Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 8. The new genera Cygnocyphon, Eximiocyphon, Paracyphon, Leptocyphon, Tectocyphon, and additions to Contacyphon de Gozis, Nanocyphon Zwick and Eurycyphon Watts
Author
Zwick, Peter
text
Zootaxa
2015
3981
4
451
490
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.3981.4.1
15c3bf52-4481-4a75-8643-7c919bdde6c4
1175-5326
235846
EF71D83B-17B4-49CA-826E-D3A8E7979750
Leptocyphon
,
n. gen.
Type
species
:
Leptocyphon furcalonga
,
n. sp.
Diagnosis
. Small, BL
ca
3mm
. Slender, flat (
Figs. 76–78
). Pronotum transverse, short, little narrower than the elytra. Base sinuous, projecting towards scutellum, laterally straight, rear angles almost rectangular, blunt. Sides converging towards the rounded front corners between which the front margin is straight. Sides of elytra little curved, epipleura narrow. Head a little wider than long, no antennal groove. Eyes moderately projecting. Subgenal ridge joining a branch from the gular suture, together they meet the edge of the oral cavity (
Fig. 79
). Only right mandible with small tooth, or both toothless, no spinules in molar area. Palpi straight, antennae and legs unmodified. Prosternal epipleura reaching to level of front coxa. Prosternum very small (
Fig. 80
), prosternal process reduced, not reaching back beyond the coxae, extremely narrow. Receiving mesoventral groove indistinct, mesoventral process very narrow but complete (
Fig. 81
). Male S8 large, Y-shaped, with long unpaired sclerite (
Figs. 83
,
90
). No stylus. Female (known only of
L. furcalonga
): bacula firmly connected to gonocoxites, not articulated, gonostyle wart-like (
Fig. 87
); prehensor complex (
Fig. 88
).
Notes
. The two included species are very similar in habitus and body structure but differ strikingly in the shape of the male genitalia. I include them with hesitation in the same genus. When the female of the second species becomes known a decision will be easier. Both species occur in the extreme SW of Western
Australia
and were rarely collected.
Describing and naming a small slender Australian marsh beetle with blunt pronotal front angles is difficult. The available generic key (
Watts 2011
) leads to
Pseudomicrocara
or
Cyphon
(in the former wide sense) which are separated by size (overlapping) and small spines in the molar area, which varies in
Pseudomicrocara
. Therefore, new taxa resembling
Pseudomicrocara
(s. l.) need to be compared to the
type
species,
P. orientalis
Armstrong, 1953
, see below. What the closest relatives of
Leptocyphon
may be is uncertain.
Etymology
. The generic name refers to the thin prosternal and mesoventral processes and connects Gree
k lept
os, thin, with the classical name,
Cyph
on.