Abstract
Onthophagus (Furconthophagus) genieri Montanaro, sp. nov. from Bakor Forest in Senegal is described and illustrated. The new taxon is unusual in having transversely truncated protibiae in both sexes, similarly to the species of Caccobius Thomson, 1859. Its placement within the subgenus Furconthophagus Zunino, 1979 is discussed in light of morphological evidence. FAIR taxonomic approaches (semantic taxonomic description, nanopublications, Darwin Core format) are used to make the data easily accessible and computationally reusable.
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