Dicronychus brancuccii Platia and Schimmel 1997
Creators: name: Al Dhafer, Hathal M.
name: Platia, Giuseppe
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Elateridae
Dicronychus
Dicronychus brancuccii

description: Dicronychus brancuccii Platia and Schimmel, 1997
Figs. 1–5
Material examined: Sultanate of Oman: Dhofar Region, Salalah, 16° 59’N, 54° 64’E, 10 m, 19–20.VII-1995, B. Skule (1♀ paratype NHMB); Saudi Arabia: Wadi Marwani, 7-II-1985, W. Buttiker, (1 paratype, NHMB); Makkah, Wadi Shuque, 20° 44’N, 41° 09’E, 1380 m. 12-IX-1984 W. Buttiker, (1 paratype, NHMB); Muzahimiyah, AlKhararah 24° 24’ 24”N, 46° 14’ 40” E, 26-IV-2012 light trap, Y. Drayhim, H. Al Dhafer, A. Al Gharbawy & M. Al Harbi, 1 ♀ (KSMA); Wadi Qounonah, 19° 24’ 673”N, 41° 36’ 388” E, 348m, 11 III 2012, light trap, H. Al Dhafer & H. Fadl, 2♂, 2♀ (KSMA); AlMajardah, Wadi AlTalalie, 19° 05’ 192”N, 41° 47’ 784”E, 286m, 1 VI 2012, 1♂, 2♀ (KSMA), sweeping, H. Al Dhafer & B. Kondratieff; 1♀ (KSMA); same locality, A. AlAnsi, 1♀ (KSMA); Rawdhat Khorim, 25° 25’ 943”N, 47° 13’ 863” E, 572m, 26-IV-2011 light trap, 1♀ (KSMA); Jizan, Aiban, Sabia Road, Wadi Shahdan, 17° 28’ 266”N, 42° 51’ 191”E, altitude 433m, 13-XI-2012, light trap, H. Al Dhafer, 1♂ (KSMA).
Description. Head: Black with dense small punctures mixed with larger punctures (Fig. 1), covered with dense erect pale setae; frons convex becoming flat toward anterior margin with well-developed apical carina; antennae not reaching the hind angles by about one antennomere, antennomere 2 subconical, slightly shorter than antennomere 3; antennomeres 3–10 feebly dilated at apex, longer than wide; antennomere 11 subellipsoidal, narrowed at apex.
Pronotum: as long as wide, convex, widest at middle, black, dense and fine round punctures alternating with larger round punctures, lateral margins arcuate; hind angles sharply truncate, carinate dorsally. Prosternum with impressed V-shaped lines (Fig. 2).
Scutellum: Black, slightly wider than long, heart shaped, emarginated at base.
Elytra: Bicolored, yellowish brown, medially black (Fig. 3); striae finely punctuate, interstriae deeply punctuate.
Male genitalia: Parameres of aedeagus with a distinct produced subapical rounded lateral lobe, apical expansion triangular, two setae below expansion, distal setae long; median lobe simple, clublike, subparallel margins beyond middle, apically rounded, not bulbous (Fig. 4).
Female genitalia: Proximal sclerite of bursa copulatrix (Fig. 5) with 11–13 large marginal teeth and 14–16 smaller teeth including one below large marginal terminal tooth.
Remarks. The proximal sclerite of the bursa copulatrix (Fig. 5) in D. brancuccii easily distinguishes it from the two new species described below. The male can be distinguished by the parameres possessing a distinctly produced subapical rounded lateral lobe with the apical expansion triangular in shape (Fig. 4). Additionally, the median lobe of the aedeagus has a clublike apex (Fig. 4).
description: Published as part of Al Dhafer, Hathal M. & Platia, Giuseppe, 2013, Contribution to the knowledge of the genus Dicronychus (Coleoptera: Elateridae) from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, pp. 15-22 in Zootaxa 3734 (1) on page 16, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3734.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/285166