Abacophrastus hobbit Will

Will, Kipling W., 2011, Taxonomic review of the Pterostichini and Loxandrini fauna of New Caledonia (Coleoptera, Carabidae), ZooKeys 147, pp. 337-397 : 354-355

Abacophrastus hobbit Will sp. n. Fig. 33B

Type locality.

New Caledonia, Northern Province, Aoupinie, 850m, 21°11'S, 165°19'E.

Type material.

Holotype, male (EMEC80967), "NEW CALEDONIA, 21°11'Sx165°19'E, Aoupinie, 850m, 9930, 20-21Nov2000, Bouchard, Burwell & Monteith", deposited MNHN. Paratypes, "NEW CALEDONIA, Aoupinié, 20km NE Poya, 650m, 18-19 May, 1984, G. Monteith & D. Cook", 2 females (EMEC10003809, EMEC10003810) [QM]. Pic d'Amoa, N. slopes, 20 58 Sx165 17 E, 10-11Nov2001, hand col. C. Burwell & g. Monteith, 8687, 1 female (EMEC10003811) [QM].

Description.

Size. Overall length (sbl) 13.1mm, greatest width over elytra 5.2mm. Color. Dorsal and ventral surfaces black, legs, mouthparts, and antennae black to pi ceous. Dorsally with distinct metallic purple reflex, more evident on head and pronotum. Luster. Dorsal surface very shiny, ventral surface moderately shiny. Iridescence. Elytra and base of pronotum with distinct spectral iridescence. Ventral surface of body with slight spectral iridescence. Head. Dorsal microsculpture with microlines visible at 50x magnification, sculpticells isodiametric or slightly irregular, forming mesh, clypeal-ocular sulci impressed, short, divergent, arcuate, ocular ratio 1.4, eyes average size for genus, rounded, moderately prominent, post-ocular orbits large. Labrum broadly emarginate. Antennae: Overall length long, antennomeres 10-11 reaching beyond base of pronotum, antennomeres 5-11 elongate. Thorax. Pronotum quadrate, sides nearly straight, slightly rounded in apical 3/4 and then sinuate and straight to base, marginal bead continuous from apex to near base, broadening slightly near base, hind angle slightly explanate, nearly right-angled, anterior margin slightly emarginate, anterior angles prominently produced, inner basal impressions linear and well impressed, outer impression lacking, seta at hind angle forward of basal margin, about one third length of straight portion of margin and as distant from lateral margin. Dorsal surface shiny, microsculpture hardly visible as irregular mesh of microlines at 50x magnification. Elytral striae complete, well impressed except stria 6, impunctate. Stria 6 evanescent in basal third, not reaching basal margin. Elytra shiny, microsculpture scarcely visible at 50x as stretched mesh of microlines. Metacoxal sulcus straight and ended well before lateral end of coxa. Abdomen. Last abdominal ventrite with narrow, light apical bead. Female unknown, male aedeagus (fig. 33B) tip bluntly and narrowly deltoid.

Etymology.

The specific epithet Hobbit is an allusion to the setose dorsal surface of the tarsi, analogous to the hairy feet of Tolkien’s Hobbits and is treated as a noun in the nominative singular standing in apposition.