Macroderes porselinus Abdalla & Deschodt & Scholtz & Sole 2018, new species
Creators: name: Abdalla, Ishtiag H.
name: Deschodt, Christian M.
name: Scholtz, Clarke H.
name: Sole, Catherine L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Macroderes
Macroderes porselinus

description: Macroderes porselinus Abdalla, new species
(Figs. 17, 37, 79, 87, 97)
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: AF42028F-4617-4737-BE44-489EF7E6EBF5
Type locality. South Africa, Porselinberg, Western Cape Province, 33°27.597'S 18°58.765'E.
Type material. Holotype, ♂ (TMSA): “ South Africa / Porselinberg / Western Cape Province / 33°27.597'S 18°58.765'E / 03-2015 / baited pitfall trap: pig dung / F. Roets leg // HOLOTYPE / Macroderes porselinus / Abdalla / 2018 / [red label, printed]”. Paratype: 1 ♀ (TMSA) same data as holotype.
Holotype description. Holotype, ♂ (Fig. 17). Body length 11.00 mm, body width 7.9 mm.
Head. Clypeus broad, semicircular, bordered, by two teeth on anterior edge wider than longer. Genae right angled. Frontoclypeal suture slightly curved without tubercle in the middle. Frons densely punctuate with small round punctures. Clypeogenal suture present but poorly defined towards the clypeal edge. Clypeus densely punctuate with fine punctures becoming rugose towards the clypeal frontal margin.
Pronotum. Form trapezoidal, very convex and broad, matte, more or less shagreened, width greater than length, not excavated anterolaterally. Pronotal lateral edges rounded width twice as wide as length delimited with narrow borders. Borders crenulated, punctate and partially visible in dorsal view, base not bordered, anterior angle right slightly extended forwards, posterior angle obtuse. Pronotal base lacking a longitudinal depression. Pronotal surface densely punctate, medially punctures are elongate, becoming very large, round towards the pronotal lateral edges and the base and smaller towards the pronotal frontal margin (Figs. 79, 87). Punctures with short yellow setae. Punctures spaced by more or less elevated areas about 1–1.5 times their own diameter.
Elytra. Elytra intervals convex, matte, rugose, granular, sparsely punctate with irregular large round punctures interspersed with smaller ones. Punctures separated by elevated areas about 2–5 times their puncture diameters. Striae narrow, punctate with small punctures spaced by 2–6 times their own diameter (Fig. 97). Stria 9 short, very close to stria 10, 2/3 the length of the elytron.
Aedeagus. Sclerite of internal sac straight, rather broad basally and without lateral process (Fig. 37).
Size range. Female length: 10.9 mm, width: 7.6 mm.
Female. Female differs from the male by having frontoclypeal suture with small developed tubercle in the middle.
Etymology. Named after the Porselinberg, the type locality of the species.
Differential diagnosis. This species is most similar to M. politulus in that its pronotum has elongate punctures (Figs. 79, 87) but it differs in that it has a convex and broad pronotum.
Habitat and distribution. Porselinberg is a mountain in the Western Cape Province (Fig. 2). The land is mostly covered by croplands; however, there is some natural vegetation. Soil is sandy with a loamy texture (Mucina & Rutherford 2006).
description: Published as part of Abdalla, Ishtiag H., Deschodt, Christian M., Scholtz, Clarke H. & Sole, Catherine L., 2018, An update to the taxonomy of the genus Macroderes Westwood 1842 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) with descriptions of new species from South Africa, pp. 41-75 in Zootaxa 4504 (1) on pages 67-68, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4504.1.3, http://zenodo.org/record/2606164