulation in basal half, with raduliform coarse puncturation around mouthparts and eyes and with smooth surface near cardo; each granule and puncture bear recumbent seta.
Prothorax. Pronotum strongly transverse (1.6 times as wide as long), widest across middle, 1.7 times as wide as head, more converging from widest portion to anterior margin than to base, ratio width of pronotum at base, widest portion and anterior angles: 27.4: 29.5: 19. Anterior margin widely evenly emarginated. Lateral edges S-shaped, strongly rounded in middle, widely strongly emarginated in apical quarter and straight in basal third. Base bisinuate, rounded medially, medial portion moderately protruded backwards. Anterior angles acute (69°), strongly projected, tip pointed, posterior angles slightly obtuse (96°), tip pointed. Lateral edges finely margined, margin of anterior edge widely interrupted in middle, base with very shortly interrupted margin in middle. Disc of pronotum moderately convex, not flattened on sides, with poorly visible pair of impressions (like grooves) along base, sparsely and finely punctured by circular smoothed punctures; interpuncture spaces in middle near 3–4 times, on lateral sides 2–3 times as long as puncture diameter; secondary micropuncturation very fine and sparse, but distinct and visible between large punctures. Prohypomera with slightly obliquely flattened lateral sides (covered with sparse small granules), very coarse and dense round granules on most other surface and smooth fine wrinkles near coxae; each granule bears short suberect seta. Prosternum with raduliform sculpture and comparatively long (two times longer than on prohypomera) recumbent setae. Prosternal process slightly convex, slightly protruded beyond procoxae.
Pterothorax. Elytra elongate, with slightly rounded lateral margins (almost subparallel medially), widest at middle (1.44 times as long as wide), 1.93 times as wide as head, 1.09 times as wide and 2.6 times as long as pronotum. Basal margin of elytra slightly rounded laterally, humeral angles large, acute with pointedtip, strongly projected as tooth, lateral edge of elytra emarginated near humeral angles. Puncturation of elytra moderately coarse; strial punctures round, slightly larger and more distinct than smoothed interstrial ones, all punctures impressed; interstriae flat. Epipleuron in apical portion near 2 times as wide as metepisternum. Ventral side of pterothorax sparsely pubescent with comparatively long recumbent setae. Mesoventrite with raduliform coarse sculpture, mesepisterna with large smooth raduliform foveae. Metaventrite with distinct coarse granules on sides and sparse coarse puncturation in middle.
Legs. Protibiae widened, bent, 1.06 times as short at apex as maximal width of profemur, 2.97 times as long as wide, wider at apex than protarsomeres 1 and 2 together.
Body length 13.5 mm, width 6 mm.
Etymology. The name refers to Pakistan, country, where the new species was collected.
Comparative diagnosis. The new species is similar to P. belutschistanicus and P. waziristanicus by acute, the strongly projected humeral angles (Figs 71A, E, 72D, 73A). It differs from P. belutschistanicus by the almost glabrous elytra (only very short setae are presented on lateral sides) with flat interstriae (Figs 72A, C) (elytra covered with distinct recumbent setae and interstriae convex in P. waziristanicus (Fig. 73A)), the emarginated lateral edges of the pronotum at the apical quarter (Fig. 72E) (slightly rounded in P. waziristanicus (Fig. 73A)), the acute and strongly projected anterior angles (Fig. 72B, E–G) (slightly obtuse and not projected ones in P. waziristanicus (Fig. 73A)) and the fine and sparse puncturation of the head and the pronotum (coarse and dense in P. waziristanicus). The new species has projected and acute anterior angles as in P. belutschistanicus, but differs from the latter in the following characters: the pronotum straightly converging from the widest portion to the base (Fig. 72E) (lateral margins of the pronotum are parallel in the basal two thirds in P. belutschistanicus (Fig. 71C)), lateral edges of the pronotum are widely emarginated at apical third (Fig. 72E) (straight in P. belutschistanicus (Fig. 71C)), the puncturation of the head and the pronotum fine and sparse (Figs 72E, F) (coarse and dense laterally and coarse and sparse in middle of the head and the pronotum in P. belutschistanicus), the basal margin of the elytra slightly rounded laterally (oblique and emarginated in P. belutschistanicus (Figs 71C, D)), the elytra glabrous, only on the lateral sides very short sparse setae are presented (Fig. 72C) (the elytra are entirely covered with short but distinct subrecumbent setae (Fig. 71A)).
description: Published as part of Nabozhenko, Maxim V. & Mofrad, Farhad Eshraghi, 2025, Progress in the knowledge of the genus Penthicus Faldermann, 1836 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Opatrini) of Iraq, Iran and Pakistan with descriptions of 17 new species, pp. 1-100 in Zootaxa 5573 (1) on pages 90-93, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5573.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14745717