Cephennodes (Cephennodes) zulunatalensis Jałoszyński, 2013, sp. n.
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scydmaenidae
Cephennodes
Cephennodes zulunatalensis

description: Cephennodes (Cephennodes) zulunatalensis sp. n.
(Figs. 2, 7–8, 28)
Type material. Holotype: REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA (KwaZulu Natal Prov.): 3, three labels: "S.Afr.: KwaZulu-Natal / Kosi Bay forest / 26.58 S - 32.50 E " [white, printed]; " 12.11.2002; E-Y: 3529 / sifting / Burger, Harrison, Müller" [white, printed]; " CEPHENNODES (s. str.) / zulunatalensis m. / det. P. Jałoszyński, '13 / HOLOTYPUS' [red, printed] (TMSA).
Diagnosis. Frons and vertex in male without modifications; median lobe of aedeagus with narrow and moderately elongate subtriangular and symmetrical apical part and pointed apex; the longest apical projection (apical hook) in lateral view distinctly recurved dorsally.
Description. Body of male (Figs. 2) strongly convex, oval with feebly marked constriction between pronotum and elytra, brown with slightly lighter legs and palps, covered with yellowish vestiture. BL 1.18 mm.
Head broadest at moderately large but strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.15 mm, HW 0.29 mm; vertex and frons confluent, non-modified, in median part only slightly convex; supraantennal tubercles prominent; punctures on head dorsum very fine and inconspicuous; setae short and sparse, recumbent to suberect. Antennae moderately long, with slender proximal part and strongly broadened, distinct club composed of three terminal antennomeres, AnL 0.53, antennomere I 1.5x as long as broad; II only slightly narrower and shorter than I, 1.8x as long as broad; III distinctly narrower and much shorter than II, slightly broader than long; IV–VII subequal in length and width, each as broad as III but distinctly longer, about 1.2–1.3x as long as broad; VIII about as long as VII but distinctly broader, distinctly transverse; IX much broader and slightly longer than VIII, distinctly transverse; X much broader and distinctly longer than IX, strongly transverse; XI as long as IX–X together, nearly twice as long as broad, broader than X and with pointed apex.
Pronotum semi-oval, broadest near posterior third; PL 0.35 mm, PW 0.50 mm. Anterior margin strongly arcuate; lateral margins strongly convex in anterior third and nearly straight in posterior half, barely noticeably convergent towards nearly right and sharply-marked posterior pronotal corners; posterior margin deeply bisinuate; lateral margins thickened and sharply demarcated from disc; lateral ante-basal foveae small but relatively deep, each located much closer to posterior than to lateral pronotal margin. Punctures on median part of pronotal disc inconspicuous, fine and spare, punctures becoming denser but not larger toward lateral margins of pronotum, punctures on thickened area along lateral margins small but dense and slightly coarse. Setae on pronotal disc moderately long and dense, suberect.
Elytra as convex as pronotum, oval, broadest near anterior third; EL 0.68 mm, EW 0.55 mm, EI 1.23; subhumeral lines well-developed and carinate, as long as 0.33x EL; basal elytral foveae nearly adjacent to lateral margins of mesoscutellum; elytral apices non-modified, separately rounded. Punctures on elytra small and shallow but dense and more distinct than those on pronotal disc, those on anterior half of each elytron separated by spaces subequal to puncture diameters. Hind wings well developed.
Legs moderately long and slender; all tibiae nearly straight.
Aedeagus (Figs. 7–8) simonis type, AeL 0.18 mm; median lobe with narrow subtriangular and pointed apex, apical projections broad, with robust and long apical hook distinctly recurved dorsally, in ventral view left lateral margin of dorsal projection just beneath apex slightly concave; parameres slender, their apices not extending above apex of median lobe.
Female. Unknown.
Distribution. Eastern RSA, KwaZulu-Natal Prov. (Fig. 28).
Etymology. The name zulunatalensis refers to the province of KwaZulu Natal, where this species occurs.
Remarks. Cephennodes zulunatalensis is highly similar to all its Afrotropical congeners, and additionally its aedeagus resembles that of C. papuanus Jałoszyński. The new species can be easily distinguished from C. papuanus, C. zanzibaricus, C. nsukkaensis, C. atewaensis and C. bundibugyoensis on the basis of a non-modified vertex and frons (all these species have modifications on the head dorsum). From C. ruandae it differs in the body shape; in C. ruandae the pronotum is strikingly broader than elytra, while in C. zulunatalensis elytra and pronotum have comparable width. From the remaining Afrotropical congeners C. zulunatalensis differs in the shape of the apical hook of the aedeagus, which is clearly recurved, while in all other species it forms a C-shape curve. Aedeagi of the species described by Castellini (C. leonensis and C. glabella) were illustrated only in ventral view, so the shape of the apical hook cannot be assessed, but they clearly differ from the aedeagus of C. zulunatalensis in other details. Cephennodes zulunatalensis differs from C. leonensis in a subtriangular apex of median lobe (strongly projecting and forming nearly parallel-sided, long and slender rod in C. leonensis); and from C. glabella in much longer apex of median lobe (very short in C. glabella), and also in much shorter parameres, whose apices are not extending above the apex of median lobe (extending far above the apex in C. glabella).
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2013, The first record of the tribe Cephenniini in South Africa, with new species of Cephennomicrus Reitter and Cephennodes Reitter (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), pp. 411-426 in Zootaxa 3683 (4) on pages 415-416, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3683.4.5, http://zenodo.org/record/222164