Review of Afraustraloderes rassei Bouyer, 2012: description of its female and a new species of Pixodarus Fairmaire, 1887 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae)

Anders Bjørnstad; Elizabeth Grobbelaar; Renzo Perissinotto

doi:10.3897/zookeys.558.6112

Review of Afraustraloderes rassei Bouyer, 2012: description of its female and a new species of Pixodarus Fairmaire, 1887 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae)

Zookeys. 2016 Feb 1:(558):77-93. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.558.6112. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Anders Bjørnstad¹, Elizabeth Grobbelaar², Renzo Perissinotto³

Affiliations

¹ Høyåsstien 12, N-3727 Skien, Norway.
² South African National Collection of Insects, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Council, Private Bag X134 Queenswood, 0121 Pretoria, South Africa.
³ DST/NRF Research Chair, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, P.O. Box 77000, Port Elizabeth 6031, South Africa.

Abstract

The original description of Afraustraloderes rassei Bouyer, 2012 included a female that is now recognized as a separate species belonging to the genus Pixodarus and here described as Pixodarus spiniscapus sp. n. The true female of Afraustraloderes rassei has also been obtained recently and is, therefore, here described. The synonymy of Pixodarus exasperatus with Pixodarus nyassae, proposed earlier by Santos Ferreira (1980), is here supported. Conversely, the earlier inclusion of Afraustraloderes rassei in the tribe Hopliderini is rejected, on the basis of a key set of characters established by Quentin and Villiers (1972, 1975). Afraustraloderes rassei appears to be restricted to the Cape Floral Region, exhibiting larval development in trunks and roots of dead Proteaceae plants. Conversely, Pixodarus spiniscapus has so far only been recorded in the eastern part of South Africa and appears to be associated with bushveld vegetation.

Keywords: Cape Floral Region; Hopliderini; South Africa; new species.