Lasiocera schwarzi n. sp.

(Figure 1 c)

Type series. Holotype, female; “ Banhinda (PNT Cacheu \ Guiné-Bissau 27.06.2009 \ Col. A. Serrano\\ A. Serrano leg.” \\ “Holotype female\ Lasiocera \ schwarzi n. sp. \ A. Serrano det. 2023” [t] [h] [red card].

Diagnosis. Body elongate, parallel, slightly convex and greenish-bronze (Fig. 1c); head and pronotum integument strongly punctate, surface among punctures smooth with sparce micropunctures visible at high magnification; elytra intervals transversally rugose, surface microreticulate. Pronotum oblong-ovate shaped (Fig. 1c). A long longitudinal band in the anterior half of elytra, posterior half with a reduced elytral band (Fig. 1c).

Description. Length of Holotype: 4.32 mm.

Head. Triangular (Fig. 1 c), 1.1 times wider than long (length: 1.09 mm, width: 0.98 mm), greenish olive, deeply punctate, posteriad more closely, surface intervals almost smooth, slightly and distinctly micropunctate, visible at high magnification; mandibles and labrum brownish dark; eyes large, prominent; palpi brownish, apical half of the last articles darker, last article of both palpi fusiform, sharp at the tip; labrum with anterior margin triangularly emarginated; frontal furrows indistinct, lateral surface between antennae insertion and inner ocular suture with slightly longitudinal ridges; frons slightly convex, occiput slightly concave; antennae (1 st –6 th antennomeres) brownish, 4–5 long bristles just below the joints, scape 2.7 times longer than wide (length: 0.35 mm, width: 0.13 mm), pedicele 1.2 times longer than wide (length: 0.11 mm, width: 0.09 mm), 3 rd antennomere 2.1 times longer than wide (length: 0.21 mm, width: 0.10 mm), 4 th antennomere 2.2 times longer than wide (length: 0.22 mm, width: 0.10 mm), 5 th antennomere 2.4 times longer than wide (length: 0.24 mm, width: 0.10 mm) and 6 th antennomere 2.6 times longer than wide (length: 0.26 mm, width: 0.10 mm). Cephalic chaetotaxy (large setae). Labrum with three pairs of setae gradually shorter from external to inner sides, one pair laterally on clypeus and two pairs of supraocular setae present over each eye.

Thorax. Pronotum (Fig. 1c) 1.3 times longer than wide (length: 1.10 mm, width: 0.83 mm), greenish olive, shiny, closely and deeply punctate, surface intervals almost smooth, micropunctures visible at high magnification; narrower than head, oblong-ovate shaped, slightly rounded in the sides, concussively widest in the middle; apical and basal margins not margined, lateral margins with complete and distinct margination in the two first thirds since the anterior angles, reaching the posterior angles, proepisterna well visible from above in the two first thirds; apical margin slightly emarginated, apical angles largely rounded, not protruded; lateral margins slightly subparallel, followed by a sinuosity before the roundly right basal angles, posterior margin straight; median line absent, anterior and posterior transverse sulci indistinct; one marginal seta situated in the end of first half, the posterior marginal seta absent.

Elytra (Fig. 1 c) 1.79 times longer than wide (length: 3.10 mm, width: 1.73 mm), greenish olive dark, dull and with punctual metallic reflections; wider than pronotum, humeral angles broadly rounded; elongate and parallel, dorsally moderately convex, truncated obliquely behind, posterior obtuse angle slightly produced in a short spine, apical margin with 10 small denticles from the posterior angle to the sutural angle; striae deeply punctate, intervals narrow and convexes, transversely rugose, surface distinctly microreticulate; yellowish patches: a long longitudinal band in the anterior half of elytra on 5 th –7 th intervals and other small longitudinal band on 5 th and 6 th intervals; three setiferous punctures situated at 3 rd interval, one at basal ¼, other at median region and the last one at the beginning of the last ¼.

Ventral surface. Blackish-bronze, shiny; genae sparsely finely punctate, glabrous; proepisterna closely and deeply alveolo-punctate in the upper sides, becoming less densely punctate towards the ventral region; sternum glabrous; elytral epipleura smooth with some sparse and deeply punctures at first half; abdominal segments sparsely micropunctate, the first two covered laterally with sparce dressed short hairs.

Legs (Fig. 1c). Slender, yellowish, almost transparent; knees, apical region of tibiae and tarsi brownish dark; trochanters black.

Intraspecific variation. Not available.

Remarks. The new species is akin of Lasiocera asmara Basilewsky, 1962 (Fig. 1d) and Lasiocera mirei Basilewsky, 1970 (Fig. 1e), described from Eritreia and Cameroon, respectively (Basilewsky 1962, 1970; Lorenz 2021), by the general habitus shape (cf. Figs 1c–e). Lasiocera schwarzi n. sp. is easily separated from the former species by the pronotum that is more oblong, laterally less inflated, with the larger elytral patches (cf. Figs 1c–d) and from the later from the elytral antero-lateral conformation and the elytral patches (cf. Figs 1c, 1e). Lasiocera schwarzi n. sp. by the pronotum shape and singular elytral patches is easily segregate from the remaining species.

Etymology. This species is dedicated in a modest homage to Engº Carlos Schwarz (late, former director of “Departamento de Pesquisa Agrária” (DEPA) and to his daughter Cristina Schwarz [former Coordinator of “Instituto de Biodiversidade e Áreas Protegidas” (IBAP) Guinea-Bissau] by the support that they gave to some of our fieldwork in Guinea-Bissau.