Nothocyphon plicatus, Zwick, Peter, 2015

Zwick, Peter, 2015, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 7. Genus Nothocyphon, new genus, Zootaxa 3981 (3), pp. 301-359 : 355-356

Nothocyphon plicatus , n. sp.

(Figs. 160–164)

Type material: 1♂, holotype: South Ramshead NSW Kosciusko NP 1850m subalpine grid Jan. 1983 pitfalls Ken Green coll. ( ANIC); 1♂, paratype: Kosciusko Nat. Pk Smiggins Bog NSW 1600m 1983–1986 pitfall traps Ken Green No.63 ( ANIC).

Habitus. BL 2.7−2.8mm, BL/BW 1.7. Brown, pronotal disc darkest, head anteriorly reddish, scutellum and sutural interval with reddish tinge and lighter than remainder of elytra.

Male. Segments 8 and 9 (Figs. 160−162) as for the genus, S8 with large densely pilose lateral remnants of the plate. The penis is stout, the wide pala occupies half of the length (Figs. 163, 164). Remains of muscles fill much of the pala, its side sclerites are strong, the front edge is truncate or bluntly rounded. The penis widens much at the origin of trigonium and parameroids. The trigonium is a slender triangle with rounded basal edges, shallowly concave sides of the long distal portion, and obtuse slightly asperous tip. The angularly projecting base of the parameroids carries a slender caudal lobe whose externally serrate outer half is folded mediad and concealed at rest. There is no tegmen, the parameres are separate sinuous rods with blunt ends that lean closely against penis and parameroids (Fig. 164).

Female. Unknown.

Note. Separate parameres not connected by a tegmen occur also in other Australian marsh beetles (e.g., several Petrocyphon spp.). Therefore, the similarity in this detail between N. plicatus and the Nothocyphon amphora -group is assumed to have arisen independently.

Etymology. The longitudinally folded parameroids suggested the name, the Latin adjective plicatus , folded.

FIGURES 156–164. Nothocyphon spp., males. N. naso : 156, T8, S8, T9 (from top); 157, S9; 158, penis; 159, tegmen and parameres.— N. plicatus : 160, T8, interrupted line delimits area covered with microtrichia, stippling indicates window-like pale area; 161, S8; 162, T9 and S9 superimposed, the folded condition is an artifact. 163, 164, penis in dorsoventral view: 163, partly torn, one parameroid unfolded; 164, intact, with the rod-like parameres; 160–172 and 163, 164 to the same scales, respectively.