Porphyronota desfontainei Antoine, 1999

Porphyronota desfontainei Antoine, 1999 View in CoL

(Figs 3, 6)

Porphyronota desfontainei Antoine, 1999: 4 View in CoL ; Beinhundner 2017: 572; Krajčík 2024: 160.

Distribution. Initially described from the North-West Region of Cameroon ( Antoine 1999), it has now been report- ed also from its South and West regions (Fig. 6).

Data records. Type series: HT ♂ +AT ♀, CMR-NW, Xl- 1998, Desfontaine leg. ( MRAC) ; PTs: 1♂ + 1♀, ibidem Xll-1998, Desfontaine leg. ( GBEG) . Other records: 1♂, CMR-SU, Mvaa Extreme , Dec 1967 ( TGMF) ; 1♀, CMR- OU, Plateau Kounden , Oct 1990 ( TGMF) ; 1♂, CMR-NW, Oku Din , 1200 m, Nov 2009 ( PLGF) ; 1♂ + 1♀, CMR-NW, Mt Oku Kilum, Ijim fst, Dec 2013 ( PLGF) .

Remarks. Antoine (1999) regarded this species as most closely resembling P. cinnamomea ( Afzelius, 1817) and P. nyassica var. imitatrix Ondrej, 1919 , differing from each of these mainly in its clypeal, mesosternal and aedeagal shapes. Specimens range in size from 14.3-16.3 mm (TL) to 8.5-9.2 (MW) ( Antoine 1999; Beinhundner 2017). The dorsal habitus is rather constant in this species, changing only slightly in the density of black mottling, particularly on the pronotal disc, where the pattern can be more or less contiguous and include or not a medial elongate macula. The scutellum too generally exhibits a median, longitudinally elongate macula, but this is notably missing at least in one female specimen. No nigrito forms have been reported yet for this species.

Females analyzed in this study differ from their male counterparts by exhibiting a wider protibia, more convex abdominal ventrites and a tranversely elongate ochreous spot on the lateral margins of abdominal ventrites 2-6. Adult activity has so far been recorded from October to December, but it is most likely that it may actually extend to most of the year. The larval stages remain unknown.