Saprinus (Saprinus) amethystinus Lewis, 1900

Lackner, Tomas & Leschen, Richard A. B., 2017, A monograph of the Australopacific Saprininae (Coleoptera, Histeridae), ZooKeys 689, pp. 1-263 : 73-79

Saprinus (Saprinus) amethystinus Lewis, 1900 Figs 301, 302-310, 311-319, 759

Saprinus amethystinus Lewis, 1900: 253.

Type locality.

Australia: Queensland: Taylor Range.

Type material examined.

Saprinus amethystinus Lewis, 1900: Lectotype, present designation: ♂, side-mounted, terminalia and pygidium glued to the same card as the specimen, right antennal funicle missing, right mid-leg missing, right metatarsus missing, left protarsal claw missing, with the following labels: "Taylor Range / Queens Land / (Janson)" (written); followed by: " Saprinus / amethystinus / Type Lewis" (written); followed by: "G. Lewis Coll. / B.M. 1926-369." (printed); followed by: “Type” (round, red-margined label); followed by: “09-088” (yellow, pencil-written label, added by the senior author); followed by: " Saprinus / amethystinus / LEWIS, 1900 / LECTOTYPE / des. T. Lackner ‘011” (red label, written) (BMNH). This species was described from an unknown number of specimens and the lectotype designation fixes the species identity.

Additional material examined.

AUSTRALIA. New South Wales: 1 ♂, Quirindi, G.E. Bryant, 2.xi.[19]08, G. Bryant Coll., 1919-147, Dahlgren det. (BMNH); 1 spec., Caragabal, 13.ix.1966, Z. Liepa (ANIC); 10 specs., Euglo ex., Humbug Creek, 12.xi.1972, D.A. Doolan leg. (AMS; 3 specs. in coll. TLAN). Queensland: 1 ♀, Urangan, Manski, collector unknown (ANIC).

Biology.

Unknown.

Distribution.

Australia: New South Wales and Queensland (Fig. 759).

Remarks.

This is a rare species of Australian Saprinus known from only a handful of specimens; the last ones were collected in 1972.

Re-description.

Body length: PEL: 3.25-3.85 mm; EL: 2.00-2.40 mm; APW: 1.25-1.60 mm; PPW: 2.25-2.75 mm; EW: 2.50-3.00 mm.

Body (Fig. 301) rectangular oval, dorsally convex, ventrally rather flattened; cuticle dark brown, shining, pronotum darker, piceous black, with bronze metallic luster; elytra on basal third light brown, rest of elytra darker, elytra with dark blue metallic luster; legs, mouthparts and antennal scape castaneous brown; antennal club light brown.

Antennal scape (Fig. 302) thickened and triangularly dilated, punctuate, with several setae; antennal club (Fig. 303) covered with dense short sensilla intermingled with sparse longer erect setae; lower third of club asetose; sensory structures of antennal club not examined.

Mandibles carinate laterally, dorso-laterally densely and coarsely punctuate, rounded, mandibular apex acute; mentum square-shaped, anterior margin with deep conspicuous median notch; labrum finely and sparsely punctuate, convex, with shallow median depression; labral pits present, each with a single labral seta; other mouthparts not examined.

Clypeus (Fig. 302) evenly densely punctuate; frontal stria weakened, but complete and outwardly arcuate medially, supra-orbital stria carinate; frontal disc (Fig. 302) coarsely and densely punctuate; eyes convex, well visible from above.

Pronotal sides (Fig. 301) moderately narrowing anteriorly, apical angles acute, pronotal depressions absent, anterior incision for head shallow, semicircular; marginal pronotal stria complete, carinate, visible along its entire length from dorsal view; pronotal disc laterally with a band of deep dense elongate punctures, becoming finer and sparser behind head, median part of pronotal disc almost smooth, with only scattered microscopic punctation; double row of fine ovoid punctures present along pronotal base; pronotal hypomeron with short yellow setae; scutellum very small, but visible.

Elytral epipleura with sparse fine punctures; marginal epipleural stria complete; marginal elytral stria well impressed and slightly carinate, continued as complete apical elytral stria. Humeral elytral stria well impressed on basal third, in most cases connected to inner subhumeral stria; variously long fragment of inner subhumeral stria present also laterad of humeral stria (in two of the three studied specimens); three dorsal elytral striae 1-3 well impressed, impunctate, carinate, apically slightly surpassing elytral half, fourth dorsal elytral stria strongly abbreviated, present as short basal fragment, basally not connected with sutural elytral stria; sutural elytral stria well-impressed, in punctures, abbreviated on basal fifth, apically connected with apical elytral stria; elytral disc on apical four-fifths punctuate, punctures becoming denser apically, forming almost elongate strioles near elytral apex.

Propygidium with dense round deep punctures separated by less than their diameter intermingled with much finer and sparser punctures; pygidium (Fig. 304) with similar, if somewhat sparser punctation; punctures much larger than those of propygidium.

Anterior margin of median portion of prosternum (Fig. 305) almost straight, rounded laterally; marginal prosternal stria present laterally and also as a rather long medial fragment; prosternal process flattened, surface between carinal prosternal striae depressed, with coarse punctures, apico-laterally substrigulate-punctate; carinal prosternal striae well-impressed, carinate, sub-parallel, slightly divergent anteriorly, forming a rounded loop, united in front (Fig. 305); lateral prosternal striae carinate, rather short, apically attaining carinal prosternal striae at about four-fifths of their length, surface around them with microscopic setae.

Anterior margin of mesoventrite (Fig. 306) almost straight, slightly inwardly arcuate; discal marginal mesoventral stria well impressed, complete; disc with coarse and large punctation; meso-metaventral sutural stria largely absent, present only as two short lateral fragments; intercoxal disc of metaventrite flattened; disc of metaventrite for the most part almost smooth, only with scattered microscopic punctation, along posterior margin (especially in area behind hind coxae) denser and coarser punctation appears; lateral metaventral stria (Fig. 307) well impressed, carinate, almost straight, shortened; lateral disc of metaventrite (Fig. 307) slightly concave, with dense shallow large setigerous punctures; metepisternum (Fig. 307) with similar setigerous punctures, on basal two-thirds and on fused metepimeron punctures becoming much sparser, not setigerous; metepisternal stria present as short intermittent fragments.

Intercoxal disc of first abdominal ventrite completely striate laterally; disc along basal and lateral margins with deep round punctures becoming finer and sparser medio-apically.

Protibia (Fig. 308) slightly dilated, outer margin with three triangular teeth topped by large triangular denticle, second and third teeth conspicuously larger than first, fol lowed by two tiny low teeth topped by denticle; setae of outer row regular, moderately spaced; protarsal groove shallow; anterior protibial stria present on basal two-thirds, next obliterated; setae of median row shorter and sparser than those of outer row; two tarsal denticles present near tarsal insertion; protibial spur (Fig. 309) massive, bent, growing out from apical margin of protibia; outer part of posterior surface obscurely variolate, separated from glabrous median part of posterior surface by definite carinate boundary; posterior protibial stria complete, almost along entire length with dense row of long well sclerotized setae; inner row of setae single, setae sparse, shorter than those of posterior protibial stria.

Mesotibia moderately dilated, outer margin with a row of sparse long denticles growing in size apically, another row of much shorter sparser denticles situated on anterior surface of mesotibia; setae of outer row regular, thick, almost as long as denticles themselves; setae of median row irregular, shorter and finer; posterior mesotibial stria not examined; anterior surface of mesotibia sparsely punctuate; anterior mesotibial stria almost complete; mesotibial spur stout, moderately long; apical margin of mesotibia anteriorly with two short denticles; inner margin of mesotibia with sparse row of long setae; claws of apical tarsomere slightly bent, shorter than half its length; metatibia (Fig. 310) slenderer and longer than mesotibia, in all aspects similar to it, but denticles on outer margin much shorter and sparser.

Male genitalia. Eighth sternite (Figs 311-312) strongly sclerotized, separated medially approximately on its apical half, apex with several microscopic setae, velum absent; eighth tergite and eighth sternite fused laterally (Fig. 313). Ninth tergite (Figs 314-315) typical for the subfamily; tenth tergite (Fig. 314) outwardly arcuate, rounded; spiculum gastrale (Figs 316-317) gradually dilated on most of its apical half; basal end slightly dilated. Aedeagus (Figs 318 –– 319) with parameres separated almost on their entire length; basal piece of aedeagus short, ratio of its length: length of parameres 1: 5; aedeagus slightly curved from lateral view (Fig. 319).