Enoclerus hespenheidei Rifkind, n. sp.
Creators: name: Rifkind, Jacques
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cleridae
Enoclerus
Enoclerus hespenheidei

description: Enoclerus hespenheidei Rifkind, n. sp.
(Fig. 11)
Type specimens. Holotype female: Costa Rica, Puntarenas Province, Peninsula de Osa, R [ancho] Quemado, Rio Riyito, 200 m, xi–1990, Hanson & Godoy. Holotype deposited in CSCA. Paratypes: COSTA RICA: Puntarenas Province: 5, 27 km S. Pto. Jiménez, Rio Piro, 75 m, xi–1990, Hanson & Godoy; 3, Cerro Rincón, 200 m S. hito [marker], 745 m, xi–1990, Hanson & Godoy; 1, R. Piro, 27 km S. Puerto Jiménez, Peninsula Osa, xi–1990, P. Hanson, C. Godoy, colls., Malaise trap; 1, Peninsula Osa, Cerro Rincón, 8° 31' N, 83° 28' W, 745 m, Virgin Forest, Malaise trap, i–1991, P. Hanson, coll.; 2, same data as previous except x–1990, Hanson & Godoy, colls.; 1, Estación Sirena, 1–100 m, December 1994, G. Fonseca, INBio reference # CR1002, 164769, Labeled # LS 270500, 508300 #4367; 1, P. N. Corcovado, Est. Sirena, 0–100 m, 1991, Tp. Malaise, L–S– 270500, 508300, INBio # CR1001, 292989; 1, Peninsula Osa, Est. Sirena, Ago. 1994, M. Segura, LS 270500 _508300, #3219, INBio CR1002, 007800; 1, P. N. Corcovado, Est. Sirena, 0–100 m, Oct. 1989, G. Fonseca, L–S 270500, 508300, INBio CR1000, 660128; 1, Golfo Dulce, 3 km SW Rincón, 10 m, xii–1989 — iii–1990, Hanson; 1, Golfo Dulce, 24 km W. Piedras Blancas, 200 m, December 1990, Hanson, coll.; 1 Est. Agujas, Sendero Zamia, Rio Agujas, 300 m, 2–15 Ene. 1996, A. Azofeifa, Intersection L_S 276750_526550, #7208, INBio CR1002, 396657. Paratypes are deposited in CSCA, INBC, LACM, MUCR, WFBM, FWSC and JNRC.
Diagnosis. Among its Middle American congeners, E. hespenheidei is the only one to possess the following combination of characteristics: pronotum with anterior margin orange–testaceous, posterior margin with a triangular patch of pale vestiture; elytra with subbasal swellings shallow, each crowned with a short, longitudinal, non–eburneous carina, terminating posteriorly in a shallowly elevated spine; dorsal vestiture with a subtle but definite velvety aspect, reflecting slight cupreous tints in certain lights; abdomen orangish. Similar, known or potentially sympatric species are separable as follows: E. laselva Rifkind and E. duttoni Rifkind have the subbasal elytral carinae eburneous, the pronotum and abdomen unicolorous (black); E. fugitivus Wolcott (and related species) have the subbasal elytral tumescences strongly elevated and cristate above, the abdomen black or bicolorous; E. crabronarius (Spinola) (and related species) have the subbasal carinae absent, the abdomen black; E. signifer Barr has the pronotum unicolorous (black), the elytra shining and inconspicuously setose, the abdomen black.
Description (Holotype). Length: 8.40 mm. Color: piceus; apices of maxillary palpi, antennomeres 1 and 2 (in part), trochanters, basal 1/3 of metafemora, metathoracic intercoxal process, mesepimeron and anterior margin of pronotum (narrowly at sides, triangularly extended toward posterior at middle), testaceous to reddish–testaceous; abdomen orangish; anterior margin of elytra at middle (exclusive of scutellum), and extending posteriorly to subbasal spine, castaneous; elytra with a pair of truncated, oblique eburneous fasciae at middle, narrowed at anterior margin laterally, rounded internally, broadly interrupted before suture; elytral posterior 1/5 yellow–testaceous anteriorly, coffee–colored posteriorly and internally at suture. Head: antenna moderate in length; club composed of terminal 3 antennomeres; surface finely, densely but shallowly, granulate–punctate, set with mostly suberect and a few longer, erect pale setae, rather thinly arrayed on front, more densely so on cranium. Pronotum: about as broad as long, slightly narrower than elytra at base; transverse impression broadly U–shaped at middle, rather shallow; anterior margin subtruncate; disk subflattened above; posterior slope moderately precipitous; collar not particularly broad; surface sculpturing as on head; anterior pale region clothed with very short and short, suberect pale setae; disk with a dense but inconspicuous covering of very short, erect dark setae, intermixed with longer, erect dark setae; posterior pronotal 3/7 with a triangular patch of pale pilosity. Elytra: elongate, almost 2X as long as broad, broadest at posterior 2/5; anterior margin feebly bisinuate; humeri rounded; sides gradually constricted behind humeri to anterior 1/3, then gradually expanded to posterior 2/5, from where they gradually, arcuately converge to separately rounded, dehiscent apices; eplipleural fold distinctively broad on anterior 1/3; subbasal tumescences moderate, each crowned with a short carina, terminating posteriorly in a small knob or obtuse spine; disk slightly concave at middle; posterior slope rather gradual; surface densely, deeply and quite coarsely punctate on anterior 1/ 3 (except finely punctate at anterior margin and between subbasal tumescences), punctures less densely arrayed and somewhat less coarse toward middle, then increasingly shallow and inconspicuous posterior to pale median fascia; vestiture on darkened area of disk with a dense but inconspicuous covering of very short, erect dark setae, intermixed with longer, erect dark setae, imparting a slight velvety aspect with cupreous reflections; base thinly set with subrecumbent and erect pale setae; disk posterior to tumescences bearing a sagittate patch of subrecumbent setae; eburneous fascia densely but inconspicuously covered with pale suberect and erect setae; posterior 1/5 with a dense covering of pale, mostly recumbent setae of moderate length. Mesosternum: posterior median process distinctly elevated, slightly emarginate at apex. Metasternum: anterior median process broadly concave at base, spiculate at sides and apically. Abdomen: shining, very sparsely setose; visible sternite 5 with posterior margin transverse; visible sternite 6 with sides oblique, posterior margin rounded. Legs: rather robust.
Variation. Length of available specimens ranges from 7.20 mm to 10.00 mm. Males have visible sternite 5 broadly, feebly emarginate at posterior margin, visible sternite 6 short, hidden beneath 5 and truncate at posterior margin, surpassed by visible tergite 6, which has the sides oblique and the posterior margin rounded. Setal daggers are absent in the male; the tegmen is well sclerotized. Color and integumental sculpturing are rather uniform within the paratype series.
Etymology. The specific epithet honors Henry H. Hespenheide, whose work on mimicry complexes among neotropical insects has greatly informed our understanding of patterns of mimicry in Cleridae.
Distribution. Known only from lowland rainforest in the Osa Peninsula of southwestern Costa Rica.
Biology. Like several other Enoclerus species that inhabit primary rainforest (e.g. E. laselva), the new species has been collected almost exclusively in Malaise traps. It may be that these species occupy a spatial niche above the understory, as they do not generally turn up in beating or sweeping samples from low lying vegetation.
description: Published as part of Rifkind, Jacques, 2012, New Central American and Mexican Enoclerus Gahan (Coleoptera: Cleridae: Clerinae): Part II, pp. 1-27 in Zootaxa 3397 on pages 11-12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.213050