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Vitali
Member Rosalia
Estonia
994 Posts |
Posted - 25/04/2011 : 22:27:24
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Looks very much like Dichostates ayresi Distant, 1898 to me, but I don't know whether there are similar species. Tanzania. |
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Francesco
Forum Admin
Luxembourg
9454 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2011 : 07:45:02
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Jein ...I do not know! According to Breuning, there are two species: ayresi from South Africa, which has 5 tufts of hairs (3 at base, 1 postbasal and 1 postmedian) and trilineatus Hintz from Tanzania, which has 4 tufts of hairs (2 at base, 1 postbasal and 1 postmedian). According to Teocchi (1997) they are synonyms, but Delahaye (2009) consider Hintz's species as valid. This should be trilineatus (though identified as ayresi). Your specimen comes from Tanzania and seems to have 6 (2 postbasal) tufts! I do not remember this species but I remember that this genus has really variable species (some ones must be still synonymised)... Teocchi is probably right. |
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Vitali
Member Rosalia
Estonia
994 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2011 : 12:02:44
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Thank you, Francesco. Regarding the number of basal tufts my beetle seems to be closer to ayresi, although mere counting tufts seems a bit slippery way. Some of them are larger, while some are smaller and therefore can be overlooked or disregarded. I have a few more specimens, so I'll try to make some statistics. D. trilineatus sounds also good, but I would not call anything trilineatus if I didn't see any line. |
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