Nothocyphon denticulatus, Zwick, Peter, 2015

Zwick, Peter, 2015, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 7. Genus Nothocyphon, new genus, Zootaxa 3981 (3), pp. 301-359 : 325

Nothocyphon denticulatus n. sp.

( Figs. 53−56 , 168 )

Type material: 1♂ holotype, 1♂ paratype: South Ramshead NSW Kosciusko NP 1850m subalpine grid Jan. 1983 pitfalls Ken Green coll ( ANIC).

Habitus. BL 2.9−3.1mm, BL/BW 1.7. Body elongate oval, elytra almost parallel over most of their length. Antennae slender, base unmodified, flagellar segments a little more than twice as long as apically wide. Head and pronotum with dense granular punctation, a little coarser on pronotum. The elytra have fine dense normal punctures, the semi-erect pilosity is yellowish.

The specimens are differently pigmented. The head is dark brown, the frontoclypeus rufous. The pronotum is brown to dark brown with diffusely lighter margins. The elytra of the smaller holotype are dark brown, the humeral area a little lighter, sutural interval and scutellum rufous. The larger paratype ( Fig. 168 ) has yellowish brown elytra with a dark brown spot posterolaterally from the scutellum and a longitudinal band. The wide band starts in the second third of elytral length. It runs parallel to the side edge, being separated from it by a pale space similar to its own width. The band follows the caudal curvature of the elytron so that the ends of the bands are opposed but remain separated by the light sutural interval. The appendages are brownish, distal flagellar segments infuscate.

Male ( Figs. 53−56 ). T9 with unconnected delicate apodemes which are slightly longer than those of T8. S9 has a weakly sclerotized rounded base, the plate is deeply divided into two tongue-shaped caudally setose lobes. The tegmen is a narrow arched sclerite. The elongate parameres are armed with fang-like teeth. Their caudal ends are connected by a transverse weak sclerite covered with minute denticles and a few large teeth along its rear edge. A vaguely sclerotized median area extends cephalad; probably the entire area between it and the basal tegminal sclerite is covered by a transparent membrane. Penis with slender pala whose anterior band-like sclerites lie flat, side by side, with a shallow median ridge. Trigonium and parameroids occupy the caudal third. The sides of the long trigonium are almost parallel, faintly concave. Trigonium apex shallowly excised, caudolaterally with a few denticles. The finger-shaped parameroids are longer than the trigonium, their rounded apices curve gently mediad.

Female. Unknown.

Note. The wide, plate-like marginal sclerites of the pala are typical of the group. Those in N. denticulatus lie flat, which seems to be an ancestral trait suggesting that the other species in which they are folded with opposed faces are a monophylum and together represent the sister-group of N. denticulatus .

Etymology. The species name refers to the spinous transverse caudal edge of the complex formed by tegmen and parameres. It is a Latin adjective ( denticulatus —provided with small teeth).

Figures

FIGURES 52 – 56. Nothocyphon lanceolatus - group, males. Nothocyphon sp. A: 52, lobes of S 9, tegmen with parameres and remains of pala (p) and of a parameroid (pd). — N. denticulatus: 53, T 8; 54, T 9; 55, S 8 and S 9, superimposed; 56, penis and tegmen. The scale applies to Fig. 56; for the other figures, its length corresponds to 400 µm.

FIGURES 165 – 173. Habitus of Nothocyphon spp.: 165, N. lindensis; 166, N. taurus; 167, N. taeniatus; 168, N. denticulatus; 169, N. donnabuangi; 170, N. imitator; 171, N. frater; 172, N. frater, lateral; 173, N. taurus, lateral. To similar sizes, not to scale.