Nothocyphon thylacinus, Zwick, Peter, 2015

Zwick, Peter, 2015, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 7. Genus Nothocyphon, new genus, Zootaxa 3981 (3), pp. 301-359 : 346

Nothocyphon thylacinus , n. sp.

(Figs. 115–120)

Type material: 1♂ holotype: Cradle Mtn Tasmania J. Armstrong ( ANIC).

Habitus. An elongate-oval Nothocyphon . BL 2.7mm, BL/BW 1.7. Dark brown, punctation granular and fine on head and pronotum, spaced on pronotum, normal and dense on elytra. Flagellar segments twice as long as wide at apex.

Male. Segments 8 and 9 as in the generic description except that T8 (damaged) appears fairly narrow (Figs. 115–117). The tegmen is a narrow transverse arch supporting slender, blade-like parameres which carry some large teeth near midlength and are serrate along the edge (Fig. 120). The penis (Figs. 118, 119) has an anteriorly wide pala (damaged) which narrows to where the trigonium is inserted. The trigonium is a small sharply pointed triangle. Ventrally it is armed with sharp teeth standing in two irregular oblique rows. Some teeth are unusually large and project laterally across the parameroids. The gently arched parameroids are narrow and extend far beyond the trigonium. They lack spines, to their outside attach membranes (torn in the only specimen).

Female. Unknown.

Etymology. The large teeth on the trigonium reminded me of the fangs of vertebrate carnivores. Named after the largest marsupial predator, the Marsupial Wolf, Thylacinus , which survived the arrival of Man in Australia longer in Tasmania than elsewhere.