Hycleus maculiventris

Distribution. Eastern Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea), Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen; doubtfully cited from Egypt. Cited from U.A.E. by Gillet & Gillet (1996: Ail Aïn and Buraimi area; 2005). It is another Afrotropical element of the Arabian fauna.

New records. Saudi Arabia: Arabia, 9 exx. (MNHN); idem, 1 ex (MRST); Wadi Jīzān, 9.xi.1978, G. Filipponi coll. 1 ex. (CB); Lodar, 800 m, 16.v.1967, K. Guichardt coll. 4 exx. (BMNH).

Yemen: Ju Amlah, 17° 07’N 43°34’E, ca. 26 Km NW Sa’dah, m 1950, ix. 1980, vi–vii.1981, M. Borri & M. Poggesi coll. 11 exx. (CB, MZUF); Al Harf, ca. 80 Km S of Sa’dah, on the road to Sana’a, vi–vii.1981, M. Borri coll. 7 exx. (MZUF).

Oman: Sur (W Rafsah), 17.iii.1976, K. Guichardt coll. 1 ex. (BMNH); Seeb, 21.1982 (?) on Citrus flower, 2 exx. (BMNH; CB).

Remarks. The limits of the genus Hycleus were clarified by Bologna (1978; 1991) and Bologna & Pinto (2002). Pardo Alcaide (1954; 1955; 1958; 1968) tried to single out some intra-generic lineages and described three sections, on the base of the shape of the mesosternum: without (Mesogorbatus), or with a small (Mesotaeniatus) or wide (Mesoscutatus) modified fore area, named “mesosternal scutum”. These sections are extremely heterogeneous and were not considered as subgenera by Bologna & Pinto (2002), who preferred to consider them as phyletic lineages, waiting for a revision of this speciose genus (about 450 species). Within each phyletic lineage, several well defined groups of species can be recognized according to the structure of antennomeres, the shape of head, pronotum and mesopleural structure, the number and position of aedeagus hooks, etc. In some previous contributions Pardo Alcaide (e.g. 1963; 1966; 1968; 1969) and one of us (Bologna 1978; 1979; 1990; 1991; 1994a; 1994b), began the effort to single out several groups of species, which could be revised separately, and also in the present paper we continue this project.

Within the previously defined Hycleus lineage with the mesosternum of Mesogorbatus - type, are included some greatly distinct groups of species differing in several features of antennal structure and male genitalia and of the mesosternum itself. The groups of H. maculiventris, H. sexmaculatus, H. brunnipes, H. quatuordecimsignatus (and possibly that of H. gratiosus), which are discussed below, as well as other heterogeneous Afrotropical groups, refer to this lineage.

The group of H. maculiventris is composed of five large sized species with 11 antennomeres, mesepisterna with concave and depressed fore areas well defined by a carina, mesosternum prolonged anteriorly and without a clear “scutum” but with a fore smooth area posteriorly defined by a vague edge (see Pardo Alcaide 1963; Bologna 1990), two apical aedeagus hooks. H. maculiventris belongs to a primarily Eastern African group of species (the H. maculiventris group, as defined by Pardo Alcaide (1963) and Bologna (1978; 1990), which includes five other species from Sahel [H. abiadensis (Marseul, 1872)], Horn of Africa [H. lateplagiatus (Fairmaire, 1887), H. rutilicollis (Fairmaire, 1893), H. thomasi (Voigts, 1901)] and Iran [H. schah (Reiche, 1865)].