Nothocyphon armatus, Zwick, Peter, 2015

Zwick, Peter, 2015, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 7. Genus Nothocyphon, new genus, Zootaxa 3981 (3), pp. 301-359 : 348-349

Nothocyphon armatus , n. sp.

(Figs. 124–127)

Type material: 1 ♂ h olotype, 1 ♀ paratype: Mt. Edith Forest Road, 1 km off Danbulla Road [QLD] 6.May 1967 D.H. Colless ( ANIC); 1 ♀ paratype: Mt. Edith 4– 7 M. off Danbulla rd. N.QLD 27.Apr. 1967 D.H. Colless ( ANIC). 1 ♂ paratype: Baldy Mtn road SW of Atherton N.Qld, 1000m, 10 Oct 1980, G. Monteith, Pyrethrum, rainforest ( QMSB; QM Reg.No. T227418).

Habitus. BL 2.1–2.2mm, BL/BW 1.5. Oval, rather convex. Dorsal side yellowish-orange to brown, elytra with diffuse pattern of variable intensity. A narrow strip along the base of the elytra on either side of the dark scutellum is pale. The strip surrounds the humerus on the outside, along the edge of elytron. Sutural interval also pale but interrupted by brown at midlength from where a brownish arch may extend forward to near the humerus. Appendages yellowish. Lower face and mouthparts as described for the genus. Flagellar segments a little conical, barely twice as long as wide at apex, last segment oval.

Male (Figs. 124–126). Segments 8 and 9 as described for the genus. Penis elongate, pala broadly rounded, almost truncate. The penis widens just caudally from midlength at the bases of trigonium and parameroids. The parameroids are flat, with blunt ends curving around the shorter trigonium. The trigonium is a simple cone supporting a crown of several strong teeth. The most basal teeth are the largest, sickle-shaped, and curve outward and ventrad. The tegmen is a transverse bar which supports short rod-like parameres ending in several very large straight teeth.

Female (Fig. 127). T8 and ovipositor unmodified. Rods of S8 very long, in front connected by a wide semicircular sclerite (not shown). The prehensor is elongate, anteriorly with a sclerite loop and two divergent scaly bands. Caudally from this lies a pair of narrow sleeves ending in dark, scaly pockets, plus a smaller pocket laterally from each. Caudo-laterally are two finely scaly bands.

Note. Habitus, pigmentation and female genitalia resemble N. lindensis . However, the male genitalia differ much. For example, they lack the median hollow spine or spinule patches ventrally from the penis which N. lindensis and relatives have. The parameres are very different.

Etymology. The Latin adjective armatus , armed, alludes to the large spines on the trigonium and the parameres.