Agathidium minutum Peck and Cook, 2014

Peck, Stewart B. & Cook, Joyce, 2014, A review of the small carrion beetles and the round fungus beetles of the West Indies (Coleoptera: Leiodidae), with descriptions of two new genera and 61 new species., Insecta Mundi 2014 (397), pp. 1-76 : 13

Agathidium minutum Peck and Cook , new species

Figures 28, 29

Diagnostic description. Total length 1.1 mm. Body strongly contractile, shining, without evident microsculpture, with scattered minute punctures bearing pale setae. Dark brown with pale venter and appendages, not iridescent. Head broad, postocular tempora not prominent, clypeus not protruding. Eyes reduced to about half normal size; with about 20-25 poorly defined facets. Antennomere XI as long as IX and X combined. Pronotum broad, emarginate anteriorly, rounded laterally and posteriorly; lateral margin almost evenly rounded in lateral view. Elytra broad, lateral margins rounded in dorsal view; striae absent. Flight wings present. Mesosternum on about same plane as metasternum. Tarsi 5-5- 4 in male. Legs slender, male metafemur unmodified; anterior tarsomeres not widened. Median lobe of aedeagus ( Fig. 28, 29 ) broad with narrow, arrow-shaped apex; operculum with paired rami. Parameres short, thin, not setose. Female unknown.

Type material. Known only from the holotype, male, with the following label data: “DOM. REP.: Prov. HatoMayor/ Par. Nac. Los Haitises/ W. of Sabana de la Mar/ Bosque Humido, 01–02APR/ 1992, litter, M. A. Ivie” ( WIBF).

Distribution. Known only from Hispaniola.

Remarks. The very small size of the species and the very contracted condition of the single specimen do not allow full visibility of some characters. We think it noteworthy but inexplicable that only one specimen has been collected. The collector is certain that there is no label error involved (M. A. Ivie, personal communication).

Etymology. The epithet minutum , Latin adjective, small, refers to the extremely small size of the only known specimen of this species.

Figures

Figures 25–29. Genitalic structures of Pseudoagathidium and Agathidium. 25, 26) Aedeagus, ventral and lateral views, of P. ignotum. 27) Spermatheca of P. ignotum. 28, 29) Aedeagus, ventral and lateral views, of A. minutum. Scale line = 0.30 mm, Fig. 25, 26; 0.15 mm, Fig. 27-29.