Eudicella nana: A recently discovered species

The genus Eudicella is one of the most popular genera in European beetlebreeding. They are distributed in sub-saharan Africa and are often very abundant in their natural habitats. The diverse species and their taxonomy has recently been revised in a superb work by De Palma (2009). I will make a summary of the different species in a later post. This short post will be about a recently described, new species of eudicella: Eudicella (Eudicella) nana, Seidel 2016.

Eudicella nana, male

Eudicella nana, female

Eudicella nana can be recognised on a couple of charasteristics, for which I use the pictures from the original publication to explain. First of all the horn of the male is very distinct from other Eudicella species. The tips of the horns are dark. The horns also poses a green iridescent tone. The horn is narrow and short as seen in the picture above and below. Another difference can be found in the colouration of the wings, which have a brown band on them, see below. 

Eudicella nana clipeal horn

Eudicella nana wing

Outside of this obvious charasterics the original paper describes more differences from other species, especially when comparing to Eudicella darwiniana. Eudicella darwiniana is most probably a sister species, since it shares many characteristics with this species. If you want to know more about the aspects of Eudicella nana, I have put the reference of the original paper below (also as photo credit). 

Eudicella nana occurs in Uganda with certainty, where it was collected in the Budongo and Semuliki Forest. Due to the geographical closeness the species probably also occurs in the Democratic Republic Congo, most likely in the nearby forests of Virunga national park. A single specimen is reported from Kenya. 

Outside of it's distribution and the species status, little is known about this beetle. There is no knowledge on it's natural history, life cycle and seasonality. Also, given this species is described of only a limited set of specimens, we have no idea about the intraspecific diversity. This goes both for colouration and for range in body size.

Let's hope this beetle can soon find it's way into European beetlebreeding. Maybe breeding this beetle can give us more information 

Reference:

Seidel, M. (2016). Morphology and DNA barcoding reveal a new species of Eudicella from East Africa (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae). Zootaxa, 4137(4), 535-544.

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