Anthelephila falcata Kejval 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kejval, Zbyněk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Anthicidae
Anthelephila
Anthelephila falcata

description: Anthelephila falcata sp. nov.
Figs 56–60
Description. Male (holotype). Body length 4.5 mm. Body brownish-black; elytra with paler apical margins, and with slight greenish reflection; legs and antennae reddish-brown.
Head about 1.2 times as long as wide, nearly smoothly passing into short neck; tempora strongly narrowing posteriad, posterior angles absent. Eyes medium-sized, rather convex. Dorsal surface only moderately glossy, distinctly punctate and largely corrugated, except basal portion; punctures distinctly separated. Setation short, subdecumbent; few long tactile setae.
Pronotum 1.5 times as long as wide, distinctly narrower than head including eyes, nearly evenly rounded anteriorly, strongly narrowed and distinctly impressed (constricted) postero-laterally in dorsal view; pronotal disc nearly evenly convex in lateral view. Surface glossy; antero-lateral sides minutely and sparsely punctate, nearly impunctate near procoxal cavities; disc more distinctly, densely punctate to somewhat longitudinally corrugated, especially posteriorly, with few transverse wrinkles and slightly bulging before smooth antebasal area; posterolateral impressions longitudinally wrinkled, adjacent dorso-lateral surface rugose. Setation as on head; numerous tactile setae.
Mesosternum with moderate but distinct, rounded median longitudinal bulge, its outline nearly straight in lateral view. Metasternum simple.
Elytra 1.7 times as long as wide, conjointly rounded apically; humeri distinct; postscutellar impression indicated. Surface glossy, distinctly punctate; punctation double, setiferous punctures rather widely separated. Setation somewhat unevenly developed, pale and whitish, generally longer and more raised than on head, sparser near base, mostly decumbent, with indication of sparse transverse bands of whitish setae in postscutellar impression; numerous tactile setae.
Metathoracic wings fully developed.
Fore legs modified (Fig. 56); profemora with distinct tooth-like process, rounded apically, with very short fringe of minute, stiff setae subapically; protibiae moderately swollen and with rounded protrusion inner side distally; penultimate tarsomere widened/flattened distally, with terminal tarsomere articulated dorsally near base in all tarsi. Setation normally developed; tibiae with two equal terminal spurs.
Abdominal sternum VII simply emarginate (Fig. 57). Tergum VII widely rounded posteriorly, with moderately produced apex. Sternite VIII (Fig. 58); paired prongs well-sclerotized, with conspicuous median subapical projection. Tergite VIII with paired sclerites narrowly lobed, rounded apically, and narrowly connected medially (Fig. 59). Aedeagus (Fig. 60); apical portion of tegmen 0.5 times as long as basal-piece, trilobed apically.
Type material. Holotype, ♂ [lacking terminal three/six antennomeres]: VIETNAM, Da Lat, Cam Ly area, rainforest, swept & singled, [p] // No. 735–736, 8.XII.1994, S. Mahunka, Gy. Sziráky & L. Zombori [p] // Formicomus castigator Laferté det. G. Uhmann 1999 [p+h] (HNHM).
Differential diagnosis. Anthelephila falcata sp. nov. belongs to the A. fossicollis species-group. It shares a simple male abdominal sternum III (lacking submedian carina) with A. paucula sp. nov., but differs clearly in all other male characters (cf. Figs 57, 58 versus Figs 90, 91). It has very distinctively shaped paired prongs, and the rarely occuring, narrowly lobed sclerites of tergite VIII (more frequent in species from the Malay Archipelago).
Etymology. From the Latin falcatus (bearing sickles/scythes), refering to the peculiar subapical projections of male sternite VIII.
Distribution. Vietnam.
Remarks. The holotype was previously identified as Formicomus castigator and recorded as such by Uhmann (2000).
description: Published as part of Kejval, Zbyněk, 2017, Studies of the genus Anthelephila Hope (Coleoptera: Anthicidae) 14. Twenty-four new species from Asia and new records of A. fossicollis Kejval, pp. 1-52 in Zootaxa 4306 (1) on pages 28-30, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4306.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/843027