Antitrogus ciliatus ( Britton, 1978 ) Allsopp, 2022

Allsopp, Peter G., 2022, Australian Melolonthini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae): reclassification of eight species to Antitrogus Burmeister, 1855 and Barryfilius new genus, Zootaxa 5213 (5), pp. 513-545 : 518-519

Antitrogus ciliatus ( Britton, 1978) , new combination

( Figs 9–13 )

Lepidiota ciliata Britton, 1978: 82 , figs. 251–252 (aedeagus), fig. 286D (head and pronotum); Weir et al. 2019: fig. 172 (head).

Type series. Holotype ♂ in ANIC: 62 km N. of Coonabarabran [31.27°S, 149.28°E], New South Wales (examined).

Other material examined. AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: 1♂, Mt Kaputar, Bullawa Cr [eek]. [30.28°S, 150.00°E], 26.xi.1984, G. Hangay, ANIC Database 25 036638 ( ANIC) .

Diagnosis ( Figs. 10–13 ). Male. Body 21–23 mm long; uniformly bright red-brown.Apical maxillary palpomere 1 mm long, elongate-elliptical (length:width 2.75:1), with a short, ovate depression on the dorsal side. Clypeus ( Weir et al. 2019: fig. 172) with anterior face shallow, greatest width 6.6x mid depth; width of upper surface 2.5x length, anterior margin slightly indented in middle, with rounded angles; upper surface strongly concave, coarsely and closely punctured (approximately 40 mm-2) on each side of a small, bare, shiny area in the middle, each of the broad, flat-bottomed punctures with a seta as long as about twice diameter of the puncture. Frons with anterior half densely punctured (approximately 100 mm-2), each puncture with a backwardly directed seta at least 2x long as the diameter of the puncture; posterior quarter with fainter punctures, without setae; laterally with numerous, very long, darker setae above each eye. Antennae with 10 antennomeres, antennomeres 3 and 4 cylindrical, antennomere 5 sublamellate, 0.6 mm long, antennomeres 6–10 lamellate, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.2, and 1.9 mm long, respectively. Pronotum strongly transverse, greatest width 1.60–1.75x length; anterior margin without groove or raised edge; lateral edges uniformly curved, widest at about 0.6 of length; posterior margin with groove across middle; anterior and posterior angles obtuse; surface irregularly punctured (20–65 mm-2), each puncture with a flattened, acutely pointed, white seta about 2x long as diameter of the puncture. Scutellum with similar punctures and setae. Elytra with sparse (approximately 20 mm-2) punctures, each with a thinner, acutely pointed, white seta, as long as those on pronotum. Propygidium, pygidium, and ventrites sparsely clothed with short, recumbent, yellow setae, much denser on propygidium and pygidium; pygidium microreticulate between punctures, apex rounded. Ventral surface of thorax densely clothed with long, fine, yellow setae. Teeth on outer edge of protibia long and acute. Terminal ventrite without lateral lobes. Aedeagus slightly asymmetrical, as in Fig. 13 .

Female. Britton (1978) described the antennae of females but curiously did not list any specimens he saw other than the male holotype. He gave the lengths of lamellae on antennomeres 6–10 as 0.65, 0.7, 1.0, 1.0, and 0.9 mm, respectively, and antennomere 5 as sublamellate and 0.25 mm long. I have not located any female specimens

Diagnosis. Conforms to the diagnosis of Antitrogus given by Britton (1978) and Allsopp (2003) except for the shape of the anterior face of the clypeus; it is much more shallow (greatest width 6.6x mid depth) than other species (3.5-4.8x).

Distribution ( Fig. 9 ). Known only from the type locality and nearby Mount Kaputar area in northeastern New South Wales; Köppen-Geiger classification Cfb oceanic.

Natural history. The holotype was reared from a larva collected in November and that emerged the following October ( Britton 1978); it is distorted, having failed to emerge properly. This distortion may account for the difference in the shape of the clypeus between Britton’s description and that above. The adult from Mount Kaputar was collected in late November.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Known distributions of Antitrogus batesii (Olliff, 1890) and Antitrogus ciliatus (Britton, 1978) in eastern Australia.

FIGURES 10–13. Male of Antitrogus ciliatus (Britton, 1978). 10, Dorsal view, Mount Kaputar specimen; 11, lateral view, Mount Kaputar specimen; 12, head, frontal view; 13, aedeagus, ventral and lateral views. Figs. 10–11 by Greg Daniels; Fig. 12 reproduced from Weir et al. (2019) (CSIRO, used with permission); Fig. 13 reproduced from Britton (1978) (CSIRO, used with permission).