Atyphella kirakira Ballantyne &amp; Lambkin 2009, sp. n.
Creators: name: Ballantyne, Lesley A.
name: Lambkin, Christine
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lampyridae
Atyphella
Atyphella kirakira

description: <i>Atyphella kirakira</i> sp. n. (Figs 142–146, 148, 149) <b>Holotype.</b> Male. <b>SOLOMON ISLANDS</b>: Makira Pr., 10.30S, 161.49E, San Cristobal Island, Kira Kira, 0–50m, 10.xi.1964, RS (BPBM). <b>Paratypes</b> (4). <b>SOLOMON ISLANDS</b>: Same locality as holotype, 2 males. Central Pr., Florida Group, Tulagi, 6.IX.1960, COB, male. Guadalcanal Pr., 9.35S, 160.12E Guadalcanal, Lame, near Mt Tatuve, 300m, COB, male (BPBM). <b>Diagnosis</b>. A small species (&lt;7 mm long) with uniformly dark brown elytra and orange pronotum with median dark area, LO apparently bipartite in V7, and MPP in V7 short, rounded; distinguished from other <i>Atyphella</i> with bipartite LO by the uniformly coloured elytra and the entire LO in V6. <b>Male.</b> 6.6–6.9 mm long; 3 mm wide; just over twice as long as wide. Colour: (Figs 142, 144) Pronotum yellowish orange, semitransparent with fat body showing through cuticle, median dark marking not reaching either anterior or posterior margins, marking almost black in Lame male; MN yellow, MS slightly dingy pale brown; elytra moderately dark brown; head dark brown, antennae and palpi mid-brown; in 2 Kira Kira males all legs pale, abdominal ventrites pre LO mid-brown; one Kira Kira male legs pale with tibiae and tarsi light brown, and abdominal ventrites pre LO moderately dark brown; tergites light brown semitransparent, T8 yellowish; LO in anterolateral areas of V7 closely and narrowly adpressed to dorsal surface, separated between by diffuse fat body extending posteriorly almost to MPP (LO interpreted as bipartite). Pronotum: 1.5–1.6 mm long; 2.3–2.5 mm wide; W/L 1.5–1.6; ¼ as long as body; lateral margins diverge with rounded convergence; posterolateral corners rounded obtuse, projecting a little behind median posterior margin; anterior portion of hypomeron not flat; posterior portion of hypomeron flat, closely adpressed. Elytron (Fig. 144): margins slightly convex-sided; 5.1–5.3 mm long; 2 defined interstitial lines slightly better defined at their bases than in their apical half in 2/5; epipleuron and suture not continuing around apex as a ridge and neither thickened in apical half. Head: not able to be retracted into prothoracic cavity; GHW 1.6 mm; SIW 0.2 mm; SIW/GHW 1/ 8; ASD&lt;ASW, antennal sockets close but not contiguous; frons-vertex ‘junction’ rounded not well–defined, frons 3 X as high as ASW. Antennal length longer than GHW; 11 segmented. Mouthparts well developed, probably functional; apical segment of labial palpi laterally compressed, like an elongate narrow triangle, with inner longer margin bearing paired elongate teeth at apex only in 3, and 1 apical and 2 subapical teeth in one. Abdomen, ventrites (Figs 142, 143): LO occupying all of V6; LO in V7 interpreted as bipartite (no information about light production exists and this is a morphological, not functional interpretation), reaching sides but not posterior margin, adpressed areas occupying less than half V7; at least half of V7 posterior to adpressed areas of LO filled with fat body; MPP short, broad. Tergites: T8 as wide as long; anterior prolongations of T8 very short and narrow. Aedeagal sheath (Figs 145, 148): with posterior margin of ventrite rounded, lacking projection. Aedeagus (Figs 145–149): L/W 2/1, LL/ML 3.5; LL very slightly shorter than ML, apices rounded, not out-turned, narrower than width of apex of ML; LL diverge along their length, apices well–separated; base of LL broadly truncate, scarcely produced. <b>Female, Larva.</b> Not associated. <b>Etymology</b>. The specific name is considered a noun in apposition, and reflects not only the type locality but the use of the name twice highlights the apparently bipartite LO
description: Published as part of <i>Ballantyne, Lesley A. &amp; Lambkin, Christine, 2009, Systematics of Indo-Pacific fireflies with a redefinition of Australasian Atyphella Olliff, Madagascan Photuroluciola Pic, and description of seven new genera from the Luciolinae (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), pp. 1-188 in Zootaxa 1997</i> on pages 46-47