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

description: Pseudochillus (Micropseudochillus) palawanus sp. nov.
(Figs 10, 24, 34, 41)
Type locality. Philippines, central Palawan, above San Rafael, ca. 300 m a.s.l.
Type material: HOLOTYPE ♂, ‘ PHILIPPINES, PALAWAN centr. / above San Rafael, ca 300 m / degraded forest on slope / 4.XII.1995, J. Kodada leg.ʼ (MHNG). PARATYPES: same data as holotype (4 spec. MHNG, 1 spec. RFCL); ‘ PHILIPPINES / PALAWAN, above / St. Rafael, forest / edge, 4.xii.1996 / I. Löbl, leaf litter #13ʼ (3 spec. MHNG, 1 spec. RFCL); ‘ PHILIPPINES, PALAWAN central / Conception, large logs across / Conception river, NE San Ra- / fael, ca 20 m, 8.xii.1995 / J. Kodada & B. Rigová lgt.ʼ (1 spec. MHNG).
Description. Body length 3.4 mm (3.1–3.8 mm), body width 1.0 mm (1.0– 1.2 mm). Body black or rusty brown, legs and antennae dark brown.
Head length/width ratio 1.13, head widest at anterior margin of eyes. Tempora widest at posterior margin of eyes, from there slowly narrowed at distance equal to eye length, than rounded to cervix. Genae arched from posterior margin of eyes to the widest place, there arched and directly narrowed to clypeus, margins behind clypeus finely serrulate. Clypeus concave with small tooth situated slightly to the right. Left half of clypeus slightly more concave than right one. Suborbital keel flat, indistinct. Eye groove stretches from posterior margin of eye and falls down before cervical constriction. The latter at the same level as interior margin of eyes and slightly concave, vertex convex, occiput without impression. Frons with two distinct impressions. Ratio of head/cervix widths 1.81. Eyes (Fig. 34) completely divided by genae, dorsal part with 14 facets in 2 rows, ventral part with 8 facets arranged in elongated triangle. Punctation teardrop-like, largest on vertex, smaller towards clypeus. Interspaces between punctures as large as half their diameter, finely wrinkled. Punctures with thick, yellow, forward-oriented setae. Setae twice as long as puncture diameter. Antennae (Fig. 24) with golden setae oriented forwards. Setae cut and flattened on top and there widest, on middle antennomeres as long as 0.7 length of these antennomeres. Antennomeres 2–11 together twice longer than pronotal width; antennomeres 2, 3, 10 and 11 trapezoidal, antennomeres 4–9 elliptical, last antennomere cut latero-apically; antennomere 3 longest, 1.3 times longer than antennomere 4, antennomere 10 widest; length ratio of antennomeres 2–11 100: 148: 117: 96: 96: 96: 87: 100: 117: 74, width ratio 109: 130: 130: 130: 130: 135: 143: 143: 157: 126.
Pronotum longer than wide (1.26), widest in anterior third; width ratio of head / anterior edges of pronotum / widest point of pronotum / posterior edges of pronotum 100: 72: 83: 64. Anterior corners obtusely rounded, not protruding. Posterior corners almost rectangular. Pronotal base and anterior margin very finely convex. Lateral margin cordiform with very fine teeth. Pronotum laterally arched in middle, in anterior third slightly flattened. Punctation dense and larger than on head, rounded. Punctures almost touching each other, interspaces very finely wrinkled. Punctures with yellow setae oriented forwards. Setae situated close to lateral margin as long as puncture diameter and fine; in middle and on anterior margin of pronotum distinct, thick and two times longer than puncture diameter.
Elytra oval, 2.8 times longer and 1.9 times wider than pronotum, elytra length/width ratio 1.85. Base of elytra V-shaped, narrower than pronotal base (0.87). Each elytron with 10 rows of punctures, 8 on dorsal side, 2 on deflexed part. Intervals 3, 5, 7, and 9 finely keeled, on top with teeth with yellow erected setae. Interval 7 flattened in basal quarter. Setae cut on top and there widest, twice longer than puncture diameter. Remaining intervals slightly convex. Keels disappearing on the elytral declivity. Intervals not forming humeral corners. Punctures deep, rounded and larger than those on pronotum, with fine setae as long as ¾ puncture diameter. Distance between punctures in row smaller than puncture diameter. Interspaces gently wrinkled. Epipleura with one row of punctures, its punctures two times smaller than in row 10; punctures apically joining in deep grove. Humeral calli not developed, apterous.
Legs finely covered with light adherent hairs. Tibiae in males with small inner subapical tooth. Ratio of posterior tibia width / length as 0.13.
Abdomen on all ventrites with uniformly rounded punctures of the same diameter. Interspaces between punctures decrease backwards, equal to puncture diameter on anal ventrite. Last three ventrites with very fine setae which are twice longer than puncture diameter.
Aedeagus (Fig. 41) approximately 0.7 mm long; tip of apicale with a few pairs of fine setae and with very fine V-shaped excision.
Differential diagnosis. Pseudochillus (M.) palawanus sp. nov. can be distinguished from P. (M.) thailandicus sp. nov. and P. (M.) indochinensis sp. nov. by thick, erected and on the top cut setae; deep punctures on elytra; and by distance between punctures in a row smaller than their diameters. Pseudochillus (M.) thailandicus has thin, erected setae; punctures of rows on elytra are shallower and the distance between punctures in a row is larger than puncture diameters. Pseudochillus (M.) indochinensis has very short and close-fitting setae; punctures are shallow and distance between punctures on elytra in row larger than puncture diameters.
Etymology. This species is named after the Palawan Island where the type series was collected.
Distribution. Philippines: Palawan.
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 234-236, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5304649