Scydmaenilla King

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2015, Revision of the genus Stenichnaphes Franz in New Zealand (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 3915 (2), pp. 250-262 : 258

Genus Scydmaenilla King

Scydmaenilla King, 1864: 93 . Type species: Scydmaenilla pusilla King, 1864 (monotypy). Reduced to subgenus of Stenichnus by Franz (1975), reinstated by Jałoszyński (2013b).

Scydmaenilla comprises Cyrtoscydmini with the following combination of characters: eyes located posteriorly; occipital constriction nearly as broad as vertex; frontoclypeal groove absent; mandible with subapical tooth; submentum with lateral sutures; hypostomal ridges present and complete; posterior tentorial pits hidden in groove between submentum and gular plate; antennae with variously distinct 3-segmented club; pronotum with one pair of lateral antebasal pits connected by transverse groove, with variously distinct lateral marginal carinae visible in posterior half; prosternum with narrow basisternal part; procoxal cavities separated in middle by fine carina; hypomeral ridges absent; mesoventrite with asetose impressions (= procoxal rests) separated in middle; mesoventral intercoxal process carinate, moderately projecting ventrally, with distinct posterior tip separated from metaventrite; metaventrite with anterior metaventral process, with short and broad metaventral intercoxal process bearing median notch; and aedeagus with free parameres.

This set of characters, so far known only in Australian species, was found in Stenichnaphes newtoni from New Zealand. The exception is the antenna rather gradually thickened and not with a distinct club, but already in Scydmaenilla (Scydmaenillunia) the club is indistinctly delimited and this character can be excluded from the diagnosis of Scydmaenilla . Stenichnaphes newtoni is here transferred to Scydmaenilla , but several differences in relation to previously known subgenera justify its separate placement in a new subgenus.