Cossyphodes braunsi Andreae 1961
Creators: name: Schawaller, Wolfgang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Tenebrionidae
Cossyphodes
Cossyphodes braunsi

description: Cossyphodes braunsi Andreae, 1961
(Fig. 14)
Cossyphodes bewicki Wasmann, 1899 (not Wollaston, 1861)
Examined type material. None.
New material. South Africa, Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth, Algoa Bay, leg. H. Brauns, 2 ex. HNHM (det. Basilewsky as C. bewicki), 1 ex. BMNH (det. as C. bewicki).— South Africa (labelled as Kapland), Port Elizabeth, leg. H. Brauns, 2 ex. ZFMK (coll. Reichensperger).
Type locality. “Port Elisabeth”.
Distribution. South Africa (Eastern Cape).
Cossyphodes caecus sp. n. (Figs. 15–16)
Type material. Holotype (♂): South Africa, Northern Cape, Richtersveld NP, Doringpoort, 28°34'S / 16°56'E, 7.IX.1976, leg. S. Endrödy-Younga, TMSA.— Paratypes: Same data as holotype, 1 ex. TMSA, 1 ex. SMNS.— Western Cape, Elands Bay, XI.1948, leg. C. Koch, 3 ex. TMSA, 1 ex. SMNS.— South Africa, Mpumalanga (labelled as N Transvaal), Waterberg, Haakdoringboom Farm, 24°11'S / 27°50'E, 13.II.1976, leg. A. Strydom, 1 ex. TMSA.
Description. Body dark brown without colour pattern. Body length 2.6–2.8 mm. Head semicircular, clypeus not separated, clypeal lines indistinct, straight; anterior and lateral margins somewhat bent upwards, frons with two pairs of weak keels, internal keels reduced to two tubercles each; head surface with regular microgranulation; eyes completely absent, a short longitudinal keel instead of ocelli; antennae 11-segmented with two large apical antennomeres forming club. Pronotum 1.7 times broader than median length, posterior corner rectangular, acute, anterior corner rounded; all margins unbordered; surface with same microgranulation and microsetation as on head, disc on each side with three distinct, complete longitudinal keels, additionally with a distinct medial keel, for direction, distances of these keels, see Fig. 15; prosternal process elongate triangular with protruding acute posterior angle. Elytra widest shortly before base, 1.4 times longer than broad; elytra with four primary keels and distinct secondary keels, internal main keel present only on anterior third of elytra, for direction, distances of these keels, see Fig. 15; surface with the same microgranulation and microsetation as on head and pronotum. Legs without peculiarities, tarsal formula 5-4-4 as usual for the genus. Aedeagus with trianguar acute apicale (Fig. 16).
Diagnosis. Cossyphodes caecus sp. n. can be recognised by the lack of eyes without any ocelli present, by two pairs of weak keels on the head, by distinct complete keels on the pronotum, and by distinct main keels as well as present secondary keels on the elytra. Cossyphodes braunsi from Eastern Cape (Fig. 14) also lacks ocelli, but the head is without any keels or tubercles, the pronotum with only weak external keels, and the elytra with extinct inner keels.
Etymology. The name refers to the lack of eyes, caecus in Latin means blind.
description: Published as part of Schawaller, Wolfgang, 2013, Cossyphodini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Pimeliinae) in South Africa, Namibia and adjacent regions: New species and records, key to genera, and Old World species catalogue, pp. 351-364 in Zootaxa 3721 (4) on pages 356-357, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3721.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/247749