Africaphes quadripunctatus Jałoszyński, sp. nov.
(Figs 1, 3–5, 8, 10, 14, 16, 20–21)
Type material studied. Holotype (Burundi): ♂, two labels: “ Afrika / Burundi / Muramvya / 10 km NE Bugarama / 27.2.1985 / leg. Brachat /Mühle” [white, printed], „ AFRICAPHES \ quadripunctatus m. \ P. Jałoszyński, 2025 \ HOLOTYPUS“ [red, printed] (MNHW).
Diagnosis. Male: posterior vertexal region with two distinct pits separated by small tubercle and with adjacent long and thick modified setae; submental region elongate and strongly narrowing posterad; antennomere 8 strongly transverse.
Description. Body of male (Fig. 1) moderately dark brown with slightly darker head and slightly lighter appendages, setae yellowish brown; BL 1.15 mm.
Head (Figs 3–4, 8) broadest across eyes, HL 0.20 mm, HW 0.26 mm; temple in dorsal view (Fig. 3) slightly longer than eye; frontovertexal region strongly transverse; each eye large but weakly convex, coarsely faceted. Punctures on dorsum inconspicuous; setae short, sparse and suberect; outer genal regions with lateral and ventral bristles. Secondary sexual characters: posterior vertexal region with pair of circular pits separated by distance about twice as wide as their diameters, median area just anterior to pits with small elongate tubercles bearing two long and flat modified setae, two conspicuously long, thick, flattened and strongly curved setae inserted on median area just posterior to pits (Fig. 4). Ventrally, head with strongly elongate submental region (Fig. 8; smn) strongly narrowing posterad. Antenna (Figs 1, 5) slender but short in relation to body length, AnL 0.48 mm, antennomeres 1 and 2 each strongly elongate, 2.5 times as long as broad, 3 slightly transverse, with sharply marked proximal marginal ‘collar’, 4–7 each weakly elongate and gradually increasing in width and length, 8 as wide as 7 and much shorter, strongly transverse, 9 and 10 each about as long as broad and much wider than 8, 11 much shorter than 9 and 10 combined, as wide as 10 and about 1.5 times as long as broad.
Pronotum (Fig. 3) rounded, broadest near middle; PL 0.28 mm, PW 0.30 mm. Anterior and lateral margins strongly rounded; posterior corners obtuse-angled, posterior margin weakly bisinuate. Pronotal disc with two pairs of round and deep antebasal pits and with impression laterad each outer pit, on dorsolateral surface. Disc with fine, inconspicuous punctures; setae about as long, sparse and suberect as those on head dorsum, dorsally admixed with sparse bristles, which become denser on lateral pronotal regions and on outer hypomera.
Elytra (Figs 1, 3) together oval, broadest slightly in front of middle; EL 0.68 mm, EW 0.50 mm, EI 1.35; humeral calli distinct, elongate and mesally demarcated by shallow impressions, basal foveae deep and widely separated. Punctures and setae as those on pronotal disc.
Hind wings functional.
Legs short, lacking peculiar modifications.
Aedeagus (Figs 20–21) weakly elongate, AeL 0.13 mm; in ventral view with elongate subtriangular apex; endophallus with several curved elongate sclerites; parameres moderately slender, each with 2–3 apical setae.
Female. Unknown.
Distribution. SW Burundi (Muramvya Province).
Etymology. The adjective quadripunctatus refers to the head of male which bears two anterior pits and two presumably glandular posterior pits.
Remarks. Externally, males of A. quadripunctatus and A. bipunctatus sp. nov. clearly differ in the head structures (posterior glandular structures in the former are more elaborate and include two pits, a median tubercle and modified setae, whereas the latter species has only a simple median elongate ‘slot’), and in the shape of antennomere 8, which is strongly transverse in A. quadripunctatus and as long as wide in A. bipunctatus. Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2025, Africaphes gen. nov., a new genus of Stenichnini in Burundi and Rwanda (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), pp. 262-278 in Zootaxa 5666 (2) on page 276, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5666.2.7,
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