Leptocyphon quadricornutus, Zwick, Peter, 2015

Zwick, Peter, 2015, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 8. The new genera Cygnocyphon, Eximiocyphon, Paracyphon, Leptocyphon, Tectocyphon, and additions to Contacyphon de Gozis, Nanocyphon Zwick and Eurycyphon Watts, Zootaxa 3981 (4), pp. 451-490 : 480-481

Leptocyphon quadricornutus , n. sp.

( Figs. 89–93 )

Type material. 1 ♂ holotype: Stirling Ra NP WA Bluff Knoll 700m 31 Dec. 1985 C.Reid ex bushy shrub in wet gully ( ANIC).

Habitus. BL 2.9mm, BL/BW ~1.7, HCW equals 32% of BW. Base of pronotum about 1/3 narrower than base of elytra. Elongate oval, sides of elytra gently curved. Flat, not domed. Closely resembles L. furcalonga but lacks the two small pits at the pronotum base. Entirely light brown, with yellowish semi-erect pilosity. Granular punctures on head and pronotum like in L. furcalonga but elytral punctures very large and deep, in the humeral area separated only by narrow ridges.

Prosternum small, the process is in side-view triangular, in frontal view resembling a thin long seta, no apical enlargement. No mesoventral groove. Mesoventral process very narrow, caudally narrowing further but completely separating coxae, apex undivided, meeting the normal metaventral process. Discrimen visible over most of metaventrite.

Male. Caudal edge of T8 with two angular projections separated by a wide U-shaped bare notch. Plate caudolaterally with many small denticles which grow larger towards the angular projections where several large spines occur, in addition to slender setae ( Fig. 89 ). The apodemes are short, straight, a medial rib delimiting the sides of a deep backward notch forks out of each. T9 with colourless bare membranous plate, its apodemes well sclerotized, straight, slightly longer than those of T8 (not shown). S8 large, Y-shaped with long unpaired sclerite and caudolaterally a few thin setae ( Fig. 90 ). S9 is large, calyx-shaped, its rear edge armed with four long curved horns, two paramedian, two lateral ( Fig. 91 ). Tegmen and parameres are a thin sclerite band ( Fig. 92 ; twisting is probably an artifact), each side widening caudally towards a massive hump with one huge anterior hook, and then terminating in a slender cone. The convex part of the hump bears numerous sensory pores. Penis ( Fig. 93 ; damaged during dissection) with wide, caudally narrowing pala. The caudal section supports two short, thumb-like processes which originally stood in a row, one with many sensory pores (presumably the fused parameroids) caudally from a bare process (displaced sideways during dissection). The point of attachment of a small sinew is not visible.

Female. Unknown.

Etymology. Latin quadricornutus , four-horned, an adjective.

Figures

FIGURES 89 – 93. Leptocyphon quadricornutus, n. sp., male: 89, T 8, with enlarged detail; 90, S 8; 91, S 9; 92, tegmen and parameres; 93, penis. 89, 90 and 91 – 93 to the same scales, respectively.