Pseudochillus (Pseudochillus) aalbui Fouquè 2015, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Fouquè, René
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Tenebrionidae
Pseudochillus

description: Pseudochillus (Pseudochillus) aalbui sp. nov.
(Figs 7, 19, 31, 40)
Type locality. India, Tamil Nadu, 7 mi SW of Avanashi.
Type material. HOLOTYPE: ♂, ‘S INDIA / 7 mi SW / Avanashi / 390 m, III-7-62 // collectors: / E. S. Ross / D. Q. Cavagnaroʼ (CASC). PARATYPES: same data as holotype (9 spec. CASC, 3 spec. RLAC, 1 spec. RFCL).
Description. Body length 4.3 mm (4.0– 4.5 mm), body width 1.2 mm (1.2–1.3 mm). Body, legs and antennae brown.
Head length/width ratio 1.18, head widest at distance equal to half eye length before anterior margin of eyes. Tempora widest at posterior margin of eyes, from there slowly narrowed up to distance equal to one and half eye length, than rounded and sharply narrowed to cervix. Genae markedly arched from posterior margin of eyes to the widest point of head, there arched and directly narrowed to clypeus. Clypeus concave, with small tooth situated slightly to the right. Inner margin of eye with pronounced suborbital keel vanishing at the end of eye groove. Frons with two distinct impressions. Occiput markedly flattened. Ratio of head/ cervix widths 1.96. Eyes (Fig. 31) completely divided by genae, dorsal part with 25 facets in 4 rows, ventral part with 8 facets arranged in triangle. Punctures rounded, almost touching each other, gradually smaller towards clypeus, with very short setae oriented forwards, as long as half of puncture diameter. Space between punctures finely wrinkled. Antennae (Fig. 19) with yellow forward-oriented hairs, setae cut apically and there widest, setae on middle antennomeres as long as third of length of these antennomeres; antennomeres 2–11 combined twice as long as head width; antennomeres elliptical, last antennomere cut apically; antennomere 3 longest, 1.1 times longer than antennomere 4, antennomeres 9 and 10 widest; length ratio of antennomeres 2–11 100: 158: 142: 142: 142: 142: 137: 142: 147: 126, width ratio 168: 174: 174: 168: 168: 168: 184: 189: 189: 147.
Pronotum cordiform, longer than wide (length / width ratio 1.12), widest in anterior quarter; width ratio of head / anterior edges of pronotum / widest point of pronotum / posterior edges of pronotum 100: 69: 95: 67. Anterior corners obtusely rounded, not protruding. Posterior corners obtuse. Pronotal base straight. Anterior margin bisinuate. Lateral margin cordiform. Pronotum with mid longitudinal impression in its whole length. Pronotum in rear view arched with impression in middle and with further impression on each side (the latter is therefore concave). Punctation of same size as on vertex, rounded. Punctures almost touching each other, with forward-oriented yellow setae at least as long as puncture diameter. Space between punctures finely wrinkled.
Elytra elongate; 2.9 times longer and 1.6 times wider than pronotum, elytra length/width ratio 2.05. Base of elytra concave, as wide as pronotal base, with keel as high as keels on elytra. Lateral margin before humeral corners concave. Each elytron with 10 rows of punctures, 8 on dorsal side, 2 on deflexed part; intervals 3, 5, 7 and 9 sharply roof-shaped. Intervals 5 and 9 ending on elytral declivity. Intervals 3 and 7 joined before apex and continued to apex as one short keel. Junction of intervals 7 and 9 forming small obliquely directed humeral corner. Punctures of same size as on pronotum, rounded. Distance between punctures equal to puncture diameter. Interspaces gently wrinkled. Elytra without setae. Epipleura with one row of punctures throughout its whole length; punctures somewhat smaller than in row 10, gradually smaller towards apex. Humeral calli not developed, apterous.
Legs finely covered with pale adherent hairs. Male and female tibiae without small inner subapical tooth. Width/length ratio of posterior tibia 0.15.
Abdomen with small, rounded punctures gradually smaller on fourth and anal abdominal ventrite. Space between punctures on all ventrites equal to 1.0–1.5 puncture diameter.
Aedeagus (Fig. 40) length approximately 0.75 mm (measured on a paratype, body length 4.05 mm).
Differential diagnosis. This species can easily be distinguished from P. (P.) bangaloreanus (Kaszab, 1981) by smaller body size (4.0– 4.5 mm); brown color of body; presence of mid-longitudinal impression on pronotum; punctures on epipleura somewhat smaller than in row 10. Pseudochillus (P.) bangaloreanus is larger (6.2 mm); with whole body black; pronotum without mid-longitudinal impression; punctures on epipleura very fine and hardly visible (Fig. 16).
Etymology. The new species is named in honour of Dr. Rolf L. Aalbu (El Dorado Hills, California, USA), expert in Tenebrionidae.
Distribution. India: Tamil Nadu.
description: Published as part of Fouquè, René, 2015, A review of the genera Indostola, Tagenostola, Indochillus, Pseudethas, and Pseudochillus gen. nov. in South East Asia (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Stenosini), pp. 217-242 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 55 (1) on pages 227-228, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5304649