Nothocyphon esau, Zwick, Peter, 2015

Zwick, Peter, 2015, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 7. Genus Nothocyphon, new genus, Zootaxa 3981 (3), pp. 301-359 : 351

Nothocyphon esau , n. sp.

( Figs. 137–142 )

Type material: NSW. 1♂, holotype: Kosciusko Nt.Pk Batt's Creek 1750m SW pitfall traps 1983–1986 Ken Green No. 39 ( ANIC). Paratypes: 1♂ with the same data as the holotype; 1♂: Kosciusko Nat.Pk Batts Creek NSW 1700m 1983–1986 sweep sample Ken Green No.41 (both ANIC).

Habitus. BL 2.8–3.1mm, BL/BW ~1.75. Body structure as described for the genus. An elongate-oval flat beetle, sides of elytra almost parallel. The light brown pilosity is erect, the animal appears quite hairy. There is a colour gradient from the dark brown head to the yellowish-brown apical portion of elytra. The punctation on head and scutellum is dense, fine and rough, that of the pronotum is granular and rather coarse. The normal elytral punctures are large near the base but grow finer and denser caudally. The antenna is slender, the flagellar segments are cylindrical and a little more than twice as long as wide.

Male. Segment 8 as for the genus ( Figs. 137, 138 ). T9 ( Fig. 139 ) is bare, the strong apodemes are connected by delicate struts. The plate is soft and colourless except the caudolateral angles which are slightly pigmented. Of S9, only the pilose caudal lobes were observed (not shown).

Penis ( Fig. 140 ) with deeply excised pala. Its lateral sclerites are straight convergent strong rods. They continue caudad and form the parameroids. Each ends in a flat, tongue-shaped sclerotized tip and supports a subterminal recurved outer lobe which is armed with fine spinules and teeth on the outside. The area between the strut and the medial lobe is transparent, window-like. The basal arms of the trigonium are attached to the lateral rods. The trigonium is very short, X-shaped, caudally with irregular teeth ( Figs. 140–142 ). The tegmen is a thin long sclerite band which turns into strong longitudinal rods. Caudally, each rod ends in a short thick thumb-like sclerite resting beneath the hyaline window of the parameroid. Caudo-medially, each paramere bears a membranous bare lobe ( Fig. 140 , pel).

Female. Unknown.

Note. An exceptional species. There is no visible limit between the lateral sclerites of the pala and the parameroids, and the trigonium is exceptionally stout and short. Details of its shape and the arrangement of its caudal spines vary slightly ( Figs. 140–142 ). The shape of the parameres is peculiar. No similar species is known.

Etymology. The name was taken from the Old Testament: Esau (Hebrew: hairy) was the very hairy brother of Jacob. A noun in apposition.

Figures

FIGURES 137 – 148. Nothocyphon spp., males. N. esau: 137 − 139, T 8, S 8, T 9 (from top), 140, penis and right half of paramere in ventral view, superimposed (holotype); 141, 142, trigonium of the two paratypes. — N. horridus: 143, T 8; 143, S 8; 145, T 9; 146, 147, the parameres; 148, penis. 137 − 139, 140 − 142, 143 − 146 and 147, 148 to the same scales, respectively. Abbreviations: pd, parameroid; pe, paramere; pel, lobe of paramere.