Cobososia feai

Cobososia feai (Pic, 1906)

(Figs. 1D, I & 2A)

Pic (1906: 234), original description as Hylophilus Feai.

Pic (1910: 9) checklist, as Hylophilus Feai.

Báguena Corella (1948: 346 note, 449, 520, 523) as incertae sedis species “Gen.? feai ”, key (noted similarity between C. angulithorax (Desbrochers, 1881) and C. feai), translated description, checklist.

Báguena Corella (1962: 15, 18 & 20) key, new combination (to Cobososia Báguena Corella nec Collado & Alonso-Zarazaga (1996)), general distribution.

Geisthardt (1986: 76) records (“Fogo: S. Filipe XII.1982 ”, at light, leg. W. Lobin), general distribution (endemic to Cabo Verde). Some records of this species Geisthardt (1986) are based on misidentified specimens of C. reducta (see below). The record from Fogo Island was not verified and could refer to C. reducta as well.

Geisthardt (1988: 198) checklist (“endemic”), distribution (Fogo, Santiago).

Geisthardt (1996: 95, 107, 109 & 114) checklist, distribution (Fogo, Santiago).

Oromi et al. (2005: 78) as Cobososia, checklist (“native, endemic”), distribution (Fogo, Santiago).

Type material. holotype ♂ by monotypy (MSNG): IS. CAPO VERDE St Thiago: Orgãos Grandes 250m. III– IV.1898. L. Fea [printed, text in part italic] / Typus [printed, label red framed] / Feai [handwritten, label black framed] / Hylophilus Feai Pic Typus. [handwritten, label ochre].

Redescription. holotype ♂ (by monotypy): Total body length 1.85 mm. Head: length 0.4 mm, maximum head width 0.425 mm. Pronotum: length 0.325 mm, maximum pronotal width 0.4 mm. Elytra: length 1.175 mm, maximum combined width 0.75 mm. Dorsum and venter uniformly pale orange. Legs yellowish, bases of metathoracic femora darker. Head subopaque dorsally, with large and strongly prominent compound eyes occupying most of head sides, but not reaching the posterior head margin. Interfacetal setae long, distinct. Head base truncate to subtrunctate. Frons broad. Punctures of frons rather large and dense, intervening spaces smaller than punctures. Pronotum subopaque dorsally, broadly rounded on anterior margin, widest across acutely angulate anterolateral angles. Lateral pronotal margins nearly straight, slightly constricted towards the broadly rounded base, subparallel, barely convergent posteriorly. Punctures large and coarse on pronotal disc, intervening spaces smaller than punctures. Pronotal setae whitish, rather long, not fully appressed. Elytra subopaque dorsally, cylindrical. Dorsal punctures of elytra large, intervening spaces in part glossy and larger than those on pronotum. Elytral setae yellowish, rather long, not appressed. Legs inconspicuous except modified male prothoracic tibiae, which are curved inwardly and somewhat flattened with an obtuse postmedian tooth on their inner margin and a cluster of long setae at the inner distal angle of the prothoracic tibiae. Aedeagus with phallobase and apicale separated by slight constriction (Fig. 2A).

Sexual dimorphism. Male with prothoracic tibiae strongly modified, bended inward with a distinct tooth on the inner surface, somewhat closer to the distal end of the tibia. This modification probably represents a sex-specific character, but this cannot be confirmed as the female remains unknown.

Note. This species is only distinguished from C. reducta (Wollaston, 1867) (consider new combination below) by the presence of a tooth on the inner surface of the male foretibia. Even the male genitalia of the two taxa have very similar shape and structure, with a characteristic, broad and articulated phallobase. We cannot rule out, until we examine more material, that the tooth of the male foretibia is a variable character, and that C. feai (Pic, 1906) is possible a junior synonym of C. reducta (Wollaston, 1867).

Distribution. Endemic to the Southern chain of Cabo Verde (Fogo, São Tiago).