Philonthus gabonensis , Levasseur 1966

(Figs 35–37)

Philonthus gabonensis Levasseur, 1966: 1211.

Type locality. Gabon, Belinga.

Type material examined. PARATYPES: 2 JJ, ‘ Gabon, Belinga, 12.iii.1963, (199 L), Mission biologique au Gabon, H. Coiffait leg., Coll. I. R. Sc. N. B. // Paratype, Philonthus gabonensis, Levasseur det. [ochre oblong labels, handwritten]’ (MNHN).

Redescription. Body length 7.1–8.1 mm, length of forebody (to end of elytra) 3.6–4.1mm.

Colouration. Head and pronotum black with blue-violet metallic reflex, scutellum black, elytra red, elytral shoulders smoky black, abdomen black with blue-greenish metallic reflex, clypeus along anterior margin, antennal sockets and maxillary and labial palpi narrowly yellow-brown, mandibles somewhat darker, medial face black, ventral side of antennomere 1 brown-yellow, dorsal side and remaining antennomeres black, femora and tarsi yellowbrown, tibiae somewhat darker.

Head of rounded shape, as long as wide, slightly narrowed posteriad. Eyes slightly projecting, longer than temples (ratio 12.5: 9). Posterior angles of head each with one long and several short bristles. Four coarse punctures between eyes, distance between medial interocular punctures 3 times as large as distance between medial and lateral interocular punctures. Temporal area densely punctate; surface without microsculpture.

Antennae long, reaching posterior margin of pronotum when reclined, all antennomeres longer than wide. Relative length of antennomeres: 1 = 10; 2 = 5.5; 3 = 6; 4–7 = 4; 8–10 = 2.5; 11 = 5.

Pronotum somewhat longer than wide (ratio 30: 28), slightly narrowed posteriad in straight line. Each dorsal row with 5 coarse punctures. Each sublateral row with 2 punctures, puncture 1 situated behind level of puncture 3 of dorsal row. Surface without microsculpture.

Scutellum densely and coarsely punctate, punctures as large as eye-facets, separated in transverse direction by distance smaller than a puncture diameters.

Elytra combined vaguely wider than long (ratio 40: 38), slightly widened posteriad, densely and finely punctate, punctures somewhat larger than eye-facets, separated in transverse direction by about a puncture diameter. Anterior angles and lateral margins each with several dark bristles of variable length. Setation dark; surface without microsculpture.

Legs. Metatibia shorter than metatarsus (ratio 21: 26), relative length of metatarsomeres: 1 = 9; 2 = 3.5; 3–4 = 3; 5 = 7.

Abdomen parallel-sided, slightly narrowed from tergite V towards apex. Elevated area between two basal lines on first three visible tergites densely punctate, punctation of visible tergites finer and denser than that on elytra, becoming slightly sparser towards posterior margin of each tergite. Surface between punctures without microsculpture; setation similar as on elytra.

Male. Protarsomeres 1–3 strongly dilated and sub-bilobed, covered with modified pale setae ventrally, protarsomere 4 triangular, distinctly narrower than preceding ones. Aedeagus (Figs. 35–37).

Female. Unknown.

Differential diagnosis. Philonthus gabonensis may be distinguished from the similar P. aonyx sp. nov. by unicoloured elytra, narrower head, differently coloured antennomere 1, finer punctation of abdomen and different shape of the aedeagus.

Bionomics. Unknown.

Distribution. Gabon (this paper); Central African Republic, ‘Congo’ (HERMAN 2001).