Adoretus (Adoretus) thomasi Limbourg & Dekoninck & Seidel 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Limbourg, Pol
name: Dekoninck, Wouter
name: Seidel, Matthias
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Adoretus
Adoretus thomasi

description: Adoretus (Adoretus) thomasi sp. nov.
urn: lsid:zoobank.org:act: D20E82E1-FFC1-4DC3-B412-BB5BD6C1A3AB
Fig. 19
TYPE MATERIAL.
KENYA. Holotype ♂: [Coll. I.R.Sc.N.B., KENYA, Eastern, E 729, Sosoma, 202km E. of Thika, 20.IX.2007, I.G.31.208, leg. M. Snížek] (RBINS)
Paratypes: same collection data as for holotype: 1♂: (RBINS); 1♂: [Coll. I.R.Sc.N.B., KENYA, Eastern, E 729, Sosoma, 202km E. of Thika, 29.xii.2007, I.G.31.208, leg. M. Snížek] (RBINS); 1♂: [Coll. I.R.Sc.N.B., KENYA, SE, Kiboko env., 21.xi.1999, leg. M. Snížek, I.G.31.411] (RBINS); 1♂: [Coll. I.R.Sc.N.B., KENYA, E of Mwingi, Nguni, 28.xi.1999, lgt Snížek, I.G.31.411] (RBINS); 1♂: [Coll. I.R.Sc.N.B., KENYA, E, E of Mwingi, W of Nguni, 1.xii.2010, achat M. Snížek, I.G.31.867] (RBINS); 1♂: [Coll. I.R.Sc.N.B., KENYA, Coast E, E of Thika, Mwingi, Nguni, 29.xii.2007, lgt M. Snížek, I.G.31.411] (RBINS).
DESCRIPTION.
MALE. Measurements: length: 7.5-9 mm, width: 4-4.5 mm.
Body: laterally slightly convex, relatively elongate, slightly bent, broader in middle of elytra; abdomen concave; perpendicular process at base of prosternum rounded; yellowish with head, all margins, tarsi and spines on outer sides of legs reddish-brown; all margins of elytra, apex of upper, teeth of protibiae, lip and apex of mandibles black; slightly shiny.
Head: broad; clypeus rounded, width equal to space between eyes, strongly anteriorly projecting, entirely reflexed, head totally covered with tubercles; antennae with 10 antennomeres, with club longer than funicle.
Thorax: pronotum rectangular, wider than long; sides uniformly rounded from base to apex; all margins with complete marginal line; anterior angles slightly projecting and reaching posterior margin of eyes; with shallow horseshoe-shaped punctures; impressions on lateral margins; scutellar shield triangular, with rounded apex, and shallow horseshoe-shaped punctures.
Elytra: longer than wide; epipleura complete; primary costae slightly more convex than interstices; all secondary striae irregularly punctate with horseshoe-shaped punctures; striae formed by line of close small horseshoe-shaped punctures; humeral and apical calli slightly marked.
Pygidium: triangular, apex rounded, somewhat tumid, marginated along anal plate, reticulate striolation arranged concentrically around tumidity; not projecting postero-ventrally and not surpassing apex of elytra.
Venter: lateral part of metaventrite with large transversal crescent punctures, middle part almost smooth; lateral part of abdominal ventrites imbricate-punctate, middle part almost smooth.
Legs: protibiae flattened and tridentate, inner claw elongate, shorter than last tarsomere, mesotarsal outer claw cleft; outer claw of metatarsus twice as long as inner one and uncleft.
Setation: dorsal side covered with short, white, squamous decumbent setae, longer and erected along lateral margin of elytra, mostly after middle part; long, widely spaced, erected yellowish setae on canthus, on lateral margins of pronotum to declivity of elytra; underside with short, white, squamous decumbent setae; sparse, long, decumbent brownish-yellow setae inserted in setigerous punctures; a tuft of long, erected brown spines in front of posterior coxa; long, erected, white squamous setae on disc of pygidium; long, erected, yellowish-brown setae on base of labium; outer side of protibiae with short, white, squamous, decumbent, perpendicular setae, underside of protibiae and tarsi with few very long erected yellowish setae; inner sides of meso- and metatibia with long, erected, brownish-yellow setae.
Aedeagus: in lateral view, parameres elongate and rounded from middle part to apex, apex curved; in dorsal view, triangular and elongated with apex slightly diverging; apex with long setae, longer and perpendicular on outer margin.
FEMALE: unknown.
DERIVATIO NOMINIS.
Dedicated to the late British actor Terry-Thomas (1911-1990) for the similarity between the shape of the big moustache of his character of Sir Reginald in the 1966 French-British comedy film “La Grande Vadrouille” and the long setae on the apex of the parameres of the new species.
DISTRIBUTION.
Known from Kenya.
BIOLOGY.
The species was collected in the months of September and November.
DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS.
Adoretus thomasi sp. nov. resembles A. marci Limbourg, 2019 but can be distinguished as follows:
A. thomasi sp. nov. (Fig. 19) Aedeagus: in lateral view, parameres elongate and rounded from middle part to apex, apex curved; in dorsal view, triangular elongated with apex slightly diverging, apex with long setae, longer and perpendicular on outer margin.
Yellowish with all margins of elytra black.
Protibiae flattened.
A. marci Limbourg, 2019 (Figs 19–20)
Aedeagus: in lateral view, parameres short and wide, ventrally slightly sinuate before apex, apex ventrally curved; in dorsal view, lateral margins of parameres almost parallel from base to apex, apex sinuate on apico-internal angle.
Yellowish with disc of pygidium and elytra brownish.
Protibiae relatively slender.
description: Published as part of Limbourg, Pol, Dekoninck, Wouter & Seidel, Matthias, 2024, Contribution to the knowledge of Afrotropical Rutelinae VII (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae), pp. 1-48 in Belgian Journal of Entomology 145 on pages 35-38, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10982041