Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 94. (Budapest 2002)

Kirejtsuk, A. G. ; Viklund, B.: Contributions to the knowledge on the subgenus Meligethes (Clypeogethes Scholtz, 1932) from Kenya (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae)

ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Volume 94 Budapest, 2002 pp. 93-104. Contributions to the knowledge on the subgenus Meligethes (Clypeogethes Scholtz, 1932) from Kenya (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) A. G. KlREJTSHUK

1 and B. VlKLUND*

2 'Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sankt-Petersburg, 199034 Russia E-mail: AK3929@AK3929.spb.edu 2

Swedish Museum of Natural History, P. O. Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden E-mail: en-bertv@nrm.se Abstract - Five new species of Meligethes (Clypeogethes) collected in Kenya are described: M. ( C.) attactus sp. n., M. (C.)fistuca sp. n., M. (C.) impexus sp. n., M. (C.) leileri sp. n. and M. (C.) relativus sp. n. With 32 figures. Key words - Coleoptera, Nitidulidae, new species, Meligethes (Clypeogethes), Kenya. INTRODUCTION This paper presents description of five new species of Meligethes (Clypeogethes). Three of them were collected by the second author together with Dr. P. PATS with a light trap set up on the roof of the restaurant Tsavo Inn in Mtito Andei alongside the main road between Nairobi and Mombasa, Kenya. Two additional new species were collected by the Swedish entomologist T.-E. LEITER: one was collected near the Athi river in Nairobi National Park and the another on Mt. Elgon. Mr LETTER'S collection was donated to the Swedish Museum of Natural History in 1996, where part of the material studied is deposited. Finally, a greatest number of specimens of one of the type series was found in the collection of Hungarian Natural History Museum. The fauna of the genus Meligethes STEPHENS, 1830 of equatorial Africa and adjacent territories was revised in the second half of the century by A. M. EASTON (1959, 1960, 1964, and others) and has been supplemented by some recent papers (including KlREJTSHUK 1990, AUDISIO 1994 etc.). However, knowledge of the species represented in the region is still far from well-known, although more than one hundred species of the largest subgenus (Clypeogethes SCHOLTZ, 1932) have been reported from the Afrotropical region.