Onitis brahma Lansberge 1875
Creators: name: Karimbumkara, Seena Narayanan
name: Priyadarsanan, Dharma Rajan
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Onitis
Onitis brahma

description: Onitis brahma Lansberge, 1875
Figs 5B, 17
Onitisbrahma Lansberge, 1875: 142 (original description).
Onitisbrahma – Preudhomme De Borre 1881: 41 (catalogue). — Arrow 1931: 399 (keys, description). — Janssens 1937: 74 (revision). — Balthasar 1963: 45 (monograph). — Chandra 2000: 360 (distribution). — Chandra & Ahirwar 2005: 149 (distribution); 2007: 286 (distribution). — Sewak 2009b: 61 (distribution, diagnosis). — Chandra et al. 2011: 66 (distribution). — Chandra & Gupta 2012b: 817 (distribution). — Karimbumkara & Rajan 2013: 174 (distribution). — Gupta et al. 2014: 230 (distribution); 2015: 1034 (key, distribution, description). — Schoolmeesters 2022 (online catalogue).
Differential diagnosis
Onitisbrahma belongs to Group VII and is closer to O. crassus and O. castaneus in having a hairy pygidium and punctured pronotum but differs from both in having an interrupted frontal carina and strongly excised clypeus.
Material examined
Holotype
INDIA • ♂; “ Mniszech, Ex-Musaeo Van Lansberge, Muséum Paris ex Coll. R. Oberthür 1952, A. Janssens vid., 1936: Onitisbrahma Lansb.”, MNHN EC4809.
Additional material (4 specimens)
INDIA • ♂, ♀; Dharwar, Bombay, “ H. Swale. 1913–117”, BMNH (E) 1237157, BMNH (E) 1237158 • ♂, ♀; Nerbuda Survey, Barra, Bewa State, 8 Mar. 1927; 2700 ft a.s.l.; ZSIM.
Description
MEASUREMENTS (in mm). TL=21–26; BW=11–13.5.
Male
Black or dark brown; clypeus shining, not closely granulate; clypeal margin strongly reflexed, excised in the middle; head finely granulate; frontal carina interrupted in the middle; pronotum shining, pronotum rugose anteriorly and punctured behind; elytra deeply striate, intervals convex, unpunctured, not shining; pygidium sparingly punctured; scanty hairs on pygidium long; metasternum with close reddish hairs, a raised longitudinal ridge in the middle; fore legs elongate, femur bears a blunt anterior process near the extremity, tibia slender, strongly curved towards the tip, armed with four external teeth, a very sharp tooth beneath, before the middle and a long incurved terminal process; mesofemur with a sharp tooth near the middle of its lower edge; hind femur with a sharp outwardly directed tooth at its upper edge near the base and a blunt lobe before middle of the lower edge.
Female
Clypeus more densely granular, not shining; pronotum closely rugose on major part.
Distribution
India: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (Chandra 2000; Chandra & Ahirwar 2005, 2007; Sewak 2009b; Chandra & Gupta 2012b; Karimbumkara & Rajan 2013; Gupta et al. 2014, 2015; Schoolmeesters 2022).
description: Published as part of Karimbumkara, Seena Narayanan & Priyadarsanan, Dharma Rajan, 2024, Study on the genus Onitis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) of the Indian Subcontinent, with three new species from India, pp. 1-61 in European Journal of Taxonomy 956 on pages 13-16, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2024.956.2657, http://zenodo.org/record/13742850