Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 9. The relations of Australasian Ypsiloncyphon species to their Asian congeners, additions, mainly to Petrocyphon and Prionocyphon, and a key to Australian genera of Scirtinae
Author
Zwick, Peter
text
Zootaxa
2016
2016-03-02
4085
2
151
198
journal article
31436
10.11646/zootaxa.4085.2.1
ba498adf-4dec-4fa3-8213-9d4d8c3b9dd3
1175-5326
1052535
E41CB99C-5177-47A7-A424-2453D27E48F0
Prionocyphon yarraensis
Watts, 2010b
(
Figs 81–86
,
Table 2
)
Material studied.
1 ♂
:
36.36S
149.23E
NSW
Brown Mountain
26 Dec. 1988
C. Reid beating bushes at lookout (
ANIC
).
FIGURES 79, 80.
Erect male genitalia of
Prionocyphon warra
Watts.
79, lateral view; 80, dorsal view. Abbreviations: eph, endophallus; pa, pala; pd, parameroid; pe, paramere; st, style; te, tegmen; tr, trigonium.
The present specimen is
3.3 mm
long, a little less than the
holotype
. Habitus and colouration agree with the description of the
type
.
Elongate, sides of elytra almost parallel, body fairly flat. Yellowish brown, antenna filiform, not serrate. Flagellomeres slender, 3 times longer than wide. Yellow pilosity long. Punctures on head and pronotum very fine, those on elytra large. Clypeus with large divergent lateral lobes. End of subgenal ridge raised, separated from raised edge of oral cavity by a distinct narrow gap (buttonhole). Pilosity of abdominal sternites S3–5 with many large sensilla, S6 and S7 only with straight socketed setae, setation on S7 twice as dense as on other sternites.
The genitalia of the present beetle broke during dissection, damaging the basal plate (bp) and destroying the original connection of the tegmen and penis to the basal plate. The penis (
Fig. 84
) and both halves of the tegmen (
Fig. 85
shows one of them) lie flat in a slide and are seen in side view. A photograph of the
holotype
genitalia slide (courtesy C.H.S. Watts) shows the intact structures, in dorsal view, as drawn by
Watts (2010b: fig. 42; reprinted and annotated in
Fig. 86
)
. In dorsal view, the basal plate is in the background and not seen at all while the curved tube of the pala appears like a single median structure. My description is based on both supplementary views, corresponding details are labelled in
Figs 84–86
.
Male.
T8 (
Fig. 81
) with short straight incompletely connected apodemes, plate transverse, with rounded rear margin. A mixed band of microtrichia and small setae in front of rear margin. Setae along rear margin a bit larger than others. S8 absent. T9 with curved incompletely connected apodemes, plate membranous, bare, with no defined shape (
Fig. 82
). S9 with wide front margin, plate membranous except a wide U-shaped sclerite band which ends in the weak sclerotisation of the widely separate rounded caudal lobes which bear setae laterally and caudally (
Fig. 83
).
Tegmen H-shaped, two strong anterior rods (te1, te2), at a considerable distance from their front ends, connected by a transverse bar (tb) whose middle articulates with the pala (pa). Basal rods continuing caudally beyond this point and ending in an upcurved sclerotized (sl) and a hyaline lobe (hy). Parameres subterminally attached to rod and partly enveloping penis (
Fig. 86
). Large elongate main lobe (ml) with rounded apex, medially bearing a low ridge with a few small denticles (dr). On the outside attaches the stylus (sty), which in full view is a large hyaline lobe with a caudal fringe of long delicate hair-like processes (which are not shown in
Fig. 86
).
Pala (pa) a U-shaped tube (
Fig. 84
). Precise shape of basal plate (bp) and original articulation of pala and middle of transverse bar unclear. It is not visible in the
holotype
slide and not shown in
Fig. 86
. Trigonium (tr) a long curved tube containing a wide sperm duct (sd) with a well defined ventrobasal opening (sd-o). Sperm duct ending at trigonium tip, between the three apical tips. Ventrally from trigonium originates a slightly wider, laterally spinulose, long process with rounded apical lobe with senory pores, probably representing fused parameroids.
Note
. The new record considerably expands the range of
P. yarraensis
which was only known from near Warburton, VIC. The connection between the penis and tegmen
via
a basal plate agrees with
P. monteithi
and
P. warra
, but
P. yarraensis
is an exceptional beetle without close relatives.