Stenothemus tamil Švihla, 2011, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Švihla, Vladimír
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cantharidae
Stenothemus
Stenothemus tamil

description: Stenothemus tamil sp. nov.
Figs. 24, 105–107.
Type locality. Southern India, Tamil Nādu state, Coimbatore. Type material. Holotype (NMPC), male, “ India mer.[-idionalis], [Tamil Nadu state], Coimbatore [white label, printed]”.
Description. Coloration (Fig. 24). Head honey yellow, tips of mandibles and maxillary palpi sienna, basal two antennomeres honey yellow, remaining ones chestnut brown with narrowly honey yellow joints, annulated. Prothorax honey yellow with three sienna spots before middle: one small central and two larger, longitudinal oval, situated more laterally. Ventral part of body, scutellum and elytra honey yellow, anterior femora honey yellow, infuscate before knees, middle and posterior femora entirely honey yellow, all tibiae and tarsi ferrugineous to chestnut brown.
Male. Eyes large and protruding, head across eyes moderately narrower than pronotum, lateral sides of head behind eyes straight, strongly converging posteriorly. Antennae extending slightly beyond three quarters of elytral length, filiform, antennomeres without visible impressions. Surface of head finely imbricate-punctate, with fine, yellow decumbent pubescence, semilustrous. Pronotum wider than long by almost one fifth, strongly cordiform, anterior margin, anterior corners and anterior two thirds of lateral margins together rounded, last thirds of lateral margins strongly concave, posterior corners sharp, strongly protruding laterad, posterior margin slightly convex. Surface of pronotum with slight mediolongitudinal carina in posterior half, finely punctate all around, impunctate in middle, pubescence like that of head, semilustrous, lustrous in middle. Elytra rather dilated posteriorly, elytral venation not developed, surface of elytra finely punctate in basal third, rugulose-lacunose in apical two thirds, pubescent like that on head and pronotum, semilustrous. Aedeagus as in Figs. 105–107, parameres concave apically, but can very probably also be convex, as is typical in related species.
Female unknown.
Length (male). 10.6 mm.
Differential diagnosis. Stenothemus tamil sp. nov. is very similar to Stenothemus bourgeoisi Wittmer, 1974 (southern India) in body form and shape of the aedeagus, but differs in the shape of the apices of parameres, which are less thickened and less directed laterad apically, in the laterophyses with long mediolongitudinal carina (emarginate apically in S. bourgeoisi), undilated apices of divided portions of dorsal part of the aedeagus (slightly but distinctly dilated in S. bourgeoisi) and the entirely yellow coloration of the elytra (cf. Wittmer 1974 and Figs. 24, 105–109).
Etymology. The Tamils are a people that inhabit parts of southern India and Sri Lanka. The new species is named in reference to its occurrence in the Tamil Nādu state of India. To be treated as a noun in apposition.
Distribution. India: Tamil Nādu state.
description: Published as part of Švihla, Vladimír, 2011, New taxa of the subfamily Cantharinae (Coleoptera: Cantharidae) from south-eastern Asia, with notes on other species III, pp. 1-34 in Zootaxa 2895 on pages 20-21, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.277686