Zophosis (Onychosis) gracilipes (Deyrolle 1837)
A dull black, very fast running diurnal species. Antennae without long setae. Tarsal claws unequal. Elytra with three somoothed and raised costae. Body subcordiform, strongly attenuate posteriorly.
Original description & illustration in:
Deyrolle, A. 1867. Monographie de la Tribu des Zophosites. Annales de la Société entomologique de France. Volume: ser.4:t.7 (1867)
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/101298#page/232/mode/1up
Translated from French:
Large oval, not very shiny black.
Head moderately broad, quite long, covered with fine, tight punctuation, especially on the sides; frons marked with a vague and poorly defined furrow. Epistome less strongly punctuated in females than in males; its suture very weak, but distinct on the sides, none in the middle. Antennae reaching the posterior angles of the pronotum; their articles proportionate as has been said. Mentum and outer side of mandibles rough.
Pronotum a little more twice as wide as long, barely narrower at the base than the elytra, noticeably narrowed forward, rounded on the sides, poorly rounded at the base, which is weakly sinuous near the corners, which are acute; deeply indented anteriorly, quite strongly convex in the middle, quite widely thinned on the sides, with punctuation very fine, spaced, indistinct in the middle, tighter on the sides and near the corners; along the base there is a row of slightly stronger and more pointed points; near the sides they occupy the bottom of a shallow furrow, parallel to the base.
Elytra short, oval, poorly rounded on the sides, their greatest width being towards the middle, slightly attenuated near the end, each rounded a little outside the suture; convex; each elytron with four costae approximately equidistant, besides the suture, which is slightly raised; the sutural very close to the suture and subparallel; the two dorsals meeting more or less distinctly at their ends; the marginal costa low, very close to the edge; elytra completely covered in big tight punctures, more or less confluent on the sides and behind.
Epipleurae covered with punctures not very tight, moderately large, from each of which a black hair emerges. Rough prosternum and mesosternum; metasternum sparsely and not very strongly punctuated; its deep furrow, extended almost to the half; episterna of the prothorax quite strongly wrinkled; those of the mesothorax and metathorax are almost smooth and only show a few fine punctures.
Abdomen with only scattered punctures, quite fine, but well marked; 3° and 4° smooth segments in the middle.
The female differs from the male, in addition to the shape of her abdomen and the less considerable length of her legs, by her more convex elytra, more briefly narrowed near the end, with less projecting ribs.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/101298#page/967/mode/1up
Illustrated in:
Koch C. 1955. Monograph of the Tenebrionidae of southern Africa Vol I (Tentyriinae, Molurini Trachynotina: Somaticus Hope). Transvaal Museum Memoir 7
Plate 1, fig 3: https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA0000012_541
Distribution: Sublittoral, on the Namib coast from Porto Alexandre to south of Lüderitz. It can be commonly found on the beaches where it forages along the tide-marks. Often running between plants on wind-blown sand or in the sand under plants, often also at the beach under dead seaweed.
iNat observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195373601
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11333114
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11333109
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