Studies of Tiger Beetles . CLXXVIII . A new Lophyra ( Lophyra ) from Somaliland ( Coleoptera , Cicindelidae )

A new tiger beetle species, Lophyra (Lophyra) praetermissa n. sp. (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae), obviously a close relative of L. (L.) histrio (Tschitschérine, 1903), is described from the environs of Erigavo, Somaliland (northern Somalia). Its discovery thus brings to 73 the number of the species of this genus presently known worldwide (39 species of which – 29 from Africa – belong to the typonominal subgenus).


Lophyra (Lophyra) praetermissa
Description.Head dark bronze with cupreous refl ections, fi nely striated on frons and vertex, a few stronger and longitudinal striae on the declivities of eyes; surface glabrous, a fan of white recumbent hairs behind each eye.Genae glabrous.Two setigerous punctures near the orbital margins at fi xed loci.Labrum testaceous, large, roundish in both sexes, feebly tridentate in front, with four setae or setigerous punctures near forward margins (two in the middle, two at the lateral sides).Mandibles shiny piceous-black, shortly testaceous on basal outer sides.Maxillary and labial palpi testaceous with the last joint metallic greenish-black.Antennae as long as to the fi rst third of the elytral length, a bit shorter in female; scape and antennomeres 2-4 metallic dark-cupreous; antennomeres 5-11 yellowish, a bit darkened; antennomere 4 of male without any penicillum (Cassola 1983).
Th orax: pronotum wider than long, of the same colour as the head, fi nely and evenly sculpted.Anterior and posterior grooves well-marked.Surface covered with a number of recumbent white hairs especially on the lateral sides.Notopleural sutures well-marked, proepisterna reddish-violet, mostly glabrous with long white recumbent hairs near the anterior margin and the coxae.Mesepisterna also partially setose; mesepimera and metepisterna covered with white recumbent pubescence.Coupling sulci poorly developed, consisting of a shallow puncture in the upper corners of the female mesepisterna.
Elytra: Elytral ground colour bronze with cupreous refl ections, covered with small, evenly spaced, bluish punctures.All elytral markings confl uent with each other, forming a continuous wide marginal band from the shoulder to the elytral apex, this band being connected with the anterior juxta-sutural spot (and narrowly to the second one as well) through a continuous scutellar band below the base.Humeral lunule emitting on disc a wide, rounded, transversal spur; middle band slightly elbowed on disc; apical lunule wide, shortly extending forward along the suture.Second juxta-sutural spot elongated, pointing behind near the suture.Elytra rounded at apex, with a small sutural tooth in both sexes.Underside bronze with cupreous refl ections.Sides of sternum, coxae and abdominal sternites more or less pubescent.Trochanters piceous-black.Legs dark-bronze to black, with cupreous refl ections especially on "knees" and tibiae.
Etymology.Th e name of this new Lophyra species refers to the fact that it was at fi rst overlooked and mixed with Lophyra (Lophyrina) latelimbata (Müller, 1941), a species similar in size.
Remarks.Th e shape of the male aedeagus, with a triangular preapical tooth on the left side only and a rounded, slightly directed upwards apex, clearly places this new species in the group of Lophyra (Lophyra) neglecta Dejean, 1825 (Rivalier 1948;Rivalier 1950), however, the much smaller size and the diff erent elytral markings easily help to distinguish it.Th e distinct elytral markings also distinguish L. (L.) praetermissa n. sp.from both the similarly sized species L. (L.) cassoliana Werner, 1997, from Tanzania (which, however, is slightly larger and has a reddish general ground colour), and L. (Lophyrina) latelimbata (Müller, 1941), from Somalia and Ethiopia, (which has diff erent elytral markings and exhibits a distinct inner sac of aedeagus) (Cassola 1977).Th is new species looks like a small L. (L.) histrio, described from north-eastern Iran (Tschitchérine 1903) and also recently recorded from the Arabian peninsula (Wiesner 1993;Cassola and Rihane 1996;Cassola and Schneider 1997).Th ese two species are likely closely related and distinguished by the large, roundish labrum and the smaller size of the new species.Th is discovery of an additional Lophyra species in Somaliland (northern Somalia) brings to 73 the number of the species of this genus presently known worldwide (39 species of which -29 from Africa -belong to the typonominal subgenus).