Diario del proyecto Insects - Southern Africa (identified for the 1st time on iNat or difficult to identify)

Archivos de diario de mayo 2024

06 de mayo de 2024

Mecistes tarsalis Chapuis, 1874

Diagnosis from Zoia 2009: Legs black/metallic blue (not with reddish tibiae), sometimes with bronze or geenish reflections. Antennae black with articles 2 to 6 partially reddish. Elytra: punctures irregular, not or poorly arranged in longitudinal rows, in places separated by smooth logitudinal costae; each elytron with a longitudinal costa, starting from the humerus and almost reaching the elytral apex; elytral setae sparse, yellowish or whitish in colour, curved.

Original description in:
Chaphuis, F. 1874 - Tome dixième. Famille des Phytophages. In: Lacordaire T. & Chapuis F., Histoire
naturelle des Insectes. Genera des Coléoptères. Paris: I-IV
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/135375#page/337/mode/1up
Figure 3: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/135369#page/297/mode/1up

Redescription & figures in:
Zoia, S. 2009. A revision of the genus Mecistes (Coleoptera Chrysomelidae). Memorie della Società entomologica italiana 88(1)
https://www.chrysomelidae.it/Chrysomelidae/pubblicazioni-pdf-scaricabili/63-Zoia2009.pdf

Distribution: South Africa , Botswana, possibly Namibia, DR Congo
Type locality: 'Cafrerie'

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107431514

Publicado el mayo 6, 2024 10:45 MAÑANA por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

07 de mayo de 2024

Glymmatophora submetallica Stål 1855

The genus Glymmatophora ('Sculpturated' Millipede Assassin Bugs) was described by Carl Stål in 1853 (Stål, C. 1853. Nya genera bland Hemiptera. Öfversigt af Kongliga Vetenskaps-Akademiens Förhandlingar 10. https://archive.org/details/biostor-235032/page/n1/mode/2up ). 35 species of Glymmatophora are knowm from Africa. Glymmatophora submetallica Stål, 1853 is the type species of the genus.


Description by Stål 1855:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15969777#page/51/mode/1up
Dark steel-green; thorax, marginal spots on the abdomen, knees, tibiae and tarsi red, incisions on the thorax, the antennae and the base of the femora black. Length 19 mm, width 7 mm -
'Caffraria interior'

Female (after Horváth 1914): The whole head and the base of the femora are black. The segments of the connexivium are red with a black basal spot. The anterior lobe of the pronotum is marked with a black median vitta which is apically broader.

Type photo: http://www2.nrm.se/en/het_nrm/s/glymmatophora_submetallica.html

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10828701


Reference:
Horváth, G. 1914. Reduviidae novae Africanae. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 12: 109–145.
Key to females: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/254702#page/146/mode/1up

Publicado el mayo 7, 2024 09:20 MAÑANA por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

10 de mayo de 2024

Eristalinus (Eristalinus) euzonus (Loew 1858)

Original description in:
Loew, H. 1858. Bidrag till kannedomen om Afrikas Diptera [part]. Öfversigt af Kongliga Vetenskapsakademiens Förhandlingar 14[1857]:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/150443#page/393/mode/1up
Face greyish-pollinose, with a median black streak, shortened above; antennae black, the third joint round; thorax yellowish-hairy, scutellum fulvous, yellow-hairy. The abdomen of the male is very often black with the first segment and the base of the second, the following segments pale ferrugineous-rufous, the last segments darker brown; the abdomen of the female is shiny black, with three yellow bands on the second third and fourth segments, the band on the second segment are laterally widened, the bands on the third and forth segmens are equal and complete, covered very densely with yellow-white tomentum; the posterior margin of the fourth segment is marked with a yellowish-white band; the fifth segment of the female's basal band is very narrowly interrupted and white; the genitals of the male are black and shiny. Wings hyaline with a minute brown stigma.

Type locality: Cape of Good Hope

A very detailled description of the male's and female's abdominal pattern can be found in Loew 1860. Die Dipteren-Fauna Südafrika's 1. Abt
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/343/mode/1up

Bezzi described a variety andersoni which is treated as a proper species in recent publications.

Distribution: Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, South Africa

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/106820741

Publicado el mayo 10, 2024 07:33 MAÑANA por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

11 de mayo de 2024

Palparidius capicola Péringuey 1910

Thorax ashy grey with yellow patches. Forewing with hook-shaped band in the middle. Male with elongated ectoprocts.
Original description & illustration in:
Péringuey, L. 1910. Description of a new or little known species of the Hemerobiidae (Order Neuroptera) from South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/30489#page/469/mode/1up
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/30489#page/483/mode/1up

Head of a greyish colour slightly edged with flavescent, labrum, forehead, vertex, and legs flavous, antenne entirely black, broadening considerably towards the apex; thorax ashy grey, with four or five sub-flavescent patches on the discoidal part; abdomen sub-flavescent with longitudinal broad fuscous black bands; wings hyaline with the patches fuscous, cross veins sub-flavescent or light brown, speckles distinctly brown. Fore wings each with three cross bands and a sub-basal spot, the first, sub-median, and the second, post-median bands are incised inwardly somewhat in the shape of a hook in the male, but in the female the first one is not distinctly hooked; the third one is more or less sharply triangular, somewhat in the shape of an arrow, and connected at the upper basal part with the pterostigma which is flavescent for a very short distance and fuscous afterwards; on the basal part of the disk are a few spots; the hind
border has a continuous series of them, and the nervules of the costal space are speckled with brown at the base. Hind wings also with three cross bands corresponding to the position of those of the anterior wings, but broader and therefore better defined; the first one, also hooked, extends from the border to three-fourths of the width; the second extends over the whole width, is strongly zig-zagged, and even occasionally narrowly interrupted in the centre, the upper part abuts on the distinct, elongated, flavescent white pterostigma, the apical band encloses a narrow hyaline spot, the hind border is edged with continuous macules from half the length to the apical band. Head and thorax sparsely, abdomen densely mbut briefly bristly and hairy, the bristles black, the hairs whitish; legs bristly and spinose. The arcuate, dilated basal part of the clasping organs of the g has inwardly two parallel hairy lobes, filling half the circumscribed space.

Length of body 29-31 mm.; clasps of male 11 mm.; fore wings expanded 70-81 mm.

Hab. Cape Colony, Carnarvon (Wyk’s Vlei), G. Alston; Beaufort West (Hottentot River), A. R. Walker.

Distribution: Western South Africa, Namibia, Botswana.

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/214960869

Publicado el mayo 11, 2024 11:14 MAÑANA por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

12 de mayo de 2024

Stiphrolamyra bipunctata (Loew 1858)

Abdomen steel-blue, bare, except for a pair of lateral white spots on second and third segments. Mesonotum rather bare, with orange sides, and a large black cross on which is superimposed a pair of dull black spots. Antennae orange, third segment spindle-shaped. Femora black with orange tip; tibiae and tarsi orange.

Original description in:
Loew, H. 1858. Bidrag till kannedomen om Afrikas Diptera [cont.]. Öfversigt af Kongliga Vetenskapsakademiens Förhandlingar 15
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/54173#page/346/mode/1up
Translated from Latin:
Black, face, antennae, thorax, tibia and tarsus rusty-red, abdomen violaceous, segments 2 and 3 on both sides white-spotted, thorax marked with two black dots, wings black-gray.

Detailled description in:
Loew, H. 1860. Die Dipteren-Fauna Südafrika's 1. Abt
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/133/mode/1up

Redescription and key in:
Londt, J. G. H. 1983. Afrotropical Asilidae (Diptera) 8. The genus Stiphrolamyra Engel, 1928, in southern Africa (Laphriinae: Laphriini). Annals of the Natal Museum 25
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA03040798_502

Distribution: South Africa (Northern Cape), Namibia
Type locality: 'Swakop', Namibia

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/215220329

Publicado el mayo 12, 2024 02:41 TARDE por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Aspidimorpha confinis (Klug 1835)

Original description in:
Klug, J., 1835. Verzeichnis von Thieren und Pflanzen, welche auf einer Reise um die Erde, gesammelt wurden von A. Erman. Berlin
https://www.google.de/books/edition/Reise_um_die_Erde_durch_Nord_Asien_und_d/bYVZAAAAcAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=cassida%20confinis&pg=PA48&printsec=frontcover

Redescription in:
Boheman, C. H., 1854. Monographia Cassididarum. Tomus secundus. Holmiae.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/37920#page/266/mode/1up
Translated from Latin:
Rounded, slightly convex, slightly shiny, light green above, stramineous underneath; the last joint of the antennae is black; prothorax finely punctate on the back, wrinkled on the outside; the back of the elytra is often vaguely punctate; margin flattened, more evidently wrinkled-punctate; shoulders slightly prominent in front, slightly rounded.

Photo of adult in:
Coache, A., Rainon, B., 2020.
Contribution a la connaissance des Cassidinae du Benin (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae). Faunitaxys, 8(11).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342211017_Coache_et_Rainon_2020_Contribution_a_la_connaissance_des_Cassidinae_du_Benin_Faunitaxys_811_1-53

Description and figures of immature stages in:
Muir, F. & Sharp, D. 1904. On the egg cases and early stages of some Cassididae. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London (1904): 1-23.
ootheca: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/51001#page/44/mode/1u
Plate 2, fig 10, 11 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/51001#page/979/mode/1up
larva & adult: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/51001#page/49/mode/1up
Plate 4, fig 22a, 22b https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/51001#page/983/mode/1up

Host plant records: Ipomoea batatas, Ipomoea cairica, Ipomoea ficifolia, Ipomoea obscura, Ipomoea wightii, Merremia tuberosa

Distribution: Widespread in the Afrotropical region.

iNat observations:
adult: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/214399602
larva: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210015303
pupa: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/214401224

Publicado el mayo 12, 2024 03:47 TARDE por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

23 de mayo de 2024

Brachycerus intermedius Péringuey, 1885

Original description in:
Péringuey, L. 1885. First contribution to the South-African Coleopterous Fauna. Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society.
https://zenodo.org/record/1447463/files/article.pdf

Tranlsated from Latin:
Ovate, black, with an impressed rostrum, with raised fringes; prothorax on both sides spinous, furnished with two raised dorsal ridges encompassing the carinula; elytra ovate, convex, warty, decorated with serially with rusty-scaly spots placed in rows.

Long. 19-23 mm. lat. 10-12 mm.
The rostrum is long, impressed in the middle; the lateral margins are raised and separated from the head by a deep arcuated impression.
The head is small, and has a longitudinal impression on the vertex, and is depressed on either side. The eyes are perpendicular, depressed, and have a thin superciliary ridge.
The prothorax is narrowed in front and behind, the sides are produced in an acute spine; it is strongly tuberculated above, and in the middle there is a deep cavity formed by two raised semi-tuberculated ridges interrupted in the middle, curved in the anterior and straight in the posterior part and with a small straight ridge in the middle. On each side of the disc, between the lateral spine and the median ridge, there is a conspicuous, elongated, squamose, ferruginous patch.
The elytra are ovate, very convex, slightly declivous at the apex, more elongated in the female than in the male. The sides are deeply punctured and the upper surface is dotted with small round granulelike tubercles irregularly disposed but forming however, two distinct lines on each elytron. The suture is dotted on either side with semiconspicuous tubercles. Squamose ferruginous dots are disposed in series more regular on the disc than on the sides.
The underside is black, with the sides of the abdominal segments, the pectus, coxae and the underside of the tibiae coated with cinnabarred scales.

Redescription and illustration in:
Haaf, E. 1957. Revision der äthiopischen und madagassischen Arten der Gattung Brachyeerus Ol. (Col. Cure.) Entomologische Arbeiten aus dem Museum G. Frey Tutzing bei München 8.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/173065#page/155/mode/1up

Distribution: South Africa (Mpumalanga, KZN), Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, DR Congo, Congo.

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205069607

Publicado el mayo 23, 2024 11:01 MAÑANA por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

Chnootriba capensis in the Lund collection

Publicado el mayo 23, 2024 01:34 TARDE por traianbertau traianbertau | 6 comentarios | Deja un comentario

26 de mayo de 2024

Stenodesia globulum globulum Haag-Rutenberg 1875

Black, short and convex body shape. Middle of pronotal base on each side of midline with a transverse tomentose patches. Elytra with two costae and intercostae with scattered large tubercles. Reflected part of elytra with fine scattered punctures. Inner elytral costa not meeting or closely approaching suture posteriorly, straight.

Distribution: Namibia (northern Damaraland and the southern parts of the Kaokoveld)

Original description in:
Haag-Rutenberg, G.J. 1875. Beiträge zur näheren Kenntniss einiger Gruppen aus der Familie der Tenebrioniden. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 19(7): 1-56
https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb11323431?page=51

Diagnosis, distribution map and key in:
Penrith. 1986. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292225526_Relationships_in_the_tribe_Adesmiini_Coleoptera_Tenebrionidae_and_a_revision_of_the_genus_Stenodesia_Reitter

Illustrated in:
Koch, C. 1955. Monograph of the Tenebrionidae of southern Africa. I. (Tentyriinae, Molurini - Trachynotina: Somaticus Hope). Transuaal Museum Memoir No. 7
Plate 1, figure 11: https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA0000012_541

Illustrated in:
Koch, C. 1952. . The Tenebrionidae of southern Africa. XIL Supplementary notes to preliminary articles
nos I, III, V, and VII. Annals of the Transvaal Museum. Volume 22, Issue 1
Plate 19, figure 2: https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/AJA00411752_367

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/154572816

Publicado el mayo 26, 2024 10:19 MAÑANA por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

28 de mayo de 2024

Traphera chalybea (Wiedemann 1830)

A Trapherinae fly with dark wing with two bands.
Distinguishing features of the subfamily Trapherinae:

  • both the upper and lower calypters forming a distinct lobe;
  • the katepisternal setae are invariably present;
  • the branches of the antennal arista are long bipectinate;
  • the face is flattened or convex and bulging outwards below the insertion of the antennae and/or extends
    well below the ventral-most point of the gena

  • tergite 5 is about the same length as tergite 3;
  • female tergite 6 is well-developed and exposed;
    The following Afrotropical genera are included in the subfamily: Lule; Piara; Seguyopiara; Traphera

Key to Trapherinae genera in MAD 3:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356493903_Chapter_70_Platystomatidae_Singal_flies_pp_1619-1667_In_Kirk-Spriggs_A_and_Sinclair_BJ_eds_Manual_of_Afrotropical_Diptera_Volume_3_Brachycera_Cyclorrhapha_excluding_Calyptratae/download?_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6Il9kaXJlY3QiLCJwYWdlIjoiX2RpcmVjdCJ9fQ

Traphera Loew (Trapherinae) is an endemic monotypic genus, with the single species, T. chalybea Wiedemann, 1840), described from South Africa. T. chalybea is dark brown, with distinctively slanted fasciae on the wing membrane. The body is metallic, contrasting with the orange head; there are six scutellar marginal setae and wing crossvein bm–m is half as long as, or shorter than vein Cu and crossvein dm–m is at an acute angle to vein M1.

Original description in:
Wiedemann. 1830. Aussereuropäische Zweiflügelige Insekten 2. Page 464
https://www.google.de/books/edition/Aussereurop%C3%A4ische_Zweifl%C3%BCgelige_Insekt/hlBO_JTGO3oC?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=ortalis%20chalybea&pg=PA464&printsec=frontcover

Redescription in (Ortalia chalybea):
Hendel, F. 1914. Die Arten der Platystominen. Abhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 8. Page 19
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/AZBG_8_1_0001-0410.pdf

Illustrations in:
Hendel, F. 1914. Diptera Fam. Muscaridae Subfam. Platystominae. Genera insectorum 157
Plate 3, figures 50, 51, 52 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/105321#page/199/mode/1up

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/218652727

Publicado el mayo 28, 2024 11:14 MAÑANA por traianbertau traianbertau | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario