Description of a new species of Anoplocheilus MacLeay, 1838 from South Africa, with review of the genus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae)

Abstract

A new species of Anoplocheilus (Anoplocheilus) MacLeay, 1838 closely related to A. (A.) rusticus (Gory & Percheron, 1833) is hereby described from freshly collected and revisited old material. Unlike its sister species, which is restricted to the west and south coastal regions of South Africa, the new species occurs inland, above the Great Escarpment and in adjacent mountain ranges of the Cape Fold Belt. The recently erected subgenus Nselenius Holm & Perissinotto, 2004, is here elevated to full genus, given the rather unique features of the only species currently known, N. silvicola stat. nov., and its closest proximity to Lamellothyrea Krikken, 1980, rather than Anoplocheilus s. str. Furthermore, another species also allocated originally to Anoplocheilus with great reservation by the original authors themselves, is now transferred to the genus Diphrontis, as D. matilei (Antoine & Lequeux, 2001) comb. nov., since it shares most external and aedeagal key characters with species belonging to that genus.