Amischa paolettii, Pace, 2007

Pace, Roberto, 2007, Description of Amischa paolettii sp. nov. and Thamiaraea tsitsilasi sp. nov. from the Australian region (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 64, pp. 7-11 : 8-10

Amischa paolettii sp. nov.

Figures 1-2

Holotype:, Australia, Victoria, Gerangamete near Colac , remnant forest, 12.VIII.2004, by sweep net in pasture at forest margin, 50 m, leg. M. G. Paoletti and A. Tsitsilas ( MV T-18706).

Description. Length 1.7 mm. Body shiny and brown with head and 4 basal free urites with base of the 5th urite black-brown; antennae black with 2 basal antennomeres yellow; legs yellow; 4th antennomere as long as wide; remaining antennomeres to the 10th transverse. Pronotum weakly transverse and with a weak posterior median fovea. Head and elytra reticulate; reticulate sculpture evident on pronotum, that of the abdomen superficial except evident on the 5th segment; punctuation of head not distinguishable; granularity of pronotum and of abdomen fine and superficial, on elytra also fine, but evident. Spermatheca, fig. 2.

Note. The genus Amischa Thomson, 1858 , occurs in the Palaearctic, Ethiopian and Oriental regions and this new species is the first record of the genus for the Australian region. The new species has habitus similar to that of Amischa kashmirica Cameron, 1939 , from Kashmir. The female of the new species does not have the 6th free urotergum broadly arched as that of kashmirica , the spermatheca has the distal bulb reduced, despite the body being more developed in length (distal bulb very long in kashmirica ).

Etymology. The new species is dedicated to one of its collectors, the Dr. Maurizio G. Paoletti of the University of Padua.

Figures

Figures 1–2. Habitus and spermatheca of Amischa paolettii sp. nov.