Aptilotella corona, Luk & Marshall, 2014

Luk, Stephen P. L. & Marshall, Stephen A., 2014, A revision of the New World genus Aptilotella Duda (Sphaeroceridae: Limosininae), Zootaxa 3761 (1), pp. 1-156 : 28

The Aptilotella corona Species Group

Diagnosis. Members of this species group are defined by the very dark, shiny tab-like piece of male sternite 5 that articulates perpendicularly with the posteromedial margins of sternite 5 and synsternite 6+7. This structure apparently serves in part to protect the cerci when they are not in use. The defining character of the distiphallus is the prominent dark club-shaped sclerite of the ventral flanking sclerite, which typically bears a crown of denticles. The aedeagus is rich in additional, diagnostic characters. The basiphallus is compressed and arched and, with the exception of A. sphyra , possesses erect articulatory processes for the postgonite. In the ventral flanking sclerites, the medial article is dorsally elongated, and the strongly lobed distal article is arched or coiled inward. Medial paired sclerites arise convergently distal to the medial article of the ventral flanking sclerites and are confluent in the slender distal half. The hypandrium has slender and articulated basal arms and club-shaped pregonites.

Both sexes of most species in this group have a broad silvery-white band on the lower margin of the facial excavation, a character shared with A. germana , A. pyropanda , and A. hamata . Exceptions are A. corona , which has white spots instead, and A. sphyra , in which the band is faint in the male and lacking in the female. Six species are described from Central America.