Cephennomicrus inconspicuus (King)

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2018, Revision of Cephennomicrus of Australia (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4422 (2), pp. 151-183 : 153-154

Cephennomicrus inconspicuus (King)

( Figs 1–6, 118–119, 123)

Megaladerus inconspicuus King, 1865: 96 , pl. VI, figs 1–3.

Euthia inconspicua (King) ; Csiki, 1919: 4.

Neseuthia inconspicua (King) ; Franz, 1975: 133, fig. 112.

Cephennomicrus inconspicuus (King) ; Jałoszyński, 2008: 33.

Type material. Lectotype (here designated): AUSTRALIA (NEW SOUTH WALES): ♂, six labels: "K23,34" [brownish, handwritten], " Megaladerus / inconspicuus " [brownish, handwritten], "SYNTYPE" [yellow, printed], "K 197795" [white, printed], " Cephennomicrus / inconspicuus King / ♂ Cl.Besuchet / det. VI 1958 " [white, handwritten and printed], " CEPHENNOMICRUS / inconspicuus / ( King, 1865) / LECTOTYPUS / P. Jałoszyński, '18" [white, printed] (AMS). Paralectotype: ♂, six labels: "Co-type" [white, printed], " Megaladerus / inconspicuus " [brownish, handwritten], "869-1 {or 8651} / Megaladerus / inconspicuus / N. S. Wales", with red "Cotype" along right margin [brownish, handwritten], " Neseuthia / inconspicua / (Kg.) / det.H.Franz" [white, handwritten and printed], " CEPHENNOMICRUS / inconspicuus / (King) / det. P. Jałoszyński, 2007" [white, printed], " CEPHENNOMICRUS / inconspicuus / ( King, 1865) / PARALECTOTYPUS / P. Jałoszyński, '18" [white, printed] (SAM).

Additional material studied. NEW SOUTH WALES : 1 ♂, 1 ♀, "Nepean R {i.e., River}, Coates" (SAM); 1 ♀, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY : 1 ♂ Sydney, E.W. Ferguson Collection, identified by A.M. Lea (ANIC); 1 ♀, Wombat Creek , 6 km NE of Piccadilly Circus, 750 m, 35.19S, 148.51E, Sept. 1985, Weir, Lawrence, Johnson, flight intercept trap ( ANIC) .

Emended diagnosis. BL 0.86–0.90; body stout, EI 1.19–1.22; all antennomeres elongate; antennal club trimerous and indistinctly delimited; pronotum typically darker than elytra; inner pair of pronotal antebasal pits connected by distinct shallow groove; frons in males modified, with a broad transverse asetose median area demarcated posteriorly by a pair of incomplete grooves extending anteromesad from between eyes, and laterally by a pair of slightly arcuate longitudinal ridges; aedeagus moderately elongate, with distal portion of flagellum coiled.

Redescription. Body of male ( Fig. 1) relatively stout and strongly convex, umber brown, pronotum typically at least slightly darker than rest of body; setae on head, pronotum and elytra extremely short, barely discernible at magnification 80 ×. BL 0.86–0.90 mm (mean 0.88 mm).

Head ( Fig. 2) broadest at large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.08 mm, HW 0.23 mm; vertex weakly convex; frons modified, with transverse median impressed area devoid of setae, delimited posteriorly by a pair of incomplete grooves and laterally by a pair of slightly arcuate longitudinal ridges; supraantennal tubercles distinctly elevated. Punctures on head dorsum fine and inconspicuous. Antennae slender, with indistinctly delimited trimerous club, AnL 0.45 mm, all antennomeres elongate, antennomere XI about as long as IX and X combined, slightly more than twice as long as broad.

Pronotum subtrapezoidal, broadest near anterior fourth; PL 0.25–0.28 mm (mean 0.26 mm), PW 0.33–0.35 mm (mean 0.34 mm); anterior and posterior margins nearly straight, sides rounded in anterior third and straight in posterior half; anterior corners broadly rounded, posterior corners strongly obtuse-angled and blunt; base with two lateral pairs of small but distinct pits, inner pair connected by a shallow transverse groove; lateral pronotal carinae not serrate. Punctures on pronotal disc very dense but superficial and diffuse.

Elytra oval, broadest slightly anterior to middle; EL 0.54–0.55 mm (mean 0.55 mm), EW 0.45–0.46 mm (mean 0.45 mm), EI 1.19–1.22; humeral calli distinct; apices separately rounded. Punctures on elytra similar to those on pronotum but slightly sparser.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus ( Figs 3–6) elongate, but not very slender; AeL 0.18 mm; median lobe in ventral view with stout proximal capsular part and slightly shorter, sharply delimited subrectangular distal part, its apical margin slightly concave; diaphragm distinct, circular, sub-basally on ventral wall; flagellum with several coils in subapical region; each paramere with one long apical seta.

Female. Differs from male only in unmodified, evenly convex frons; BL 0.90 mm; HL 0.08 mm, HW 0.23 mm, AnL 0.43 mm; PL 0.28 mm, PW 0.38 mm; EL 0.55 mm, EW 0.46 mm, EI 1.19.

Distribution ( Fig. 123). New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory.

Remarks. Among all Australian species, C. inconspicuus is in fact conspicuous and easy to identify on the basis of the unique modification of the male frons (with a slightly impressed asetose median area demarcated at each side by an arcuate longitudinal ridge); the pronotum typically darker than the elytra, the punctures on the pronotal disc very dense but shallow and diffuse, and a moderately elongate aedeagus with its apical portion subrectangular, and with a coiled flagellum.

Lectotype designation. King (1865) mentioned four specimens collected in Paramatta "under wood in grass". Two of these syntypes were found in collections of AMS and SAM; the male housed at AMS with labels shown in Fig. 118 is designated here as a lectotype, and the other male ( SAM), with historical labels shown in Fig. 119, becomes a paralectotype. The lectotype is on a pin with another old mounting card, which bears a partly damaged specimen of Glandulariini ( Fig. 118, bottom panel).