Epistomius bulirschi Borovec & Skuhrovec 2017, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Borovec, Roman
name: Skuhrovec, Jiří
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Curculionidae
Epistomius
Epistomius bulirschi

description: Epistomius bulirschi sp. nov.   
(Figs 3A, 5A–G)  
 Type locality. South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Karkloof Forest, Bushwillow to waterfall trail, km 1–3, 29°30′17″S, 30°29′76″E, 1350–1500 m a.s.l.   
 Type material. HOLOTYPE: ♂, ‘ RSA (E) [South Africa, East], KwaZulu-Natal, 29.3017S / 30.2976E, Karkloof Forest, Bushwillow to waterfall trail, km 1-3, sifting, 1350-1500 m, 8.11.2013, leg. M.Wanat’ (TMSA). PARATYPES: 11 ♂ ♀, the same data as holotype (MNHW, RBSC).   
 Description (Figs 5A–G). Body length 1.63–2.09 mm, holotype 1.98 mm. Body dark brownish to blackish, antennae reddish brown but club blackish, sometimes apical part of scape slightly darker, short apical part of tibiae and tarsi yellowish red to reddish brown. Elytra sparsely covered with appressed scales of irregular shape, 3 across width of one interval, subrounded, star- to fan-shaped, with short fringes, leaving short distance between scales. Pronotum and head with rostrum with fan-shaped scales with fringes, scales on pronotum sparse, on head with rostrum dense, almost covering integument. Appressed scales on scape, femora and tibiae identical to elytral ones but smaller. Setae on elytra inconspicuous, semiappressed, subspatulate, on basal half shorter than half width of one interval, on apical half about as long as half width of one interval, twice as long as setae on basal half, distance between two setae on posterior declivity more than twice the length of one seta. Setae on pronotum and head with rostrum subspatulate, short, about equal to those of basal half of elytra, semiappressed, hardly prominent in lateral view, setae on interocular space twice as long as the others. Scape, femora and tibiae with short, long-oval semiappressed setae, hardly prominent from outline. Body vestiture light greyish brown, elytra with moderately large dark brownish spot on disc, pronotum with two wide, longitudinal, curved dark brownish stripes.   
 Head (Figs 5A–D). Rostrum in males (Fig. 5B) extremelly enlarged in apical half, apical part distinctly prominent laterally, 1.19–1.27× as wide as long, at apex 1.14–1.17× as wide as at base and equally wide as head including eyes; in females (Fig. 5C) parallel-sided, in apical half indistinctly enlarged around scrobes, 1.08–1.09× as wide as long, at apex 0.96–0.98× as wide as at base, distinctly narrower than head including eyes. Epifrons when cleared of scales shiny, smooth, unpunctured, with very slender longitudinal median stria and with two inconspicuous lateral longitudinal keels weakly tapered posteriad. Frons deepened, smooth. Epistome in males wider than width of epifrons at midlength, in females narrow, about equally wide as epifrons at midlength. Head when cleared of scales shiny and smooth, with very small fovea and with several very short and fine, almost indistinct longitudinal striae in middle. Eyes faintly prominent from outline of head.   
 Antennae (Fig. 5A). Antennal scape 5.5–5.8× as long as wide and 1.6–1.7× as long as funicle, at apex 0.9× as wide as club. Funicle segment I 1.9–2.0× as long as wide and 2.0× as long as segment II, which is 1.1× as long as wide; segments III–VI 1.6–1.7× as wide as long; segment VII 1.3× as wide as long. Club 2.3–2.4× as long as wide.   
 Pronotum (Fig. 5A) 1.33–1.43× as wide as long, widest behind midlength, with distinctly rounded sides, more tapered anteriad than posteriad, weakly constricted behind anterior margin. When cleared of scales regularly convex, shiny, sparsely irregularly coarsely punctured, with 6–7 punctures along the length, punctures moderately large, distance between punctures about equal to their diameter, behind anterior margin bordered by transverse sparse row of finer punctures. Pronotum in lateral view weakly convex, behind anterior border lowered.   
 Elytra (Fig. 5A) in males 1.09–1.13× as long as wide, in females 1.14–1.17× as long as wide.   
 Legs (Figs 5A, E). Tarsomere II 1.6–1.7× as wide as long; tarsomere III 1.4× as wide as long and 1.4× as wide as tarsomere II; onychium 1.6–1.7× as long as tarsomere III.   
 Male genitalia (Figs 3A, 5G). Penis short but weakly longer than wide, narrowest at base, in basal third subparallel-sided, in middle third weakly enlarged apicad, in apical third subtriangular, evenly tapared apicad; in lateral view weakly curved with slender lengthened tip in apical third.   
 Etymology. Species is dedicated to Petr Bulirsch (Prague, Czech Republic), a Carabidae specialist, who provided an extensive material of small sifted entimines from South Africa to the first author.   
 Biology. The type material was sifted from forest litter.   
 Distribution. South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal (Fig. 4).   
 Differential diagnosis. The species is characterized by elytral setae on apical declivity semiappressed, rostrum in males distinctly enlarged anteriad, at apex equally wide as head including eyes, and by penis short, at apex regularly triangular, in basal half concave. This set of characters easily distinguishes E. bulirschi sp. nov. from all other species of the genus.
description: Published as part of Borovec, Roman & Skuhrovec, Jiří, 2017, Epistomius, a new genus of African forest litter Trachyphloeini, with descriptions of seven new species (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), pp. 645-676 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) (Acta. Ent. Mus. Natl. Pragae) 57 (2) on pages 655-658, DOI: 10.1515/aemnp-2017-0094, http://zenodo.org/record/5318667