Chalcionellus Reichardt, 1932

Lackner, Tomas & Leschen, Richard A. B., 2017, A monograph of the Australopacific Saprininae (Coleoptera, Histeridae), ZooKeys 689, pp. 1-263 : 10

Chalcionellus Reichardt, 1932 Figs 26, 27-38, 39-47, 753

Chalcionellus Reichardt, 1932: 16. Type species Saprinus amoenus Erichson, 1834, original designation.

Diagnosis.

Diagnosis of this genus is based solely on the species C. aeneovirens that has been recorded from the Australopacific Region. Rather small, metallic ovoid beetle; elytra lighter than pronotum; frons with scattered fine punctures; frontal stria complete; pronotal depressions present, most of pronotal surface punctate, punctures most coarse in pronotal depressions. Dorsal elytral striae well developed, in punctures; prosternum with prosternal foveae, which are linked by marginal prosternal stria. Protibia with 7-8 moderately large teeth topped by denticle.

Biology.

The species C. aeneovirens is found in mammal dung and on vertebrate carcasses.

Distribution.

This genus is widespread in the Old World; in the Australopacific Region a single introduced species, Chalcionellus aeneovirens (native to the Afrotropical Region) is found in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland (Fig. 752).

Remarks.

The sole species of Australian Chalcionellus , C. aeneovirens (Schmidt, 1890) differs from the rest of the Australian Saprininae by the presence of pronotal depressions in combination with well developed and deep prosternal foveae, connected by marginal prosternal stria. Superficially it could be confused with the similarly introduced species Hypocaccus (Nessus) interpunctatus interpunctatus (Schmidt, 1885), but the prosternal foveae of the former species are not connected by the marginal prosternal stria and, furthermore, H. (N.) interpunctatus interpunctatus possesses a characteristic ‘mirror’ (=polished area) on the second elytral interval, absent in Chalcionellus aeneovirens . From the externally similar species of the genus Hypocaccus , the species C. aeneovirens differs by the anteriorly connected prosternal foveae as well as by the absence of frontal rugae, typical for Hypocaccus .