Brachycyphon marginipennis Boheman 1851, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Ruta, Rafał
name: Libonatti, María Laura
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scirtidae
Brachycyphon
Brachycyphon marginipennis

description: Brachycyphon marginipennis (Boheman, 1851) comb. nov.
(Figs 1 A–C, 2, 3, 4)
Elodes marginipennis Boheman, 1851: 426 (terra typica: Natal; see notes under “Distribution”) Cyphon marginipennis: Pic 1914 (catalogue)
Contacyphon marginipennis: Zwick et al. 2013 (catalogue)
Type material (3 specimens, NHRS). Lectotype (present designation), male. “Caffra \ ria.”; “J. Wahlb”; “NHRS-VKBS \ 000000419”. Genitalia on a separate pin: “ marginipennis \ Paratypus Boh.” [handwritten by Nyholm]; “Naturhistoriska riksmuseet \ (NRS) Stockholm \ coll. Tord Nyholm (NYHS) \ See slide prep # 905”; “NHRS-VKBS \ 000000419”. Paralectotype (present designation), male. “Caffra \ ria.”; “J. Wahlb”; “ Type ”; “ Typus ” [red label]; “NHRS-VKBS \ 000000418”. Abdomen was placed separately, glued on a cardboard and pinned with labels: “ marginipennis \ Typus Boh” [handwritten by Nyholm]; “NHRS-VKBS \ 000000418”. Paralectotype (present designation), female. “Caffra \ ria.”; “J. Wahlb”; “marginip. ♀ \ allotyp \ prep... [illegible]” [handwritten by Nyholm]; “NHRS-VKBS \ 000000417”.
Redescription. Lectotype, male. Body broadly oval, flattened, densely covered with brownish, semierect setae. Head brownish black, pronotum yellowish, elytra brown with yellowish suture, antennae light brown, legs yellowish-brown, ventrum dark brown.
Head small, moderately convex, covered with granulate punctures which are separated by ca. 1.0 – 1.5 diameter; clypeus short, small, transverse. Eyes moderately big, protuberant, HW/IS 1.6. Antennae filiform, scape large, subcylindrical, antennomere 2 subglobular, antennomere 3 short and narrow. Pronotum short and transverse, widest at posterior angles, depressed, covered with large and small granulate punctures; antero-lateral angles rounded, not projecting anteriorly; postero-lateral angles rectangular; posterior margin bisinuate; PW/PL 2.4. Scutellar shield covered with fine, granulate punctures, equilateral-triangular. Elytra oblong-oval, relatively wide, sides rounded, a bit explanate in anterior half, punctures granulate, very dense, fusing into transverse lines, distinctly stronger than on head and pronotum, separated by ca. 0.3 – 0.5 diameter; humeri elevated; EL/EW 1.3; EL/PL 4.4; EW/PW 1.4; TL/EW 1.6.
Penis symmetrical, large (L 0.72 mm, W 0.23 mm), parameroids long, with subparallel sides, trigonium widely subrectangular in basal portion, narrow and bifid in apical portion; tegmen (L 0.54 mm, W 0.08 mm) long, Yshaped, parameres pointed at apices; sternite 8 small (L 0.15 mm, W 0.23 mm), widely U-shaped; sternite 9 large (L 0.57 mm, W 0.31 mm) and modified, consisting of a Y-shaped sclerite and a pair of lateral sclerites with serrate margins; tergite 8 (L 0.38 mm, W 0.39 mm) with trapezoidal apical plate and row of setae on apical margin, apodemes relatively short; tergite 9 (L 0.37 mm, W 0.20 mm) with very long apodemes and small apical plate.
Female. TL 2.9 mm, body more slender than in male, TL/EW 1.7, uniformly testaceous, covered with yellowish-brown setae. Tergite 8 long (L 1.22 mm), with paired apodemes; sternite 8 slightly shorter (L 0.87 mm), with paired apodemes which are connected in front, apical part with membranous structures along apodemes; ovipositor long (L 1.63 mm), with membranous coxites; prehensor oval (L 0.34 mm, W 0.4 mm), with long spines on lateral and apical margins, apical portion deeply emarginated, central portion with small, triangular sclerite.
Measurements. Male, n = 1. TL 2.9 mm, PL 0.55 mm, PW 1.3 mm, EL 2.4 mm, EW 1.8 mm. Female, n = 1. TL 2.9 mm, PL 0.55 mm, PW 1.2 mm, EL 2.4 mm, EW 1.7 mm.
Distribution. Described from Caffraria (also known as Cafrerie or Kaffraria), a name used for an “extensive area of eastern southern Africa” (Londt 2012), located by some authors in the present East Cape province (Ferrer 1995). According to Ripley & Dana (1859), Caffraria was a vast area extending between Great Fish River on the south and Delagoa Bay (present Maputo Bay in Mozambique) on the north, including a large portion of today’s KwaZulu-Natal province. In the second half of the 19th century the name Caffraria was restricted to a smaller area between Great Kei River and Umzimkulu. Boheman himself described the species as occurring in “terra Natalensi” (Boheman 1851), which suggests that the actual collecting area was located closer to the city of Durban. This seems to be confirmed by the detailed data on Wahlberg’s excursions (Brinck 1955).
Remarks. All three specimens deposited in NHRS with original locality labels are treated here as belonging to the type series. One of the male specimens, marked with a red “ type ” label, is designated here as the lectotype in order to preserve the stability of nomenclature by selecting one specimen as the sole, name-bearing type of the taxon.
description: Published as part of Ruta, Rafał & Libonatti, María Laura, 2016, Redescriptions of Scirtidae (Coleoptera: Scirtoidea) described by Carl Henrik Boheman (1796 – 1868) with notes on Scirtes adustus diversenotatus Pic, 1930, pp. 203-216 in Zootaxa 4072 (2) on pages 204-206, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4072.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/255401