Euconnus (Rhomboconnus) perplexus Franz
Creators: name: Jaloszynski, Pawel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scydmaenidae
Euconnus
Euconnus perplexus

description: Euconnus (Rhomboconnus) perplexus Franz
(Figs 1–2, 4–9, 12, 14 a)
Euconnus (Rhomboconnus) perplexus Franz, 1986: 20.
Type material studied. Holotype: Venezuela (Aragua State): ♀, four labels (Fig. 12): "Rancho Grande / b. Maracay, Vene- / zuela, lg. Franz" with "SA258" on the reverse side [white, printed; reverse handwritten in black], " Rhomboconnus / perplexus m. / det.H.Franz" [white, handwritten and printed], " Holotypus " [red, handwritten] (NHMW). Paratypes (4 exx.): 4 ♀♀, same data as holotype, all with yellow " PARATYPUS label. Additional material: 1 ♂, Venezuela, Aragua, Portachuelo, Parque Pittier 1250, Selva Nublada, Feb. 1987, leg. M. G. Paoletti (NHMW).
Revised diagnosis. Head much longer than pronotum; pronotum and elytra with long suberect and erect setae; BL> 2.3 mm; pronotum broadest at base, with feebly rounded sides and without antebasal pits.
Redescription. Body of male (Fig. 2) strongly convex, elongate, with long appendages, BL 2.38 mm; cuticle glossy, uniformly dark brown, palps light brown; vestiture slightly lighter than cuticle.
Head (Figs 1–2, 4–5) rhomboidal and strongly elongate, broadest at eyes, HL 0.68 mm, HW 0.48 mm; vertex and frons confluent, evenly convex except frons in front of eyes which is steeply declined anteriorly, posterior margin of vertex nearly straight and narrower than 1/3 of HW; supraantennal tubercles absent; eyes large, beanshaped, finely faceted and confluent with silhouette of head. Punctures on vertex and frons very fine and inconspicuous; setae very short and sparse, recumbent, additionally posterior part of each temple with oblique row of several long bristles and behind them dense tuft of similar, but curved or waving bristles. Antennae slender, AnL 1.30 mm; antennomeres I–II, IV–VI and X strongly elongate, III about as long as broad; VII–IX weakly elongate, antennomere XI slightly shorter than IX–X together, about twice as long as broad.
Pronotum (Fig. 6) in dorsal view subtrapezoidal, broadest at base and strongly narrowing anteriorly, PL 0.48 mm, PW 0.55 mm. Punctures on pronotal disc as fine as those on frons and vertex; setae much longer than those on head, sparse and suberect, laterally pronotum with thick and long bristles, especially dense on anterior lateroventral portion of prothorax.
Elytra suboval, broadest distinctly in front of middle, EL 1.23 mm, EW 1.05 mm, EI 1.17; elytral apices separately rounded. Punctures on elytral disc more distinct than those on head and pronotum but superficial and with diffused margins; setae long, sparse and erect.
Legs long and slender; unmodified.
Aedeagus (Figs 8–9) stout, AeL 0.40 mm, median lobe in ventral view drop-shaped; ventral apical projection with slightly convex, evenly rounded and evenly convergent distally sides; endophallus with assemblage of darkly sclerotized components located at base of ventral apical projection; parameres not reaching apex of median lobe, slender, each with three robust setae.
Female (Fig. 1). Externally differs from male in much smaller and nearly circular eyes; BL 2.35–2.43 mm; HL 0.68–0.70 mm, HW 0.50 mm, AnL 1.23–1.28 mm; PL 0.43–0.48 mm, PW 0.55–0.63 mm; EL 1.23–1.28 mm, EW 1.00– 1.08 mm, EI 1.16–1.23.
Distribution. Northern Venezuela (Fig. 14 a).
Remarks. The type series of E. perplexus is composed of females only, but in the Franz Collection there is also a male, collected later, with the aedeagus embedded in euparal (remounted in Canada balsam during the present study). The name Euconnus (Rhomboconnus) perplexus is listed in a later paper (Franz 1989), in the "Katalog der besprochenen Arten" (i.e., catalogue of reviewed /discussed species), but there is no description of male or illustration of the aedeagus. It seems that Franz intended to present such a description (he usually described males if they had been found after describing a species based on females only), but for some reason did not include it in this large monograph. Franz (1986) described the pronotum of E. perplexus as having a shallow median antebasal impression; in fact the pronotum does not have any impressions or pits at base (Fig. 6).
description: Published as part of Jaloszynski, Pawel, 2015, Taxonomy of ' Euconnus complex'. Part IV. Review of Euconnus subgenus Rhomboconnus (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), pp. 483-491 in Zootaxa 4000 (4) on pages 486-488, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4000.4.7, http://zenodo.org/record/235208