Bouchardium chillygonzalesi & B. mariae - Red-edged White-legged Quadrate Toktokkies (newly described species)

The well-known White-legged Toktokkie Dichtha cubica has been split into three species and a new genus was erected for them in:
Kamiński MJ (2024) New taxa of Afrotropical toktokkies (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Molurina) from the Natural History Museum of Basel. Zootaxa 5446(1): 77–87.
OPEN ACCESS.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5446.1.4.

Three species are now known and described:

Bouchardium cubicum (Guérin-Méneville, 1845) - Common White-legged Quadrate Toktokkie

• Shiny blackish, only antennae and legs with whitish tomentum
• Underside: Prosternal process (1) rounded (in lateral view).

• Elytra ampliated: Elytral disc relatively wide covering sides of epipleura in dorsal view. Elytral disc relatively flat. Elytra entirely black.
  Distribution: Northern South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe

Bouchardium chillygonzalesi Kamiński 2024 - Narrow Red-edged Quadrate Toktokkie

• Elytra with two red stripes along the sides of the disc, red edges of disc with corrugated margins.
• Underside: Prosternal process with elongate appendages.

• Elytra narrow: Elytral disc relatively narrow leaving sides of the epipleura exposed in dorsal view. Elytral disc relatively flat.
  Distribution: South Africa (North West), Zimbabwe,
  Type locality: Hartebeestpoort dam

Bouchardium mariae Kamiński 2024 - Wide Red-edged Quadrate Toktokkie

• Elytra with two red stripes along the sides of the disc, red edges with almost smooth margins
• Underside: Prosternal process rounded (in lateral view).

• Elytra ampliated: Elytral disc relatively wide covering sides of epipleura in dorsal view. Elytral disc distinctly convex.
  Distribution: Botswana, South Africa (Limpopo), Zimbabwe, Mozambique
  Type locality: Francistown, Botswana
  _________________________________________________________________________________________

(1) The prosternal process is a part in the middle of the prosternum, a posterior projection between the insertion of the forelegs. It has appendages on the tip only in B. chillygonzalesi

Publicerat 29 april 2024 12.16 av traianbertau