Protoconnus paraguayanus Franz

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2018, Revision of the Neotropical genus Protoconnus Franz (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4392 (1), pp. 41-82 : 55-57

Protoconnus paraguayanus Franz

( Figs 35 , 42–43 , 96 , 101 )

Protoconnus paraguayanus Franz, 1980: 198 , fig. 182.

Type material. Holotype: PARAGUAY (Alto Paraná Department): ♂, five labels ( Fig. 96 ): "Hungarian Soil- Zool.Exp. / PARAGUAY: Puerto P. / Stroessner, / 26.XII.1965 " [white, printed], "Nr. P.4-4 / leg.Loksa" [white, printed], " Protoconnus / paraguayanus / m. / det.H.Franz" [white, handwritten and printed], " Holotypus " [red, handwritten], " Holotypus 1980 / Protoconnus / paraguayanus / H. Franz" [white with red margins, printed and handwritten] ( HNHM).

Revised diagnosis. BL 0.90 mm; body moderately stout, elytra 1.64 times as broad as strongly transverse pronotum; frons in male between supraantennal tubercles very narrow and distinctly impressed; vertex unmodified, with rounded posterior margin; pronotal base with small and indistinct pits, except the lateral pair, and distinct groove; lateral pronotal carinae distinct in posterior third; humeral carinae rounded; aedeagus in ventral view guitar-shaped, with shallowly but distinctly constricted basal capsule and rapidly narrowed apical region, which is slender and constricted in its proximal half, so that its distal half is delimited as a long, flame-like pointed and ventrally curved plate; parameres slender.

Redescription. Body of male ( Fig. 35 ) strongly convex, brown, setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 0.90 mm.

Head broadest at very large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.15 mm, HW 0.20 mm; tempora in lateral view as long as about only 1/6 of the longest diameter of eye; vertex with rounded posterior margin, unmodified, laterally confluent with evenly rounded tempora; frons between prominent supraantennal tubercles very narrow and distinctly impressed. Punctures on frons and vertex inconspicuous; setae short, moderately dense and suberect. Antennae slender, AnL 0.35 mm, less than half as long as body, club distinctly delimited; antennomeres I and II each about twice as long as broad; III–IV each about as long as broad, V–X each distinctly (IX and X strongly) transverse, XI much longer than X, about 1.1 × as long as broad.

Pronotum strongly transverse, nearly semicircular, broadest slightly behind middle; PL 0.23 mm, PW 0.28 mm. Anterior and posterior margins weakly convex, lateral margins strongly rounded in anterior third, then very weakly rounded; lateral carinae distinct in posterior third; transverse antebasal groove distinct, pits very small and indistinct, except for the lateral pair. Punctures on pronotal disc inconspicuous; setae sparse, short, suberect.

Elytra much more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest in front of middle; EL 0.53 mm, EW 0.45 mm, EI 1.17; humeral carinae indistinct, rounded. Punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus ( Figs 42–43 ) slender; AeL 0.16 mm; in ventral view basal capsule about as long as distal region, slightly narrowed distad and with shallow constriction; distal region laterally delimited from sides of basal capsule by a rapid narrowing, slender, arrow-shaped, with a shallow constriction in basal half which delimits flame-like apical half with narrow, pointed apex, in lateral view distal half slightly curved ventrad; in lateral view area above parameral bases forming a blunt and nearly straight angle; parameres slightly divergent distad, each with one long apical and one short subapical seta.

Female unknown.

Distribution. South-eastern Paraguay ( Fig. 101 ). The city of Puerto Presidente Stroessner indicated in the label was renamed in 1989 as Ciudad del Este.

Remarks. The holotype male is partly damaged ( Fig. 35 ), but its aedeagus is well-preserved.

Protoconnus paraguayanus is externally unremarkable and examination of the aedeagus is necessary to identify this species. The aedeagus is most similar to that of P. quillabambanus , P. ecuadoranus and P. magnus . Protoconnus paraguayanus and P. quillabambanus have the frons between supraantennal tubercles virtually impunctate and relatively narrow, whereas that in P. ecuadoranus and P. magnus is densely covered with small and shallow punctures and much broader. The aedeagus of P. paraguayanus differs from that of P. quillabambanus in the shape of the basal capsule, which in ventral view is shallowly but distinctly constricted (lacking constriction in P. quillabambanus ), and in lateral view the subtriangular projection of dorsal wall (above the parameral bases) is nearly right-angled (sharp-angled in P. quillabambanus ).

Figures

FIGURE 101. Distribution of nominal Protoconnus species.

FIGURES 34–39. Dorsal habitus of Protoconnus species. Protoconnus araguanus Franz (34); P. paraguayanus Franz (35); P. peruensis Franz (36); P. robustus Franz (37); P. minutus Franz (38); P. minutissimus Franz (39).

FIGURES 40–47. Aedeagi of Protoconnus species. Protoconnus araguanus Franz (40–41); P. paraguayanus Franz (42–43); P. peruensis Franz (44–45); P. robustus Franz (46–47).

FIGURES 90–100. Original labels of primary type specimens of previously described Protoconnus species. Protoconnus andicola Franz (90); P. venezolanus Franz (91); P. bolivianus Franz (92); P. comarapae Franz (93); P. princeps (Franz) (94); P. araguanus Franz (95); P. paraguayanus Franz (96); P. peruensis Franz (97); P. robustus Franz (98); P. minutus Franz (99); P. minutissimus Franz (100).