Belicinus Arce-Perez and Shepard, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Arce-Pérez, Roberto
name: Shepard, William D.
name: Morón, Miguel A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Psephenidae
Belicinus

description: Belicinus Arce-Pérez and Shepard gen. nov.
(Figs. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9)
Description. Head (Fig. 1) long, eyes spherical, very prominent; antennae short (e.g. hardly reaching the apex of scutellum), filiform and subserrated, 11 antennomeres, scape more robust and larger than remainder of antennomeres (globose); clypeus subtrapezoidal, declivous at an angle of less than 45 degrees from the plane of the frons, distal margin slightly lifted and bent backwards. Pronotum (Figs. 1, 4) trapezoidal, with a longitudinal glabrous line and a fine carina in the distal half, with posterior margin quite smooth, never crenulate or rugose; lateral margins rounded, unexpanded at posterior half. Legs with fore coxae and middle coxae not far apart (Fig. 2); fore femora robust subtriangular; tibiae (Figs. 5, 6) slender, clearly arched, with tiny teeth on their internal margin; basal four tarsomeres triangular (Fig. 7), flattened and widely emarginate at apex, fifth tarsomere (Fig. 5) longest, as long as preceding ones together, cylindrical; tarsal claws entire, never bifid or split, widely separate, widened at base and without teeth or accessory membranes. Male genitalia (Fig. 9) in ventral view subrectangular, trilobate; phallobase shorter than parameres; parameres shorter than median lobe; median lobe long and of expanded rhombic shape.
Remarks. Other Psepheninae genera can be distinguished from Belicinus gen. nov. by the following characters: Psephenus has the posterior half of the pronotum occasionally expanded; tibiae straight; four basal tarsomeres slender and subcylindrical, slightly emarginate at apex, with delicate, minute setae or papillae ventrally (Fig. 22); and the median lobe of the male genitalia is mostly membranous and subcylindric. Psephenops has the pronotum expanded laterally on posterior half; tibiae straight; tarsomeres 1 and 2, and occasionally 3, with wide ventral expansions that cover apical tarsomeres (Fig. 19); and the median lobe of the male genitalia is mostly membranous, subtriangular or finger-like. In Pheneps, the body is more slender; the antennae are long approximately 0.75 times the length of the elytra; tibiae straight; tarsomeres 1 2 clearly stouter than any of the three apical tarsomeres (Fig. 15); and the phallobase is notably larger than the parameres. Psephenotarsis has the antennae short, moniliform or filiform; pronotum expanded laterally in posterior half; tibiae straight; and the median lobe of the male genitalia is long, subcylindric and sclerotized, or finger-like and membranous. Psephenopalpus has the maxillary palpus extremely long, extending beyond sixth antennomere (Fig. 18); tibiae straight; and the median lobe of the male genitalia is finger-like.
Type species. Belicinus rhomboideus
Distribution. Belize
Etymology. Named for the first record of the family in Belize; Belicinus.
description: Published as part of Arce-Pérez, Roberto, Shepard, William D. & Morón, Miguel A., 2012, Belicinus Rhomboideus, a new genus and species of Psepheninae (Coleoptera: Byrrhoidea: Psephenidae) from Belize, pp. 31-40 in Zootaxa 3157 on page 32, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.279694