Austrocyphon crinitus ( Klausnitzer, 1979 ) Klausnitzer, 1979

Zwick, Peter, 2013, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae) 4. Two new genera, Austrocyphon and Tasmanocyphon, Zootaxa 3706 (1), pp. 1-74 : 67-68

Austrocyphon crinitus ( Klausnitzer, 1979) , comb. nov.

( Figs. 221–226 )

Cyphon crinitus Klausnitzer 1979: 6 .

Material studied. QLD: 1♂, Cardstone, N.Q., 20.i.67, K.Hyde ( ANIC). 1♂, Australia: N. QLD Tully 26.ix.1990 S. DeFaveri on Macaranga flowers (QDPC-M).

Habitus. BL 2.2–2.4 mm, BL/BW ~1.5. Broadly oval, flat beetle, an angle between elytra and pronotum. The specimen from Tully has a dark brown head, remainder light brown, with a faint brownish mark laterally on elytra.

It begins as a narrow strip along the edge behind the shoulder which widens caudad and ends near elytral midlength. The Cardstone specimen is dark brown.

Male. T8 with large flap-like sides and long straight apodemes. Caudal margin indistinctly bilobed, with setae only 3–4 times longer than the insertion rings on projecting portions of caudal margin, remainder bare. S8 a delicate narrowly forked V-shaped minute sclerite (not shown in figures).

Apodemes of T9 straight, caudally continued by sharply pointed rods. Connecting antecosta weak, medially divided. Behind it, the membranous anal cone is exposed. S9 long and slender, base lanceolate, widening caudally, margin bilobed, with long setae.

Penis much shorter than the other parts, angularly bent near middle. Pala rectangular, much wider and little longer than the tongue-shaped caudal portion formed by the fused parameroids which have a translucent centre but lack a sharply delimited foramen. Sides near base with minute hooklets. Trigonium thumb-like, with a crown of spreading dark little spikes, no centema.

Parameres twice as long as penis, slender rods diverging from a spoon-shaped base. Caudal third widened, spatulate, medially with sharp spikes around tip and along edge.

Female. Unknown.

Notes. These are the first Australian records. The species is recognized by the exceptional genitalia, especially the rasp along the tip of the overlong parameres. B. Klausnitzer kindly confirmed my identification. Presently, A. crinitus is the only species of Austrocyphon occurring also outside Australia, in Papua New Guinea.

Figures

FIGURES 221 – 226. Austrocyphon crinitus (Klausnitzer), male. 221, T 8; 222, T 9; 223, S 9; 224, penis; 225, distal half of penis, magnified; 226, tegmen and parameres. 221 – 224 and 226 to the same scale.