Dicronychus iranicus Nasserzadeh & Platia, 2018

Nasserzadeh, Hiva, Platia, Giuseppe, Parsi, Farzaneh & Serri, Sayeh, 2018, Three new species, Elathous zagrosensis sp. n., Zorochros dilatatus sp. n., and Dicronychus iranicus sp. n., and noteworthy records of click beetles from western Iran (Coleoptera: Elateridae), Zootaxa 4394 (4), pp. 517-536 : 534

Dicronychus iranicus Nasserzadeh & Platia sp. n.

( Figs. 5–7 , Map 9)

Type locality. 15 km East of Ghasr-e Shirin , Kermanshah Province, Iran.

Type material. Holotype ♀ ( HMIM): Ghasr-e Shirin to Sarpol-e Zahab road, 15 km E Ghasr-e Shirin, 34°27'57"N 45°45'36"E, 460 m, 25.V.2007, leg. Nasserzadeh, Zahiri, Montreuil [sclerite plate of bursa copulatrix and the last abdominal sternite mounted in euparal on transparent card].

Diagnosis. Similar to D. mesopotamicus Platia & Gudenzi, 1999 , distinguished by uniformly darker color, sides of pronotum dilated in anterior third and bursa copulatrix sclerite plate.

Description. Female: coloration dark, uniform without distinct marks, head rather rufo-piceous, pronotum rufous and elytra rufous to rufo-testaceous, rather testaceous apically; head, pronotum, around of scutellum, with blackish shadings, elytra with rufo-piceous shadings marginally; antennae and legs testaceous; covered with dense, short, recumbent, yellowish pubescence.

Frons moderately convex, feebly impressed at the anterior margin, the latter edged, sub-arcuate and just protruding above the clypeus.

Right antenna is missing and the left one is broken at the seventh article; second article subconical, twice as long as wide, serrated from third article on.

Pronotum widest at anterior third, 1.1 × wider than long, strongly and regularly convex, abruptly sloping at sides and base; sides arcuate, strongly converging from mid-length to base and just sinuate before to the posterior angles, the latter short, truncate, slightly divergent with a short carina; punctuation double, distributed uniformly; larger, deep, simple punctures are regularly mixed with fine, dense and nearly contiguous punctures.

Scutellum heart-shaped, as long as wide, slightly impressed at center, finely punctured.

Elytra 2.3 × longer than pronotum and as wide as it or slightly wider, convex and ovaliform, widest posteriorly, just before mid-length; striae well-marked and deeply punctured for all their length; interstriae moderately convex, very finely punctured.

Apical margin of last abdominal sternite ( Fig. 7 ) rather straight. Claws dentate at base.

Sclerite plate of bursa copulatrix with four large spines in a row in the middle as in the fig. 6.

Male: unknown.

Size: Length 7.1 mm; width 2.2 mm.

Etymology. The name is derived from the country in which the holotype was collected, Iran.

Habitat. In loose soil in vegetated area.

Figures

FIGURES 5–7. Dicronychus iranicus sp. n. (5) Dorsal habitus; (6) Sclerite plates of bursa copulatrix; (7) Last abdominal sternite.