Austrocyphon unguiculatus, Zwick, Peter, 2013

Zwick, Peter, 2013, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae) 4. Two new genera, Austrocyphon and Tasmanocyphon, Zootaxa 3706 (1), pp. 1-74 : 24

Austrocyphon unguiculatus , sp. n.

( Figs. 54–57 )

Type material. Holotype ♂, 4 paratype ♂, Nadgee SF NSW 400 m Maxwell's Ck 13–19.Jan.1987 D.Bickel warm temp. rainforest ( ANIC).

Additional material studied. 2 ♀ with the same data.

Habitus. BL 2.4–2.5 mm, BL/BW ca. 1.8. Flat, uniformly light brown. Antennae slender, distal segments cylindrical, more than twice as long as wide.

Male. Apodemes of T9 longer than the short plate. Caudal corners stalk-like, each supporting a pair of short sharp claws. S9 rhomboid, widest closer to roundly excised caudal end than to narrow base. Caudal width about 0.6 times maximal width. A few slender hairs in caudal region of plate.

Pala of penis long and narrow, transverse bridge located caudally from midlength. Trigonium short, apex rounded, centema slender, strong. No surrounding spicules. Sides of parameroids reflexed, their sclerotized edges converge and seem to meet basally and to form a short tubular section. In side view, the flat trigonium is loccated on the ventral side of what seems to be a short dorsally obliquely cut tube ( Fig. 55 ). To the base of the tube attach delicate membranes, probably the walls of the efferent duct.

Parameres two slender caudally pointed rods, originating from a narrow, parabolic capulus.

Female (presumed). Not distinctive, a few scales barely visible at 600x inside the ovipositor at the level of T9, no other sclerotizations.

Notes. Included in the charon species-group because of the caudolateral claws of T9. The apparent formation of a tube by the parameroids is exceptional but structural details remain unknown.

Etymology. From the Latin unguiculatus —equipped with claws.

Figures

FIGURES 54 – 57. Austrocyphon unguiculatus sp. n., male. 54, T 9, S 8 visible beneath it; 55, penis; 56, tegmen and parameres; 57, S 9. All to the same scale.