Sciacharis
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Sciacharis

description: Sciacharis (Maorinus Franz)
Maorinus Franz, 1980a: 291; replacement name for preoccupied Maoria Franz; elevated to the genus rank by Kuschel (1990); reduced to subgenus of Sciacharis Broun by Jałoszyński (2014b).
Maoria Franz, 1975: 14; as subgenus of Euconnus, preoccupied, nec Laporte, 1868, nec Pilsbry, 1892, nec Warren, 1912, nec Cameron, 1945. Type species: Phagonophana alacer Broun, 1915 (des. orig.).
Sciacharis and its subgenus Maorinus were recently redefined and details of their morphological structures, including diagnostic features, were illustrated (Jałoszyński 2014b). One of Australian species described in Horaeomorphus, H. tasmaniensis, was found to belong to Maorinus. Maorinus differs from Sciacharis s. str. in the internal (adcoxal) part of prothoracic hypomeron anteriorly demarcated from prosternum and posteriorly confluent with the external part of hypomeron; in the mesoventral intercoxal process continuous, not interrupted in middle and clearly separating mesocoxae; and in the distinctly thickened maxillary palpomere III. Moreover, the general appearance of Maorinus is different from Sciacharis s. str. and some species may resemble various subgenera of Euconnus rather than Sciacharis fulva Broun, 1893a, the type species of Sciacharis. This is because of the elongate head and usually strongly convex and darkly pigmented body, and not short, subtrapezoidal head and flattened, light brown body as that found in Sciacharis s. str. Sufficient number of non-type specimens of Horaeomorphus tasmaniensis available during this study made it possible to overcome limitations of studying the whole-body temporary transparent mounts (a method used previously (Jałoszyński 2014b)) and to add new details to the redescription of Maorinus based on the scanning electron microscopy and disarticulated specimens.
Redescription. Body (Figs. 185–186) moderately large (in studied specimens about 2.2–2.5 mm of BL), strongly convex, moderately slender, with long appendages, pigmentation brown, cuticle setose.
Head (Figs. 174, 185–186) elongate, with occipital constriction (Fig.174; occ) much narrower than vertex and dividing the head capsule into exposed anterior part and narrow posterior 'neck region' retracted into prothorax; eyes moderately large and nearly circular but strongly protruding from head silhouette, located in anterior part of head; tempora long and strongly curved posteromesally, with dense bristles; vertex transverse, convex, slightly projecting dorsocaudad, with posterior margin convex and densely covered with bristles; frons confluent with vertex, transverse and subtrapezoidal, its anterior portion steeply but not abruptly lowering toward labrum; frontoclypeal groove absent; antennal insertions broadly separated, located beneath distinctly raised supraantennal tubercles.
Labrum (Fig. 175) transverse with rounded lateral margins and shallow median emargination in anterior margin bordered at each side by angulate projection, with six long and pointed anteroventral (anterior epipharyngeal) sensilla and short fine trichia projecting from beneath anterior margin; dorsal setae sparse and long. Mandibles symmetrical, subtriangular, each with broader than long basal portion and one small subapical tooth (Fig. 176; sat); prostheca (Fig. 176; pst) present, dorsomesal, expanding far onto dorsal surface of mandible and reaching mandibular base. Each maxilla composed of small cardo (Fig. 177; cd) bearing two setae; subtriangular basistipes (Fig. 177; bst); elongate mediostipes (Fig. 177; mst); elongate galea (Fig. 177; gal) and lacinia (Fig. 177; lac); large, elongate palpifer (Fig. 177; pfp); and strongly elongate and moderately large maxillary palp (Fig. 174; mxp) composed of elongate palpomere I (Fig. 177; mxp1), strongly elongate, slightly clavate and slender palpomere II (Fig. 177; mxp2), large and moderately elongate, distinctly thickened palpomere III (Fig. 177; mxp3) broadest nearly in middle, and small, slender, subconical and pointed palpomere IV (Fig. 177; mxp4). Labium with large submentum (Fig. 174; smn) not demarcated laterally from postcardinal parts of hypostomae; subtrapezoidal mentum (Fig. 174; mn); and moderately long prementum bearing narrowly separated at bases long 3-segmented labial palps (Fig. 174; lp) and a pair of long bristles on small inversely subtriangular ligula (Fig. 174; lg). Hypostomal ridges (Fig. 174; hr) sharply marked and extending to near middle between anterior margin of submentum and posterior tentorial pits but not connecting in middle.
Gular plate (Fig. 174; gp) large and subtrapezoidal, with rapidly narrowed anterior part distinctly demarcated laterally by longitudinal grooves; gular sutures (Fig. 174; gs) superficial; posterior tentorial pits (Fig. 174; ptp) narrow and slightly arcuate, located clearly in front of transverse impression ventrally demarcating 'neck region'.
Antennae (Figs. 185–186) moderately long and slender, gradually and distinctly thickening distally; antennomere XI unremarkable.
Prothorax (Figs. 178–179, 185–186) in dorsal view strongly elongate, broadest near anterior third, with slightly concave anterior margin; anterior corners relatively distinct, strongly obtuse and blunt; anterior parts of lateral margins rounded; posterior corners blunt but distinct, nearly right; posterior margin deeply bisinuate. Pronotum with distinct sublateral carinae (Fig. 179; slc), without antebasal transverse groove, with two pairs of large internal and lateral pits (Fig. 179; ip, lp) and indistinct median longitudinal wrinkle or carina (Fig. 179; mc). Sides of pronotum with thick and dense bristles (Fig. 178) well visible in dorsal view.
Prosternum with short basisternal part (Fig. 178; bst) distinctly demarcated from procoxal cavities (Fig. 178; pcc); median part of sternum with narrow intercoxal carina; procoxal sockets (Fig. 178; pcs) closed by posterolateral lobes of prosternum; hypomera (Fig. 178; hy) elongate, each divided into broad lateral part confluent with pronotum and narrower internal (adcoxal) part; hypomeral ridges (Fig. 178; hyr) incomplete, marked only in posterior portion of internal part of each hypomeron; pronotosternal sutures (Fig. 178; nss) entire.
Mesocutellum (Fig. 180; scl2) subtriangular, in intact specimens hidden by posterior margin of pronotum overlapping with elytral base; mesoscutoscutellar suture (Fig. 180; sss) present.
Mesoventrite with narrow and distinctly demarcated anterior ridge (Fig. 181; ar); mesoventral process (Fig. 181; msvp) carinate and moderately expanding ventrally, anteriorly connected with anterior ridge and reaching posterior margins of mesocoxal cavities, so that mesocoxae are clearly separated; sides of mesoventrite with shallow procoxal rests (Fig. 181; pcr) filled with bristles (= setose impressions) but without asetose impressions; mesanepisternum with moderately long prepectus (Fig. 181; pre), sides of mesoventrite with narrow and deep setose ventrolateral and dorsolateral foveae (Fig. 183; vlf, dlf); mesocoxal projections (Fig. 181; mcp) prominent, with mesocoxal sockets located on their mesal surface and in ventral view only partly visible.
Metaventrite (Figs. 182–183; v3) subrectangular, anteriorly fused with mesoventrite, posteriorly shallowly bisinuate with broadly subtriangular and metaventral intercoxal process (Fig. 184; mtvp) with short median notch; metacoxae (Fig. 183; cx3) nearly contiguous; anterior metaventral process absent. Metanepisterna and metepimera narrow.
Metafurca with long stalk and divergent lateral furcal arms (Fig. 183; lmfa).
Elytra (Figs. 180, 185–186) oval, each with two distinct and deep asetose basal foveae (Fig. 180; bef) not connected by groove; humeral denticles and subhumeral lines absent.
Hind wings well-developed, about twice as long as elytra.
Legs (Figs. 185–186) long and slender; procoxae subglobose, mesocoxae oval, metacoxae strongly transverse; all trochanters short; all femora moderately strongly clavate; tibiae and tarsi long and slender.
Aedeagus (Figs. 189–192) elongate and lightly sclerotized, thin-walled, with symmetrical median lobe and symmetrical internal armature; parameres free and slender, with apical setae.
Spermatheca (Fig. 183; sp) large and globular, located deeply in metathorax.
Composition and distribution. Sciacharis (Maorinus) currently includes 46 species (Jałoszyński 2014b), only five of them occur in Australia (four only in Tasmania), while the rest inhabits New Zealand. However, these numbers are valid combinations under Sciacharis (Maorinus), while most of these species were assigned to Maorinus (originally to Euconnus (Maoria )) apparently without examination of important ventral characters and their generic status requires verification. Moreover, Kuschel (1990) synonimized two pairs of names of New Zealand Maorinus (as Euconnus) without giving any reasons for doing so (Jałoszyński 2014b) and these decisions require verification.
Remarks. One deviation from the body plan described previously (Jałoszyński 2014b) was found in the species studied during the present work. The mesoventrite of Sciacharis (Maorinus) alacer (Broun, 1915), the type species of Maorinus, and that of Maorinus sp. illustrated in Jałoszyński (2014b; Fig. 21; species highly similar to M. alacer and misidentified as such by Franz) has only the ventrolateral foveae, while in Sciacharis (Maorinus) tasmaniensis comb. n. there are two distinct pairs of foveae (Fig. 183). All other characters do not differ. The presence vs. absence of the dorsolateral foveae does not seem a sufficient criterion to place this species in a separate genus or subgenus. The character variability within Sciacharis and its subgenera is too poorly known to propose conclusive solutions other than used here, i.e. placing Horaeomorphus tasmaniensis in Sciacharis (Maorinus). Other Australian species of Maorinus (not misplaced in Horaeomorphus) will be revised in a separate paper (Jałoszyński, in preparation).
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2014, ' The curse of Horaeomorphus ': taxonomy of misplaced Australian Cyrtoscydmini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), pp. 1-76 in Zootaxa 3828 (1) on pages 65-71, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3828.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286513