Afrodissus Vitali, 2025, n. gen.
Creators: name: Vitali, Francesco
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cerambycidae
Afrodissus

description: Afrodissus n. gen.
Fig. 9.
Type-species. Pachydissus congolensis Hintz, 1911.
Material examined
Pachydissus adlbaueri Bouyer, 2018: PARATYPE, 1♂, Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, Pachydissus camerunicus Auriv. det. E. Hintz, 3311p, MNHNL83529; PARATYPE, 1♀, ditto, 3311q, MNHNL138296.
Pachydissus aquilus (Olliff, 1889): 1♀, Zambia, Central, Mfwanta, 18.XI.2007, N. Delahaye leg., CFV.
Pachydissus aspericollis Fairmaire, 1887: 1 ♂, 1♀, Moçambique, Maputo, 16–30.XI.1996, G. Curletti leg., CFV.
Pachydissus camerunicus Aurivillius, 1906: 10 ♂♂, 9♀♀ Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, Pachydissus camerunicus Auriv. det. E. Hintz, 3311a–o, MNHNL138265–138283; 2♂♂, Togo Plateaux Region, Konda, Kuoma, X.2014, CFV; 3♂♂, 2♀♀, ditto, III.2015, CFV; 1♀, ditto, Konda, 23.III.2011, CFV.
Pachydissus congolensis Hintz, 1911: LECTOTYPE, ♂, Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, Pachydissus congolensis m[ihi] det. E. Hintz, Type, 3310a, MNHNL83530; PARALECTOTYPE ♀, ditto, Pachydissus congolensis m[ihi] det. E. Hintz, Type, 3310b, MNHNL138297; 8♂♂, 3♀♀, ditto, 3310a–k, MNHNL138284–138294.
Pachydissus regius Aurivillius, 1906, 1♂, Congo belge, Kondué, E. Luja [lgt.], E. Luja don. 1907, MNHNL138295.
Pachydissus natalensis (White, 1853): 1♂, Zambia, Western, Namushakende, 1.IV.2010, N. Delahaye leg., CFV.
Pachydissus intermedius Gahan, 1891: 1 ♀, Australia, A.T.C., Canberra, 5–10.I.1999, F. Strumia leg., CFV.
Diagnosis. Body convex, elongated. Head with interantennal furrow prolonged on the neck; upper eye lobes more or less separated between them; intergenal furrow straight. Antennae very long (from one-third to more than twice longer than body in male), ectoapically toothed from antennomere V; scape slightly convex externally, imperceptibly punctured; basal antennomeres conical in male, antennomere III at least twice as long as IV. Pronotum as long as wide, without lateral spines, dorsally convex, covered with transverse wrinkles and often two longitudinal furrows delimiting a more or less smooth field. Elytra parallel-sided in both sexes, truncated, obtusely toothed or shortly spined at the marginal apex; elytral pubescence recumbent, dense, giving changing pattern. Procoxal cavities rounded; tibiae and femora without ventral ridges and mutic at apex.
Differential diagnosis. The Australian Pachydissus (Type-species: P. sericus Newman, 1838, Fig. 10) differs from Afrodissus n.gen. in the body being smaller (22.5–43 vs. 22–79 mm), dorsally flattened; the antennae moderately long (from as long as to one-third longer than body in male), with antennomeres III–IV more or less inflated in males and antennomere III less than twice as long as IV; the pronotum less globose and more finely sculptured, sometimes subangulate at the sides; the elytra shorter, less parallel, somewhat convex laterally in females, longly spined at both apices (except for one species) and covered with fine, quite uniform, silky pubescence.
Derivatio nominis. From the word “ Afro ” (African) and the suffix – dissus (duplex), reminiscent of the genus name Pachydissus, in reference to its geographical distribution. Gender masculine.
Remarks. The differential characters provided for Pachydissus concern only P. papuanus Gressitt 1959 and the Australian species, to which the type-species belongs.
Cerambyx mulsanti Montrouzier, 1855, described from Woodlark, does not belong to Pachydissus. The type was lost long ago (Drumont, pers. comm.) and Gemminger & Harold (1872) transferred it to Pachydissus without justification since the author had compared this species to Cerambyx scriptus Fabricius, 1798, a junior synonym of Glaucytes interrupta (Olivier, 1792).
Some Australian Pachydissus can still show one archaic character: P. magnus McKeown, 1940 shows a simple outer elytral apex and P. probatus Gahan, 1893 shows normal basal antennomeres (but it is probably a female, despite its description). However, all other characters fit the diagnosis of the genus.
Notably, the Wallace Line largely separates African and Asian Pachydissus from the Australian ones, as this genus is absent from the Philippines, Sulawesi, the Moluccas and West Papua. Thus, Afrodissus n. gen. is also well supported from a biogeographical point of view. Correspondingly, the Asian species (see Miroshnikov, 2017) do not correspond at first glance to Pachydissus but possibly to Afrodissus n. gen., potentially forming a single genus, as occurs in Neoplocaederus and Batocera. However, due to limited available material, a definitive conclusion cannot yet be made.
Genus composition. All African species until now classified as Pachydissus (Adlbauer, 2002; Haller & Vitali, 2010; Bouyer, 2018), except for P. samai and P. aspericollis, are transferred to the new genus. Consequently, the following new combinations are introduced: Afrodissus adlbaueri (Bouyer, 2018) n. comb.; Afrodissus aquilus (Olliff, 1889) n. comb.; Afrodissus aurivillianus (Distant, 1904) n. comb.; Afrodissus camerunicus (Aurivillius, 1906) n. comb.; Afrodissus congolensis (Hintz, 1911) n. comb.; Afrodissus curvivittatus (Adlbauer, 2002) n. comb.; Afrodissus drumonti Bouyer, 2018 n. comb.; Afrodissus evounai (Haller & Vitali, 2010) n. comb.; Afrodissus furcifer Jordan, 1894 n. comb.; Afrodissus furvus (Fåhraeus, 1872) n. comb.; Afrodissus garnieri (Adlbauer, 2002) n. comb.; Afrodissus hector (Kolbe, 1893) n. comb.; Afrodissus leonardi (Bouyer, 2018) n. comb.; Afrodissus morettoi (Bouyer, 2018) n. comb.; Afrodissus natalensis (White, 1853) n. comb.; Afrodissus philemon (Adlbauer, 2002) n. comb.; Afrodissus regius (Aurivillius, 1906) n. comb.; Afrodissus schoenigi Hintz, 1910 n. comb.; Afrodissus subauratus (Gahan, 1890) n. comb.; Afrodissus titan (Aurivillius, 1916) n. comb.; Afrodissus vicarius (Aurivillius, 1906) n. comb. and Afrodissus vicinus (Corinta-Ferreira, 1957) n. comb.
description: Published as part of Vitali, Francesco, 2025, Notes, transfers, new combinations, and new taxa of some African genera of the tribe Cerambycini (Coleoptera Cerambycidae), pp. 20-28 in Zootaxa 5620 (1) on pages 24-26, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5620.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/15218963