Kangarooconnus Jałoszyński & Newton 2017, gen. n.
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
name: Newton, Alfred F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Kangarooconnus

description: Kangarooconnus Jałoszyński, gen. n.
(Fig. 9)
Type species. Neuraphoconnus carinifrons Franz, 1975, here designated.
Diagnosis. Antennae gradually thickened; head subpentagonal with tempora longer than eyes; vertex not bulging posterodorsally; bristles present on head and prothorax; submentum lacking lateral sutures; hypomeral ridges nearly reaching posterior tentorial pits, the latter slightly elongate and located in front of transverse impression separating 'neck' region from anterior part of head capsule; occipital constriction slightly broader than half width of head; frontoclypeal groove absent; pronotum broadest in front of middle, with lateral margins concave in posterior third, with sharp lateral carinae in posterior half, long sublateral carinae, two pairs of antebasal pits (one located on outer margin of lateral carina, one in large submedian impression), and long median longitudinal carina; anterior and posterior pronotal corners well-defined but obtuse-angled; basisternal part of prosternum slightly shorter than coxal part; notosternal sutures complete; hypomeral ridges nearly complete (shortly disrupted in front of procoxal cavities); interprocoxal region lacking process or carina; procoxal cavities broadly closed; procoxal rests on mesoventrite short and broad, filled with setae, area behind them weakly convex; mesoventral intercoxal process carinate and completely separating mesocoxae, but only as long as mesocoxa; metaventral intermetacoxal process short but nearly as broad as 1/4 of metaventral width, with posterior margin concave; each elytron with two distinct, deep asetose foveae; aedeagus with weakly sclerotized, symmetrical median lobe and strongly sclerotized, strongly asymmetrical endophallic structures; parameres free, slender, with apical setae.
Remarks. The only Australian nominal species previously placed in Sciacharis (Magellanoconnus) was redescribed in detail by Jałoszyński (2014), who suggested that it should be removed from Sciacharis as possibly morphologically closer to Euconnus. Indeed, among other characters, the broadly separated metacoxae exclude this species from Sciacharis and are similar to the condition typical of Euconnus. However, this species differs from Euconnus in possessing sharp lateral pronotal carinae and a weakly elevated mesoventral intercoxal process, which is only as long as the mesocoxae and distant from the anterior ridge of the mesoventrite. Kangarooconnus carinifrons was originally placed in Neuraphoconnus (Franz 1975), from which it differs in the same characters as from Sciacharis. Later combined with Sciacharis (Magellanoconnus) as a result of the postulated synonymy between Neuraphoconnus and Magellanoconnus (Franz 1986a), it certainly is not similar to the type species of Magellanoconnus, which has open procoxal cavities and contiguous metacoxae (among other differences).
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł & Newton, Alfred F., 2017, Taxonomy of ' Euconnus complex'. Part XV. Disentangling the Euconnus - Sciacharis knot (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), pp. 401-443 in Zootaxa 4344 (3) on pages 417-418, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4344.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1043637