Somaliland, Laascaanood [= Las Anod], 8°29.0535'N, 47°22.6342'E, ca 680 m a.s.l.

Holotype , male: “Somaliland, 7.-8.x.2021 | LAAS CANOOD [= Las Anod] – Hamdi Hotel | 8.484225N, 47.377236E | ca 680m, Z. Fric lgt.”. Paratype, female, same data as for holotype.

Holotype and paratype are deposited in NMPC.

Male. Body length 13.6 mm (Fig. 1). Body elongate, strongly convex, surface brown, appendages somewhat lighter, moderately shiny, setation pale. Head and pronotum covered with short, stout, semierect setae; elytra with nearly scale-like setation. Legs and ventral surface with sparse, long, erect setae mixed with much shorter, scale-like setae.

Head, including clypeus, densely coarsely punctate, each puncture with short, stout, semierect seta. Clypeus trasverse, broadly rounded, emarginate at middle (Fig. 9). Frontoclypeal carina broadly arcuate. Occipital carina present, prominent. Eye canthus narrow, long, with sparse, long setation. Eye large, distincly extended beyond canthus. Antenna with 10 antennomeres, club trimerous, slightly shorter than antennal shaft. Antennomere 1 with posterior longitudinal row of erect setae and few isolated erect setae at apex; antennomere 2 bare; antennomeres 3–7 with very few (1–4) isolated setae; club sparsely covered with moderately long, erect setae. Labrum transverse, deeply bilobed; lobes rounded, with coarse irregular punctures bearing long, erect setae. Terminal maxillary palpomere narrow, only slightly expanded apically (Fig. 37), distinctly shorter than palpomeres 1 and 2 combined.

Pronotum transverse, convex, widest at about middle; base broader than anterior margin; with shallow, oval anteromedial depression narrower then head weakly rising toward edge of crest (Figs 17, 25). Anterior margin with well visible tubercle at middle; anterior angles weak, broadly rounded. Lateral margins crenulate, with moderately long setae. Posterior margin with distinct border, very shortly interrupted at middle. Crest delimiting anteromedial depression well visible, with wide V-shaped impunctate strip (Fig. 17) and small impunctate area in basal part of depression. Punctation of remaining surface coarse, somewhat irregular, punctures separated by 1–2× their diameters. Each puncture bearing with short, stout, semirecumbent seta.

Scutellum broadly triangular, sparsely and coarsely punctate in basal half, with short, stout setae; apical area impunctate and bare.

Elytron convex, widest at about middle, sutural angle obtuse-angulate. Striae absent; humeral bones present, weakly swolen, impunctate. Surface of elytron moderately shiny, covered with shallow, regularly spaced punctures, separated by 2–3× puncture diameters. Each puncture bearing with short, recumbent, scale-like seta. Epipleuron distinct, complete, narrow, with row of moderately long erect setae. Apical half of lateral margin of elytron with membranous border.

Figures 1–4. 

Habitus of Entyposis species, dorsal view 1 E. frici sp. nov., holotype, male (body length 13.6 mm) 2 the same, paratype, female (body length 13.3 mm) 3 E. cordipenis Sehnal, 2017, paratype, male (body length 13.5 mm) 4 the same, paratype, female (body length 14.2 mm).

Figures 5–8. 

Habitus of Entyposis species, dorsal view 5 E. impressa Kolbe, 1894, male (body length 15.0 mm) 6 the same, female (body length 16.0 mm) 7 E. mendax Péringuey, 1904, male (body length 11.5 mm) 8 the same, female (body length 10.1 mm).

Figures 9–16. 

Head of Entyposis species, dorsal view 9 E. frici sp. nov., holotype, male 10 the same, paratype, female 11 E. cordipenis Sehnal, 2017, male 12 the same, female 13 E. impressa Kolbe, 1894, male 14 the same, female 15 E. mendax Péringuey, 1904, male 16 the same, female. Not to scale.

Figures 17–24. 

Pronotum of Entyposis species, dorsal view 17 E. frici sp. nov., holotype, male 18 the same, paratype, female 19 E. cordipenis Sehnal, 2017, male 20 the same, female 21 E. impressa Kolbe, 1894, male 22 the same, female 23 E. mendax Péringuey, 1904, male 24 the same, female. Not to scale.

Figures 25–32. 

Pronotum of Entyposis species, lateral view 25 E. frici sp. nov., holotype, male 26 the same, paratype, female 27 E. cordipenis Sehnal, 2017, male 28 the same, female 29 E. impressa Kolbe, 1894, male 30 the same, female 31 E. mendax Péringuey, 1904, male 32 the same, female. Not to scale.

Macropterous.

Legs with femora shiny, irregularly punctate, setaceous; setae of metafemora short, partially scale-like. Protibia narrow, distinctly tridentate; terminal spur present, slightly curved externally, acute apically, basal third serrate, inserted against emargination between medial and apical teeth. Mesotibia and metatibia slightly expanded apically, each with one setiferous transversal carina. Mesotibial terminal spurs subequal in length, flattened, acute apically. Upper terminal spur of metatibia flattened, slightly curved, acute apically, about ¼ longer than lower, apically truncate spur. Tarsomeres narrow, long, with two rows of short erect setae ventrally. Each metatarsomere with longitudinal finely serrate crest ventrally. Claws bifid, with vetrobasal teeth and entire ventral edge of lower claw finely serrate.

Ventral surface of thorax sparsely covered with mixture of moderately long erect setae and recumbent scale-like setae. Abdominal ventrites 3–7 covered with irregular punctures bearing recumbent scale-like setae and few isolated moderately long erect setae. Pygidium large, convex, irregularly punctate with short semirecumbent setae. Lateral and apical margins of pygidium distinctly bordered.

Male genitalia. Parameres symmetrical (Fig. 33), fused basally, longer than phalobase.

Female (Figs 2, 10, 18, 26) differs from male in the following characters: body length 13.3 mm, antennal cbub distinctly shorter then antennomeres 1–7 combined, pronotal anteromedial depression less developed, tarsomeres of all legs shorter.

Entyposis frici sp. nov. belongs to a group of species with a shallow anteromedial depression. In the key of the genus Entyposis (Sehnal 2017), E. frici sp. nov. keys to the couplet with E. cordipenis. The male of E. frici sp. nov. differs from those of E. cordipenis in the shape of the pronotum—the anteromedial depression is only very faintly visible in the lateral view in E. frici sp. nov. (Fig. 25), whereas it is more pronounced in E. cordipenis (Fig. 27). The male genitalia of the two species are different, in E. cordipenis the apical part of the paramere (in dorsal view) is broad (Fig. 34), whereas in E. frici sp. nov. it is narrow (Fig. 33).

Three additional Entyposis species are known from Kenya and northern Tanzania, fairly close to the Horn of Africa: E. impressa, E. mendax, and E. squamulata. Entyposis impressa and E. mendax share a shallow anteromedial depression with E. frici sp. nov. Entyposis impressa is easily distinguished from E. frici sp. nov. by the shape of the male genitalia in both dorsal and lateral views (compare Figs 33 and 35). The differences in the shape of the male genitalia between E. frici sp. nov. and E. mendax are less pronounced (Figs 33 and 36), but both species differ markedly in the shape of the terminal maxillary palpomere, which is elongate in E. frici sp. nov. (Fig. 37), but shorter and apically expanded in E. mendax (Fig. 40).

No specimen of E. squamulata is available to us. This species was described rather recently based on two males only. According to the primary description (Lacroix and Montreuil 2012), males of E. squamulata are clearly distinguished from E. frici sp. nov. by a distinct anteromedial depression and by the shape of the tubercle at the middle of the anterior margin of the pronotum, which is bilobed in E. squamulata but simple in E. frici sp. nov.

Both specimens were attracted by UV light trap and sat on the wall of the Hamdi Hotel (Zdeněk Faltýnek Fric pers. comm. 2022).

Figures 33–36. 

Aedeagus of Entyposis species, dorsal and lateral views 33 E. frici sp. nov., holotype 34 E. cordipenis Sehnal, 2017 35 E. impressa Kolbe, 1894 36 E. mendax Péringuey, 1904. Not to scale.

The name of the species is dedicated to Zdeněk Faltýnek Fric, a specialist in the phylogeny and ecology of butterflies, the collector of the type series.

The species is known only from the type locality, Laascaanood, Somaliland (Fig. 40).

Members of Entyposis seem to be rarely collected. Most species are known from a very few specimens, even only from the type series. We have examined about 500 specimens of Schizonychini collected by Czech entomologists in Somaliland during the last four years. Among this rich material, only three specimens of Entyposis were found. In addition to E. frici sp. nov. we discovered a single female of probably undescribed Entyposis from Beerato (Figs 41–44). We have postponed its description until more specimens, including males, are available.

Figures 37–40. 

Terminal maxillary palpomere of Entyposis species 37 E. frici sp. nov. 38 E. cordipenis Sehnal, 2017 39 E. impressa Kolbe, 1894 40 E. mendax Péringuey, 1904. Not to scale.

Figures 41–43. 

Female of probably undescribed Entyposis species from Beerato (Somaliland) (length 15.0 mm) 41 habitus, dorsal view 42 pronotum, dorsal view 43 pronotum, lateral view. Not to scale.

Figure 44. 

Geographic distribution of Entyposis species in the Horn of Africa based on specimens examined.