Phanerota (Phanerota) paradissimilis Enushchenko, sp.n.

(Figs. 29–33)

Type material examined: Holotype: 1 ♂ [A plastic card with a preparation of aedeagus and VIII abdominal segments in Canada balsam was pinned under the card with specimen]: USA: ‘SW shore of L[ake] Clay | n[ea]r. Lake Placid, | Highlands Co.[unty], FLA[rida] | June 14, 1955 ’, ‘GILL FUNGUS’ <handwritten>, ‘LEG. H.S. | DYBAS’ <handwritten>, ‘ HOLOTYPE | Phanerota | paradissimilis sp.n. | Enushchenko I.V. | 2018 des.’ <red printed label> (FMNH).

Description. Body narrowly oval; length 1.60–2.00 mm. Habitus as in Fig. 29. Head dark brown with yellowbrown spot on frons; pronotum and elytra yellow to yellow-brown; abdomen slightly darker, red-yellow; abdominal tergite VI dark-brown; legs, antennae and mouthparts yellow. Head 1.5 times as wide as long; vertex with slight reticulate microsculpture and sparse distinct punctures; median area impunctate. Antennomere IV as wide as long, antennomeres V–X subequal in length, V–VI slightly elongate, VII–X quadrate to slightly transverse; apical antennomere elongate, 1.3–1.5 times as long as wide. Pronotum shiny, smooth, almost twice as wide as long, widest in middle, posterior angles rounded; median rows of punctures weakly defined, with two shallow and moderately large punctures; basal portion of pronotum impunctate. Elytra 1.3 times as long as pronotum, 1.5 times as wide as long; with weak, indistinctly reticulate microsculpture and small, sparse tubercles on shoulders and external corners; median part of elytra without distinct punctures and tubercles. Microsculpture of abdomen as that on head, surface of tergites anteriorioly with dense and small pits.

Male. Apical margin of abdominal tergite VIII (Fig. 31) with two short and broad lateral teeth, slightly curved inwards, with smooth margin between them. Aedeagus (Fig. 30) with broad basal part and elongate median lobe, with narrow middle part, slightly widened apically and narrowed toward acute apex; latero-apical projection of internal sac long, approximately as long as ventral plate, curved in middle.

Female. Tergite VIII strongly transverse and similar to that of male, but with shorter lateral teeth and distinctly wider distance between them (Fig. 32); sternite VIII wedge-shaped, with narrow lateral protrusions near apical part, broadly rounded apically (Fig. 33).

Comparative notes. Based on the general proportions of the body and reticulate head, the new species is similar to Ph. dissimilis (Erichson 1840) (Figs. 34–39), known from the eastern part of the United States: from Kansas to North Carolina in the east and from Michigan to Texas and Florida in the south (Seevers 1951). Phanerota paradissimilis sp.n. can be distinguished from Ph. dissimilis by the smaller body size, external and internal details of the structure of aedeagus (median lobe of aedeagus of Ph. paradissimilis sp.n. (Fig. 30) straight and shorter than that in Ph. dissimilis with distinctly narrower apical portion, slightly convex ventral margin of the median lobe and distinctly longer latero-apical projection of the internal sac, as in Fig. 35) and by the shape of the male abdominal tergite VIII (male abdominal tergite VIII of Ph. dissimilis with a crown of three rather broad, blunt teeth (Fig. 36), with a presence of the middle tooth. Rarely some males of Ph. dissimilis with somewhat modified shape of VIII abdominal tergites (Fig. 37–39), similar to those of Ph. paradissimilis sp.n. However, both species can be reliable recognized by the shapes of the aedeagus.

Etymology. The name of the new species alludes to its similarity to Ph. dissimilis .

Remarks. At the present time the species is known only from several localities on the Florida Peninsula.