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A New Species and New Records of the African Genus Prunaspila (Coleoptera:Tenebrionidae: Adelostomini)Author(s): Luboš PurchartSource: Annales Zoologici, 59(3):313-318. 2009.Published By: Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of SciencesDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3161/000345409X476413URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.3161/000345409X476413

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INTRODUCTION

After the description of a new species of the genusPrunaspila Koch, 1950 from Zimbabwe (Purchart2009), further new species was discovered in assortedmaterial of Tenebrionidae during the author’s visit inthe Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris(France) under the SYNTHESYS project aimed at sys-tematic study of the tribe Adelostomini. The taxonomicseparation of all known species, together with the keyand references with original descriptions were alreadygiven by Purchart (2009), therefore it is not repeated inthis paper.

The genus Prunaspila contains six species includ-ing the new one described in this paper. Its membersoccur in central part of Southern Africa (Botswana,Kingdom of Lesotho and Republic of South Africa) and,based on recent data, also in southeastern Africa (Zim-babwe, Mozambique). The distribution of the genusPrunaspila was depicted by Brown (1958) on a map.However, it only showed the range of the whole genus,without separating the particular species, and it doesnot reflect the present knowledge about the genus dis-tribution.

Since new records and new species became knownafter Brown’s work, the distributional map of the genus

should be updated and is therefore provided in thispaper.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Measurements. Body length is the distance from theanterior margin of clypeus to the elytral apex. Lengthof pronotum is the distance between pronotal base andanterior margin of pronotum measured along midline.Width of pronotum is measured in the broadest part ofthe latter. Length of the elytra is the distance betweenthe base and apex of elytra. Width of the elytra is thecombined maximum width of both elytra.

Abbreviations. The number of examined specimensis in parentheses, e.g. (1 MNHN) means one specimenin collection of the Muséum National d’Histoire Natur-elle, Paris.

Note. Label data are given verbatim with remarkson the data given in brackets.

The material studied is deposited in the followingcollections:

MNHN – Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris,France (T. Deuve);

MNHUB – Museum für Naturkunde, Humboldt-Univer-sität, Berlin, Germany (M. Uhlig).

A NEW SPECIES AND NEW RECORDS OF THE AFRICANGENUS PRUNASPILA KOCH, 1950 (COLEOPTERA:

TENEBRIONIDAE: ADELOSTOMINI)

A N N A L E S Z O O L O G I C I (Warszawa), 2009, 59(3): 313-318

LUBOŠ PURCHART

Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Institute of Forest Ecology,Zemědělská 3, CZ-61300 Brno, Czech Republic;

e-mail: lubos.purchart@post.cz; xpurchar@node.mendelu.cz

Abstract.— Prunaspila bezdeki sp. nov. is described from Mozambique, compared withits relatives and a photo of habitus is provided. New locality records of the genusPrunaspila Koch, 1950 and distributional map of all known species are presented.

Key words.— Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae, Adelostomini, Prunaspila, new species, newrecords, Africa, Mozambique.

PL ISSN 0003-4541 © Fundacja Natura optima duxdoi: 10.3161/000345409X476413

Creating distributional map. The data used for thedistributional map were acquired by the author duringhis visits to The Natural History Museum in London(United Kingdom), Hungarian Natural History Museumin Budapest (Hungary), The Royal Museum for CentralAfrica in Tervuren (Belgium), Staatliches Museum fürNaturkunde, Stuttgart (Germany) (records published inPurchart 2009), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturellein Paris (France) and Museum für Naturkunde, Hum-boldt-Universität in Berlin (Germany) (new records pre-sented in this paper) or private collections. The authoralso used data published in older literature (Fåhraeus1870, Haag-Rutenberg 1876, Koch 1952).

Geographical coordinates for most localities wereobtained using GeoNames (www.geonames.org) andGoogle Earth, with the exception of three places inKruger National Park, whose coordinates were kindlyprovided by Guin Zambatis, curator of Skukuza Bio-logical Reference Collection. The map was createdthrough Online Map Creation (www.aquarius.ifm-geomar.de/), processed and arranged with Ghostcript8.54, GSview 4.9 and Inkscape 0.45 software.

SYSTEMATICS

Prunaspila Koch, 1950

Prunaspila Koch, 1950: 67. – Koch 1952: 20–21, 85–87; Purchart 2009:71–74.

Aspila Fåhraeus, 1870: 251. – Haag-Rutenberg 1872: 404, 1875: 404,1876: 106; Gebien 1936: 675. Changed to Prunaspila by Koch(1950), because of homonymy.

Type species. Aspila bicostata Fåhraeus, 1870:251.

Prunaspila bezdeki sp. nov.(Fig. 1)

Type locality. Mozambique, Tete Province, Tam-bara env.

Etymology. Dedicated to my dear colleague andfriend Dr. Jan Bezděk, a world-famous expert in Chry-somelidae, who always kindly discusses and helps meto resolve many questions arising from my work onTenebrionidae.

Type material. Holotype (X MNHN): {pale bluelabel, printed} MUSÉUM PARIS, ZAMBÉZE, ENV. DETAMBARA, LAC CANGARÉ, P. LESNE, 1929 // {whitelabel, handwritten and printed} 3 MAI // {red label,laser printed} Holotypus Prunaspila bezdeki sp. nov.det. L. Purchart 2008.

Condition of holotype. Apical right mesotarso-mere and claws missing.

314 L. PURCHART

Description. Body rounded laterally, ovoid, darkbrown, with antennae, anterior margin of epistome and lateral margins of pronotum pale brown. Size 9.0 ×4.6 mm.

Head narrower than pronotum in ratio 1:1.48. Wid-est at supra-antennal portions. Surface shagreened,covered with fine short whitish setae. Sculptured withmesh-like surface composed of concave granules whichare approximately 3–4 times larger than an eye facet.Supra-antennal portions strongly developed, raisedabove the level of frons and strongly concave (lateralview). Preocular impressions deep, longitudinal, about1.5 times larger than dorsal side of eyes, shagreenedand without sculptures as present on head. Supra-orbital edges weakly developed and faintly projectinghorizontally above the eyes. Inter-ocular space abouttwo times broader than longitudinal diameter of eyes(dorsal view) and slightly depressed centrally. Mediancarina of head absent. Vertex with distinct short mid-longitudinal depression. Ventral side of head shiny, ru-gose and covered sparsely with fine white setae. Buccalfissure lobes with straight truncate apical margin.

Antennae as long as width of pronotum, compress-ed dorso-ventrally, slightly dilated toward apex andcovered with very fine yellowish-white setae. An-tennomere 1, 3 and 4 longer than broad, with third

Figure 1. Prunaspila bezdeki sp. nov. (holotype), dorsal view, scale bar: 2 mm.

antennomere strongly elongate, little longer than the following three combined but distinctly shorter thanthe following four taken together. Antennomere 2(abbreviated, approx. half length of the first joint) and6–9 broader than long. Antennomere 5 and 11 as longas broad.

Pronotum transverse, broadest behind middle,there 2.17 times broader than long. Dull, shagreened,entire surface regularly covered with granules whichare of the same size as eye facet and sparse finewhitish setae. Granules separated by distances 2–3times larger than their diameter. Anterior emargina-tion deep. Base of the latter 2.23 times longer thaninner lateral margins, which are very slightly curvedtowards the lateral margins of pronotum. Anteriorangles produced, enclosing head up to posterior part ofeyes. Sides of pronotum regularly rounded and dilatedtoward base and behind middle slightly narrowingtoward posterior angles where obtusely rounded andbent back toward the base of pronotum. The latter withstraight deep and broad emargination, which isapproximately as broad as width of head in the widestpoint. Disc of pronotum flattened, slightly raisedtoward anterior emargination and with two shallowdepressions situated transversally in middle of prono-tal disc. Lateral portions of pronotum foliaceous, bentupwards. Lateral margins slightly wrinkled. Proster-num sparsely covered with the granules similar tothose of pronotum, glabrous and with carinate anteriormargin. Prosternal apophysis guttiform, coarse, cov-ered with fine short yellowish setae.

Elytra ovoid (dorsal view), 1.3 times longer thanbroad, dull, shagreened, sparsely but regularly coveredwith fine whitish setae as long as length of secondantennomere. Broadest in the middle. Base of elytrastraight, only slightly narrower than width of margin ofposterior emargination of pronotum. Without humeralcallosity. Scutellum shagreened, triangular. Elytraldisc flattened (lateral view), elytral declivity stronglysteep, almost in rectangular angle (lateral view). Ely-tral suture normally developed, not carinate or raised.Sides of elytra regularly rounded in first third, thensubparallel in second third and narrowing toward apexof elytra in posterior third. Each elytron with three lon-gitudinal, strongly developed and high costae, runningparallel with lateral outline of elytra. Lateral costaereaching pronotal base, coalescent apically with first(inner) costae. The latter ending anteriorly before baseof pronotum approximately as far as length of fourthantennomere. Median costae (between inner and later-al costae) ending anteriorly as far as length of thirdantennomere, and posteriorly, before coalescent later-al and inner costae, distance approximately as long as antennomeres 4–6 combined. Inner and mediancostae nearly smooth and becoming subdenticulate onthe declivity of elytra. Lateral costae subdenticulate,

apically becoming denticulate. Space between costaeirregularly coarsely punctate, surface between punc-tures with small shiny tubercles, approximately aslarge as eye facet. Reflected portions of elytra sha-greened, densely and coarsely punctate, covered withshiny tubercles similar to those on elytra, glabrous,only apically with fine whitish setae. Epipleural carinastrongly developed apically. Stridulating carina onreflected portions of elytra and inner surface of inter-mediate femora normally developed. Abdomen smooth,shagreened, dull, covered sparsely with fine yellowishsetae. Legs shagreened, covered sparsely with shortyellowish setae. Edges of tibiae with red-brown spine-like setae.

Distribution. Mozambique.Differential diagnosis. P. bezdeki sp. nov. is eas-

ily distinguishable from the other species of Prunaspi-la. From P. arnoldi Koch, 1952 it differs by the ab-sence of median carina on head, glabrous elytra, longantennae with strongly prolonged third antennomerewhich is longer than the three following joints takentogether (in P. arnoldi median carina of head is pres-ent, elytra covered with long hairs, antennae short,third antennomere shorter than the two followingantennomeres combined). From P. carinicollis Koch,1952 and P. demeyeri Purchart, 2009 it differs by theabsence of median carina on pronotum, deeply emar-ginated pronotal base, third antennomere distinctlylonger than the following three antennomeres com-bined (in P. carinicollis and P. demeyeri mediancarina of pronotum is present, base of pronotum notemarginated, third antennomere is not longer than thefollowing three antennomeres taken together). From P. bicostata (Fåhraeus, 1870) it differs by glabrouselytra, absence of median carina on head, deeply emar-ginated pronotal base and the length of third anten-nomere (in P. bicostata median carina on head pres-ent, elytra bear long setae, shallowly emarginated pro-notal base, third antennomere only slightly longer thanthe following two antennomeres combined). It probablycomes closest to P. transvaalensis Koch, 1952, fromwhich it differs in the following features: third anten-nomere longer than the following three antennomerescombined, emargination of pronotal base is deep (in P. transvaalensis third antennomere distinctly longerthan the following two antennomeres taken togetherbut shorter than the following three, base of pronotumwithout such emargination).

New records of the genus Prunaspila

Prunaspila arnoldi Koch, 1952

(8 MNHN): 12. VI. 1970, Parc Gorongoza, MOZAM-BIQUE, Cl. Besnard leg. // MUSEUM PARIS, COLL. P.

GENUS PRUNASPILA IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 315

ARDOIN, 1978; (2 YY + 1 X HNHM): same, but 17 / 20.XII.1972.

Prunaspila bicostata Fåhraeus, 1870

(1 MNHUB): 14969 // bicostata, Port natal, Bohem. //Hist.-Coll. (Coleoptera), Nr. 14969, Aspila bicostataFåhr., Port Natal, Bohem., Zool. Mus. Berlin // bicosta-ta, Fahr., Caffraria; (2 MNHUB): Puighoek [Ruighoek],Pilansberg distr., 30.7.1949, Mrs. E. Breutz; (1 HNHM):Ruighoek, Pilansberg distr., 30.7.1949, Mrs. E. Breutz //MUSEUM PARIS, COLL. P. ARDOIN, 1978 // Pruna-spila bicostata Fahr., C, Koch det., 195?; (3 HNHM):Futie, 30.VII.1949, Zoutpansbg. distr., C. Koch & vanSon [1 specimen bears two additional labels – MuseumParis // Prunaspila bicostata Fahr., C. Koch det., 195?];(2 HNHM): Transvaal, Rustenburg, I. 50 // COLL. MUS. CONGO, ex coll. Breuning // MUSEUM PARIS,COLL. P. ARDOIN, 1978 // Prunaspila bicostata Fåhra-eus, P. ARDOIN DET. 1973; (1 HNHM): betw. Pieters-burg & Salt Pan, VII. 1949, Koch & Son // Museum Paris.

Prunaspila transvaalensis Koch, 1952

(9 HNHM): 5.VIII.1968, Tunnel Strijdom, près Ohri-gatad, TRANSVAAL // Prunaspila transvaalensis Koch,P. ARDOIN DET., 1968 // MUSEUM PARIS, COLL. P.ARDOIN, 1978.

Comments on the distribution of the genusPrunaspila

Genera of Adelostomini occurring in SouthernAfrica can be divided into two faunistic elements – the abundant, genera rich western fauna and poorereastern fauna (Brown 1958). Adelostomini settle in drier habitats. These habitats are more abundant inthe treeless western Southern Africa and rarer in thearboreal eastern part (Schawaller, pers. comm.). Simi-lar distribution is found in Stizopina, the subtribe ofthe tribe Stizopini (Koch 1963, Iwan and Schimrosczyk2009).

The genus Prunaspila was classified by Brown(1958) as belonging to the eastern faunal element. Asshown on the new distributional map (Fig. 2), the genusPrunaspila occurs in the eastern part, and its distri-bution extends far into the central part of SouthernAfrica. The genus is associated with areas of wood-lands and savannah. It is also evident that, accordingto the present distributional knowledge of the genus,every species occurs in a very limited area, relatively

isolated from each other. Discovery of new species further to North or West cannot be excluded. It is quitepossible that in time new localities closer to the west-ern coastal area of Southern Africa or the southernpart of Central Africa will be revealed and the genuswill potentially be defined as widespread, as in the caseof the genera Eurychora Thunberg, 1791 or Geopha-nus Haag-Rutenberg, 1872.

List of known localities of the genus Prunaspila

The list below comprises all localities included inthe distributional map of the genus (Fig. 2). If possible,exact or approximate geographical coordinates wereadded (see methodology for more information).

Prunaspila arnoldi Koch, 1952

MOZAMBIQUE: [Gorongosa National Park –18°41’25’’S, 34°18’49’’E], [Sofala Province, Caia –17°49’13’’S, 35°20’39’’E]; ZIMBABWE: [BirchenoughBridge – 19°58’0’’S, 32°20’0’’E], [Melsetter – 19°31’0’’S,32°33’0’’E], [Penkridge (type locality) – 19°31’0’’S,32°44’0’’E].

Prunaspila bezdeki sp. nov.

MOZAMBIQUE: [Tete Province, Tambara env., lakeCangaré (type locality) – 15°7’33’’S, 32°3’21’’E].

Prunaspila bicostata Fåhraeus, 1870

BOTSWANA: [Kgatleng district, Bakgatla –24°15’0’’S, 26°30’0’’E]; KINGDOM OF LESOTHO: [Mase-ru env. – 29°19’0’’S, 27°29’0’’E]; MOZAMBIQUE: [Na-gurth – (it was not possible to specify the exact positionof this locality, it is therefore indicated with a questionmark in the distributional map) R.S.A., southeast partof the Eastern Cape (type locality – original designa-tion “Kaffraria” was descriptive name for present dis-tricts King Williams Town and East London or as ageographical term for Transkeian territories in theEastern Cape and formed by four administrative divi-sions of Transkei, Pondoland, Tembuland and Griqua-land East) – [without further locality data and there-fore indicated with a question mark in the distribution-al map]; R.S.A.: [Gauteng Province, Zoutpan (The Pre-toria Zoutpan Crater – 25°25’30’’S, 28°04’59’’E],[KwaZulu-Natal Province, Durban (formerly Port ofNatal) – 29°52’0’’S, 31°1’0’’E], [Limpopo Province, Leipzig, Blaauwberg mountain – 23°4’0’’S, 28°59’0’’E],

316 L. PURCHART

[Limpopo Province, Zoutpansberg district, Soutpans-berg mountains – 22°58’0’’S, 29°45’0’’E], [LimpopoProvince, between Polokwane [formerly Pietersburg]and Soutpansberg mountains [same as Salt Pan Moun-tains] – Pietersburg 23°55’33’’S, 29°29’3’’E; Soutpans-berg mountains 22°58’0’’S, 29°45’0’’E], [LimpopoProvince, Zoutpansberg district, Futie – (it was notpossible to specify the exact position of this locality, it is therefore indicated with a question mark in the distributional map)], [North West Province, Rusten-burg – 25°40’0’’S, 27°15’0’’S], [North West Province,Ruighoek – 25°11’0’’S, 26°54’0’’E], [Northern CapeProvince, Mokala – 28°5’0’’S, 22°46’0’’E], [NorthernCape Province, Kimberley – 28°44’0’’S, 24°46’0’’E];ZIMBABWE: [without further locality data and there-fore indicated with a question mark in the distribu-tional map].

Prunaspila carinicollis Koch, 1952

R.S.A.: [Limpopo Province, North-East Zoutpans-berg district, Soutpansberg (type locality) – 22°58’0’’S,29°45’0’’E].

Prunaspila demeyeri Purchart, 2009

ZIMBABWE: [Mashonaland West Province, Kariba(type locality) – 16°31’0’’S, 28°48’0’’E].

Prunaspila transvaalensis Koch, 1952

R.S.A.: [Mpumalanga Province, Lydenburg District,Lydenburg – 25°6’0’’S, 30°27’0’’E], [Limpopo Province,

GENUS PRUNASPILA IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 317

Figure 2. Distributional map of the genus Prunaspila. Dots placed together with a question mark indicate that in these cases it was not possible to specify the exact position of localities.

318 L. PURCHART

Kruger National Park, Oliphants River, Grootdraai (typelocality) – 25°18’0’’S, 31°46’0’’E], [Limpopo Province,Kruger NP, Nhlanganini stream – 23°51’0’’S, 31°36’0’’E],[Limpopo Province, Kruger NP, Letaba stream –23°59’0’’S, 31°50’0’’E], [Limpopo Province, Kruger NP,Sokolomo stream – 23°45’20”S, 31°19’31”E], [LimpopoProvince, Kruger NP, Punda – 22°41’0’’S, 31°1’0’’E],[Limpopo Province, Strydom Tunnel, near Ohrigstad –24°24’0’’S, 30°37’0’’E].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am grateful to Dr. Manfred Uhlig, Bernd Jaeger,Dr. Johannes Frisch, Dr. Thiery Deuve and IsabelleBruno de Miré-Gidon for loan of specimen used in thisstudy and for their hospitality during my visits of Berlinand Paris, respectively. I thank Guan Zambatis andDaniel Pienaar who kindly helped me to locate severallocalities. I would like to express special thanks to Dr. Jan Bezděk (Brno) for practical comments andvaluable advice. I would also like to thank Mr. LubošDembický for taking photographs. Last but not leastmy thanks are due to the referees Dr. WolfgangSchawaller (Stuttgart) and Dr. Ottó Merkl (Budapest)for their comments and corrections. This researchreceived support from the SYNTHESYS Project FR-TAF-4115 and DE-TAF-4727 (http://www.synthesys.info/) which is financed by the European Commun-ity Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6“Structuring the European Research Area Pro-gramme”. This work was also partly supported by the

Research plan of the Czech Ministry of Education MSM6215648902.

REFERENCES

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Fåhraeus, O. 1870. Coleoptera Caffrariae, annis 1838–1845 a J. A. Wahlberg collecta. Heteromera descripsit. Öfversigtaf Kongliga Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar, 4:243–358.

Haag-Rutenberg, G. 1876. Eine neue Art der Gattung Aspila(Eurychoridae). Entomologische Zeitung (Stettin), 37:106–107.

Iwan, D. and D. Schimrosczyk 2009. Catalogue of the worldStizopina (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Opatrini). AnnalesZoologici, 59: 259–280.

Koch, C. 1950. Proposed change of African generic names inthe family Tenebrionidae (Col.). The Entomologist, 83:66–68.

Koch, C. 1952. The Tenebrionidae of Southern Africa. VIII. Ma-terials for a monographic study on Eurychorini (Coleo-ptera). Bulletin de la Societé Fouad 1er d’Entomologie, 36:1–125.

Koch, C. 1963. The Tenebrionidae of Southern Africa, 29.Luebbertia plana gen. & spec. nov. with a dichotomic Anal-ysis of Stizopina (Opatrini). Scientific Paper of the NamibDesert Research Station, 18: 1–87.

Purchart, L. 2009. A new Prunaspila Koch (Coleoptera: Tene-brionidae: Adelostomini) from Zimbabwe, with species keyto the genus. Journal of Afrotropical Zoology, 5: 71–75.

Received: January 15, 2009Accepted: July 31, 2009