Protoconnus brachati, Jałoszyński, 2020

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2020, Three new species of the Neotropical genus Protoconnus Franz (Coleoptera Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4809 (2), pp. 383-389 : 386-387

Protoconnus brachati sp. n.

( Figs 2 , 8–11)

Type material. Holotype: VENEZUELA (Carabobo State): ♂, two labels: “VENEZUELA / Carabobo;Mun.: Bejuma / Via Palmichal ; 750-850m; / Nov.2005;leg. Brachat ” [white, printed], “ PROTOCONNUS / brachati m. / HOLOTYPUS, P. JAŁOSZYŃSKI, 2020” [red, printed] ( MNHW).

Diagnosis. BL 0.85 mm; body stout, elytra 1.6 times as broad as strongly transverse pronotum; frons in male much broader than width of eye in dorsal view, unmodified; vertex unmodified, convex and with posterior margin weakly rounded; pronotal base with indistinct pits connected by sharply marked transverse groove; lateral pronotal carinae distinct in posterior third; humeral carinae weakly marked, rounded; aedeagus in ventral view with basal capsule strongly narrowing distad, distal region ventrally not demarcated from basal capsule, strongly elongate, nearly evenly narrowing distad, with sharply pointed apex, in lateral view distal portion of median lobe weakly recurved; parameres slender, indistinctly broadened at apices.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 2 ) strongly convex, dark brown with indistinctly lighter stripe along elytral suture, covered with setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 0.85 mm.

Head broadest at large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.13 mm, HW 0.18 mm; tempora in lateral view shorter than 1/4 length of eye; vertex weakly convex, posterior margin weakly rounded; frons between moderately large supraantennal tubercles narrow and slightly impressed. Punctures on vertex shallow and diffuse but dense, so that surface appears slightly uneven; setae short, sparse and suberect, bristles on tempora and vertex dense, but short. Antennae stout, AnL 0.38 mm, less than half as long as body, club broad and distinctly delimited; antennomere I slightly less than twice as long as broad, II about 1.5 × as long as broad, III–X each strongly trans- verse, XI about as long as X, slightly broader than long.

Pronotum distinctly transverse, subtrapezoidal, broadest shortly in front of base; PL 0.23 mm, PW 0.26 mm. Anterior and posterior margins weakly convex, lateral margins strongly rounded; lateral carinae distinct in posterior third; transverse antebasal groove distinct, connecting five shallow and diffuse pits. Punctures on pronotal disc inconspicuous; setae sparse, short, suberect.

Elytra much more convex than pronotum, together oval, broadest in front of middle; EL 0.50 mm, EW 0.43 mm, EI 1.18; humeral carinae developed as elongate and rounded protuberances. Punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus (Figs 8–11) slender; AeL 0.18 mm; in ventral view basal capsule slender and about as long as distal region, entire median lobe strongly and nearly evenly narrowing distad; distal region with triangular, slender and pointed apex, in lateral view distal region weakly recurved, lacking dorsal or ventral thickening or projection; area above parameral base forming step-wise projection near subapical margin of basal capsule; parameres with apical portions indistinctly broadened, each with long apical and shorter subapical seta.

Female unknown.

Distribution. Northern Venezuela ( Fig. 16 ).

Etymology. This species is dedicated to Volker Brachat, a collector of the type specimen, who kindly offered interesting Scydmaeninae for my study.

Remarks. Externally P. brachati is unremarkable and examination of the aedeagus is necessary for identification. The median lobe in ventral view has its distal region confluent with the sides of the basal capsule and gradually tapering to sharply pointed apex. A similar shape of the aedeagus in ventral view can be found in P. bolivianus Franz , P. comarapae Franz , and P. peruensis Franz. However , in all these species the general shape of the median lobe is clearly different, and profound differences can be seen in lateral view. In P. bolivianus and P. comarapae the aedeagi are much slenderer than that in P. brachati , and in lateral view each has a long tooth-like subtriangular projection above the parameral base, the apex of this projection is sharp-angled. In P. brachati , the projection above the parameral base takes a form of a step-wise broadening with a right-angled apex. In P. peruensis the aedeagus is stouter than that in P. brachati , and in lateral view the distal region has a submedian dorsal angulate projection, absent in P. brachati .

Figures

FIGURE 16. Distribution of nominal Protoconnus species.

FIGURES 1–3. Dorsal habitus of Protoconnus fenestratus sp. n. (1), P. brachati sp. n. (2), and P. carabobonus sp. n. (3).