Lalagetes howdenorum Borovec & Skuhrovec 2018, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Borovec, Roman
name: Skuhrovec, Jiří
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Curculionidae
Lalagetes
Lalagetes howdenorum

description: Lalagetes howdenorum sp. nov.
(Figs 3B, 6A–F)
Type locality. South Africa, Limpopo, Malta Forest, 21 km W. Trichardtsdal.
Type material. Holotype: ♂, S. AFRICA. Tvl. [South Africa, Limpopo], Malta Forest, 21 km W. Trichardtsdal, 23.XII. 1985, 940 m, H. & A. Howden (SANC). Paratypes: 5 ♀♀, the same data as holotype (CMNC, BMNH).
Description (Figs 3B, 6A–F). Body length male 2.08 mm, females 2.13–2.31 mm, holotype 2.08 mm. Body (Fig. 6A) dark brownish; antennae and legs paler, reddish brown, clubs blackish, very short basal part of clubs brownish. Elytra with large, rounded appressed slightly imbricate scales, finely longitudinally striate, 3–4 across width of one interval; pronotum and head with rostrum with smaller appressed scales than those on elytra, distinctly depressed at middle. Perpendicularly erect setae on elytra slender, lancet-shaped, pointed apicad, at midlength distinctly narrower than diameter of one appressed scale, distance between two setae about equal to length of one seta, weakly longer than width of interval; pronotum and head with rostrum with similar setae, but shorter and slightly wider; scapes and outer side of femora and tibiae with subspatulate setae, on tibiae somewhat longer than on scapes and femora. Body vestiture greyish to ligth brownish, with indistinct, not contrast, light brownish transverse stripe on inner 6 intervals at midlength and on inner 8 intervals at posterior declivity.
Rostrum (Figs 6A–C) in females 1.27–1.30 × as wide as long, widest at base and moderately tapered anteriad, at base 1.17–1.18 × as wide as at apex, with slightly concave sides. Epifrons narrow, at base distinctly narrower than distance between eyes, at base almost equally wide as at apex, with weakly concave sides; when cleared of scales slightly shallowly depressed, matt, with narrow carina at lateral border and one short median at basal half; vertex distinctly longitudinally striate along the whole length. Antennal scrobes dorsally pit-shaped at anterior half.
Antennae (Fig. 6A). Antennal scape weakly regularly curved at midlength, evenly enlarged at apical part, at apex equally wide as club. Segments 1 and 2 long and slender, conical; segment 1 2.2–2.3 × as long as wide and 1.5–1.6 × as long as segment 2, which is 2.2–2.4 × as long as wide; segments 3, 4 and 6 1.2–1.3 × as long as wide; segment 5 1.1–1.2 × as long as wide, segment 7 isodiametric; club 2.0–2.1 × as long as wide.
Pronotum in male 1.52, in females 1.48–1.55 × as wide as long.
Elytra in male 1.08, in females 1.11–1.19 × as long as wide; when cleared of scales with striae creating deepened lines.
Legs (Figs 6A, D). Tarsal segment 2 isodiametric; segment 3 1.3–1.4 × as wide as long and 1.6–1.7 × as wide as segment 2; onychium 0.8–0.9 × as long as previous segment.
Male genitalia (Figs 3B, 6E). Penis about as long as metatarsus, ventrally widest at base, weakly tapered anteriad with weakly concave sides, apex subtriangular with concave sides. Penis in lateral view weakly curved, slender, with apical part S-shaped. Temones twice as long as body of penis.
Female genitalia. Gonocoxites with very short, hardly visible styli, about as long as wide. Sternite VIII with apodeme 5.4–6.2 × as long as plate; plate subtriangular, twice as wide as long. Spermatheca (Fig. 6F) with large, subtriangular corpus and with ramus and nodulus about equally long, oval, distant from each other.
Biology. Unknown.
Distribution. South Africa, Limpopo (Fig. 4).
Derivation of name. Named after collectors of the species, the late Anne T. and Henry F. Howden of Ottawa, Canada.
Differential diagnosis. By its slender pronotum and very narrow epifrons this species is similar only to L. seminulum, from which it can be distinguished by elytral setae slender, lancet-shaped, apically pointed, plate of sternite VIII distinctly wider than long and oval nodulus, distant from ramus.
description: Published as part of Borovec, Roman & Skuhrovec, Jiří, 2018, Revision of the species related to Lalagetes subfasciatus Boheman and transfer of remaining Lalagetes species to other genera of Embrithini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Entiminae), pp. 71-90 in Zootaxa 4374 (1) on pages 80-81, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4374.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/1152440