A peculiar new genus and species of pollen-beetle (Coleoptera, Nitidulidae) from eastern Africa, with a molecular phylogeny of related Meligethinae

Abstract

The pollen beetle Tarchonanthopria freidbergi gen. nov., sp. nov., from SW Kenya, Rift Valley, is described and illustrated. The taxonomic and phylogenetic position of Tarchonanthopria is discussed using evidence from a preliminary molecular analysis of the new genus and a group of related genera, as well as results from a companion paper implementing a morphological cladistic analysis of all 47 extant and fossil Meligethinae genera. Morphological data suggest a taxonomic position of the new genus near the speciose Palaeotropical genus Pria Stephens, 1830, whereas molecular data suggest a closer relationship with the African genus Micropria Grouvelle, 1899. Larval host-plants of the single known species of the new genus are male inflorescences of Asteraceae trees in the genus Tarchonanthus Linnaeus, 1753. Tarchonanthopria freidbergi does not exhibit any close phylogenetic relationships with other Afrotropical meligethine genera associated with Asteraceae Tarchonantheae (i.e. members of the African ‘Anthystrix genus-complex’). A table is presented summarizing all available data on Meligethinae larval–host plant relationships.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:AFC89330-3FA8-46E5-A8E5-2ADCB6D5A57D

Key words:

• Asteraceae
• host-plants
• Kenya
• molecular analysis
• new genus
• new species
• pollen-beetles
• Tarchonanthopria freidbergi

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks are due to numerous colleagues who enabled us to study the valuable material preserved in their respective institutions: the late friend S. Endrödy-Younga and our colleagues R. Müller (TMSA), B. Grobbelaar (SANC), S. Van Noort, D. Larsen, H. Robertson and M.A. Cochrane (SAMC), J.M.D. Kerley, R. Booth and Max Barkley (BMNH), and the late friend N. Berti (MHNP). We are grateful to W. Rossi (University of L’Aquila, Italy), for having provided us with material collected during previous entomological expeditions to Kenya. We are also grateful to R. Copeland (Nairobi) for logistic assistance in Kenya, and to A. Freidberg (Tel Aviv University, Israel), and to P. Cerretti (Sapienza Rome University, Italy) who highly contributed to the collection of the new genus and species in Kenya. Special thanks are also due to our colleague P. D’Alessandro (University of L’Aquila, Italy) for SEM photos of the new genus (Figs 18–22), to N. Falchi (Sapienza Rome University) for the colour drawing of the new species (Fig. 1), to our colleague G. McPherson (Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, USA) for his generous taxonomic identifications of some African Euphorbiaceae, and to our colleague P.P.J. Herman (South African National Biodiversity Institute, National Herbarium, Pretoria, South Africa), for providing us with reprints of his important papers on African Asteraceae Tarchonantheae and helpful information on the distribution of several species of this botanical group in southern Africa. The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor, Dr Erik Rindal, for their valuable comments, which highly improved the paper.

Associate Editor: Eirik Rindal

Additional information

Funding

This paper was supported by grants from Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca [PRIN 2004057217 ‘Zoogeography of Mediterranean-southern African disjunct distributions by a multimethod approach’], from University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ [60% funds ‘Aspetti genetici e morfometrici della biodiversità animale in aree africane e medio-orientali a basso impatto antropico’], and from Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Italy.