Ypsiloncyphon virgulifer, Zwick, Peter, 2014

Zwick, Peter, 2014, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 6. Genera Calvarium Pic, Papuacyphon Zwick, and Ypsiloncyphon Klausnitzer, Zootaxa 3846 (1), pp. 1-41 : 20

Ypsiloncyphon virgulifer , n. sp.

( Figs. 58–61 )

Type material. Holotype ♂: “ WA: Cadjeput Rockhole E of Woodstock Station 21°31'55''S, 119°08'57''E 29 September 1988 B.P.Hanich et al. \ BPH 29-11AI UV fluorescent light at night 6:00–8: 45 p. m. \ Western Australian Museum Entomology Reg. no. 42898 \ C.H.S.Watts det. Cyphon sp.” ( WAMW). Paratypes (all ANIC) NT: 1♂: “ Port Keat N.T. 14.06S 129.33E 19.viii.1968 M.Mendum”; 1♂: “ 16.35S 131.17S GPS Sullivan Ck Gregory NP NT 21 July 1994 T.Weir A.Roach deep billabong rocky edges“; WA: 1♂: “Crossing Pool, Millstream [21° 34.489' S 117° 05.066' E], W.A.. 22.Oct.1970 D.H.Colless”.

Habitus. BL 1.44–1.90 mm, BL /BW ~1.55, oval. Pronotal front angles projecting little, rounded. Sides of pronotum regularly arched, base barely wider than front.

Punctures on head fine, granular especially behind eyes. Pronotal punctures large, granular, increasingly so towards the sides where raised little pearls are about 1.5 diameters apart. Punctation on scutellum obsolete. Elytra shining, with normal punctures, basal ones coarse, caudally increasingly finer and denser. Dorsal side blackish brown, antennae yellowish, legs with brownish femora, distally lighter.

Male. Caudal margin of T8 approximately pentagonal, with a few irregularly arranged setae and grouped microtrichia, anterolaterally with some sharp raised granulations. Apodemes barely longer than the plate, straight, medially constricted, base pointed. T9 medially membranous, the lightly slcerotized sides with small spicules and elongate asperities. Apodemes more than twice longer than those of of T8, strong, straight. S9 strongly sclerotized, with loop-like base supporting two closely appressed stiff, caudally pointed sclerite rods ( Fig. 58 ). Penis ( Figs. 59, 60 ) long, truncate base parallel for about ¼ of total penis length, in side view at a distinct angle to distal part. Trigonium wide, band-like, ending in a sharp sickle-shaped centema (apex bent back in Fig. 60 ). Parameroids arising from protruding ear-like bases, little longer than trigonium. Distally, the parameroids resemble open tubes. They support a subterminal sclerotized sinuous appendage.

Tegmen and parameres are a narrow Y-shaped sclerite with truncate, enlarged, sclerotized base forking into 2 strong rods. Caudally, they are increasingly less sclerotized, the distal third appears to be longitudinally rolled, ending in a transparent pointed apex ( Fig. 61 ).

Female. Unknown.

Note and etymology. By its genitalia and the shape of the mesoventral process Y. virgulifer is closely related to the other Australian species, even though these have an asymmetrical S9 and simple parameroids. Because the female is unknown, Y. virgulifer is only tentatively included in Y. species group 3. The localities are spread over a wide range in the Northwest of the continent, from the Hamersley Ranges to the Kimberleys SW of Darwin. Name derived from Latin, virgula, branchlet, and ferre, to carry: carrier of a branchlet.

Figures

FIGURES 58 – 61. Ypsiloncyphon virgulifer, n. sp., male: 58, T 8, T 9 and S 9, superimposed; 59, penis, ventral view; 60, oblique dorsolateral view of same, trigonium tip bent ventrad; 61, tegmen and parameres. Pilosity and surface structure of T 8 and T 9 shown only diagrammatically in small selected areas. All to same scale.