Euconnus (Euconnus) pygmaeus
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Euconnus
Euconnus pygmaeus

description: Euconnus (Euconnus) pygmaeus (Nietner)
(Fig. 31)
Scydmaenus pygmaeus Nietner, 1856: 550.
Euconnus (Euconnus) pygmaeus (Nietner); Csiki, 1919: 51.
Type material. Lectotype (here designated): ♂, three labels: “ Ceylon / Nietner..s” (white, printed and handwritten, text in black frame], QR code label with collection number 8188, and newly added “ EUCONNUS / (s. str.) / pygmaeus (Nietner, 1856) / LECTOTYPUS / P. Jałoszyński, 2025 ” (MIZ). Paralectotypes (2 exx.): 2 ♀♀, each with white printed copy of locality label and identification labels with “PARALECTOTYPE” (MIZ).
Revised diagnosis. Vertex weakly bulging posterodorsad and with dense bristles; eyes large, in lateral view about as long as tempora; antennal clubs tetramerous and longer than remaining flagellomeres combined; pronotum widest at base and strongly narrowing anterad, with one pair of inner antebasal pits and additional median pit.
Redescription. Body of female (Fig. 31) moderately slender and moderately strongly convex, moderately dark brown; setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 0.95–0.98 mm.
Head broadest across eyes, HL 0.18 mm, HW 0.20 mm; frontal and anterior vertexal regions confluent, weakly convex, vertexal region weakly bulging posterodorsad; supraantennal tubercles barely marked; eyes large, in lateral view about as long as tempora. Punctures on frons and vertex fine and inconspicuous; setae sparse, short and weakly suberect; tempora and vertex with dense and long bristles directed posteriorly. Antennae slender, with tetramerous clubs, AnL 0.45 mm; antennomere 1–2 each strongly elongate, 3 indistinctly transverse, 4–8 each about as long as broad, 9–10 each transverse, 11 as wide as 10, slightly shorter than 9–10 combined, about 1.3 times as long as broad.
Pronotum subtrapezoidal, broadest at base; PL 0.25 mm, PW 0.24–0.25 mm; anterior margin weakly arcuate, anterior corners poorly marked, obtuse-angled and blunt; lateral margins only slightly rounded; posterior corners weakly obtuse-angled and blunt; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate; base with one (outer) lateral pair and one median pit. Punctures on pronotal disc similar to those on frons and vertex, inconspicuous; setae moderately long, moderately dense and suberect, lateral margins with bristles.
Elytra together oval, broadest slightly anterior to middle; EL 0.53–0.55 mm, EW 0.43 mm, EI 1.24–1.29; humeral calli distinctly elevated, basal impressions shallow but distinct; elytral apices separately rounded. Punctures and setae similar to those on median region of pronotal disc.
Legs moderately long, slender, unmodified.
Male. Unknown.
Distribution. Sri Lanka, near Colombo.
Remarks. Three females are included in the type series, originally mounted on one card, and remounted separately during the present study. The specimen illustrated in Fig. 31 and bearing the historical locality label is here designated as the lectotype. These females largely agree with the original description, but similarly as for Scydmaenus advolans, the number of antebasal pronotal pits is different—“4-foveolatus” in the description, whereas three pits can be seen in the specimens. The name pygmaeus was not mentioned by Franz (1982). Because the type specimens are all females, and the external morphology of this species is unremarkable and highly similar to many species previously placed in Napochus or not placed in any subgenus, matching a male will be a very difficult task.
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2025, John Nietner collection of Sri Lankan Scydmaeninae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae), pp. 79-109 in Zootaxa 5633 (1) on pages 102-103, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5633.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/15372835