A new genus and species of the Tribe Attagenini (Coleoptera: Dermestidae) from the Mojave Desert of California

The Subtribe Egidyellina, Tribe Attagenini, Subfamily Anthreninae, of the Dermestidae, has been known from only two species, Egidyella prophetea Reitter from Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and Egidyella arcana Beal and Zhantiev from the Mojave Desert of California (Beal and Zhantiev 2001). The former is known only from sand dunes, the latter from a pitfall trap placed at the margin of sand dunes. A new genus and species related to Egidyella was taken in an antifreeze pitfall trap in Short Canyon at 3.300 feet elevation about one and a half km west of the junction of Highway U. S. 395 and California State Highway 14. This is in the Mojave Desert close to the southwest corner of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, a little over 20 kin west of Ridgecrest, Kern County, California. The bottom of the canyon for the distance of about a km in length and roughly 75 m in width consists of dune-like sand with few plants. Between the steep sides and the sandy bottom are sandy shoulders carrying a mixture of desert plants. At the upper part of the canyon the dominant plant on the sandy shoulders is Yucca schidigera Roezl ex Ortega. The pitfall trap was placed 30 May 2002, at the edge of a clump of about 18 Y. schidigera plants and recovered 27 January 2003. This is within a kin of the locality where the two known specimens of Egidyella arcana were taken in a pitfall trap in 1979. The new species clearly belongs to the Attagenini as defined by Beal and Zhantiev (2001). It is similar to Egidyella in having a 7-segmented antennal club, prominent front coxae hind coxa not reaching the metasternal epimeron, and the sides of the pronotum and elytra with long setae. Totally unlike Egidyella, which has 7 visible abdominal sterna, the abdomen has 5 visible sterna with the first visible sternum divided by the hind coxa.