Apteropilo volans, Bartlett, Justin S., 2009

Bartlett, Justin S., 2009, Taxonomic revision of Apteropilo Lea, 1908 (Coleoptera: Cleridae), Zootaxa 2200, pp. 41-53 : 51

Apteropilo volans sp. n.

( Figure 9 , 17 )

Type material. Holotype Ψ: Western Australia: Rocky Gully, -34.509 117.113, 19 Nov. 2008, S.L. Winterton & S.D. Gaimari, roadside vegetation (QM).

Description. Total length: 3.7 mm.

Head: Cranium reddish-brown, palpi and lacinae dull yellow-orange, A1–6 orange brown, A6–9 dark brown, antennal club black-brown; frons, most of vertex and genae behind eyes densely distributed with a network of close punctation which is slightly wrinkled above and behind eye; clypeus smooth; antennae with pedicel shorter than A3, club slightly longer than combined length of A4–8.

Thorax: Prothorax quadrate (length to width ratio = 1:1), reddish-brown; pronotal disc mostly covered by a dense network of wrinkled punctation and with a pair of conspicuous circular glabrous discs before the anterior margin; paralateral and discal seta-bearing pits less conspicuous than A. pictipes (closer together than those of other species). Mesosternum reddish-brown; metasternum black-brown; elytra (length to width ratio = 1.91:1) glossy black with a whitish curved X-shaped pattern across basal half, along suture in apical quarter pale brown; hind wings functional. Legs mostly dark brown, joints and base of femora stained with a dull yellowish-orange; tarsi orange-brown, pulvilli yellowish.

Abdomen: Ventrites 1-5 dark brown with pale apical margins; sixth ventrite narrow, yellowish.

Vestiture: Head, pronotum and elytra similarly vested with long dark erect setae, and shorter pale semidecumbent setae.

Remarks. This species can be separated from A. pictipes by the reddish colour of its pronotum, which lacks a basal Y-shaped glabrous disc, and by its broader elytral base and well-developed hind wings.

Etymology. The specific epithet volans (Latin = flying or capable of flight) was chosen because A. pictipes , the species most closely related to A. volans sp. n., is brachypterous.

Biology. The single known specimen was collected from unknown roadside vegetation in November.

Figures

FIGURE 17. Map of south-eastern Australia and south-west Western Australia (inset) illustrating the geographic distribution of Apteropilo species.

FIGURES 4 – 9. Adult habitus: (4) A. chrysocome (Elston), specimen from Tanjil Bren; (5) A. raldae sp. n., paratype from Lilyvale; (6) A. humerofuscus sp. n., holotype. (7) A. clarinotus sp. n., holotype; (8) A. pictipes Lea (holotype of P. peckorum syn. n.); (9) A. volans sp. n., holotype. Scale bars = 1 mm.