Austrocyphon asper, Zwick, Peter, 2013

Zwick, Peter, 2013, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae) 4. Two new genera, Austrocyphon and Tasmanocyphon, Zootaxa 3706 (1), pp. 1-74 : 29-30

Austrocyphon asper , sp. n.

( Figs. 76–80 )

Type material. VIC: Holotype: ♂, T10, Sample 6 30.9.77 lab-reared from field collected larva, Malipatil & Blyth (= Jordan River, a tributary of the Thomson in its upper reaches: lat = S 37.625109, long = E 146.271973, VIC; R.Marchant in a letter; (MV). Paratypes: 1♂, VIC Fisherman's Rest 6/11/97 C.Watts ( SAMA); 1♂, VIC, Martins Ck, 20.11.1972, P.Zwick (PZ).

Additional material studied. VIC: 3♂, G.R.E.S. Site Mc10 (=upper reaches of the Macalister River: lat = S 37.485747, long = E 146.560535, VIC; R. Marchant, personal communication) no. 3 1.12.1976 Nat. Mus. Vic. Survey Dpt. (MV).

Habitus. BL 2.7–2.9 mm, BL/BW ~1.5. Broadly oval, flat. Head blackish, middle of pronotum dark brown blending laterally into yellowish. Elytra dark brown with diffuse light humeral spot. Legs and antennal base light brown, distal part of antennae darker. First flagellomere minute, the next few slightly serrate, distal ones about cylindrical, ca. 1.7 times as long as wide at apex.

Male. T9 with thin apodemes, plate narrows caudally, shorter than sharply tipped sides, a squarish notch with serrate edges in middle of plate. S9 sclerotized, much longer than other parts, base bluntly rounded, each side extended into a long posteriorly tapering pointed lobe with serrate medial edge and small spicules along outside. Penis long and slender, pala longer than distal part, frame around trigonium narrow, not flanged. Trigonium long and slender, a little waisted, the claw-shaped centema reaches over the prolonged tip which has some spicules. Parameres are slender caudally tapering sharply pointed blades originating from a narrow U-shaped sclerite.

Female. Not known.

Notes. In the lab-reared specimen the penis appears very different ( Fig. 80 ). The parameroids surround the trigonium like an envelope as though the organ had not yet extended after adult emergence from the pupa. The microtrichial pecten on T8 and the medially excised T9 suggest A. asper fits best in the fenestratus -group. However, the new species differs from other group members and generally from other Austrocyphon species by the unusual shape of S9 ( Fig. 77 ).

Etymology. Latin asper , rough, in reference to the roughened tips of S9.

Figures

FIGURES 76 – 80. Austrocyphon asper sp. n, male. 76, T 8; 77, T 9 with enlarged apex of one lobe; 78, tegmen and parameres; 79, penis, with enlarged tip; 80, unexpanded penis of a lab-reared specimen. 76 – 79 to the same, 80 to a different scale.