Agyrtodes flaviceps Seago 2009, new species
Creators: name: Seago, Ainsley E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Leiodidae
Agyrtodes
Agyrtodes flaviceps

description: Agyrtodes flaviceps Seago, new species   
(Figs. 5, 42, 62, 82, 101)  
 Holotype: male, labeled ‘‘SEQ: Westcliff Track, Lamington Nat. Pk., 5 Nov 1989, G. Monteith, Pyrethrum / Trees & Logs / D/ DUPLICATE ex series at QMBA / Agyrtodes n. sp. 1 det Newton 1998 / U. C. Berkeley EMEC 61828.’’ (QMBA).   
 Paratypes: one male and one female with same data as holotype, listed in Appendix 1.   
 Distribution. Eastern Australia: Southeast Queensland (Fig. 101).   
 Diagnosis. This distinctively colored species has a light golden-brown head, pronotum, and elytral bases, with dark brown elytral apices. Agyrtodes flaviceps can be distinguished from the similarly colored A. bicolor (NZ: North Island) not only by their disparate geographic distributions, but also by the difference in color of the head (dark brown in A. bicolor; light gold in A. flaviceps, new species), shape of the aedeagal parameres (elongate and slender in A. bicolor, shorter and spoon-shaped in A. flaviceps), and proportions of the antennal segments, particularly segment 8 (elongate in A. bicolor, globular in A. flaviceps).   
 Description. TBL 5 2.3 mm, EW 5 1.9 mm, PNW 5 1.1 mm, HW 5 0.5 mm. (TBL variation: 2.1–2.3 mm)   
Of medium body size, broadly oval in dorsal view. Dorsum (including head) light golden brown anteriorly, medium to dark brown posteriorly; elytra dark brown apically but sometimes with small pale spots in posterior half. Dorsum uniformly clothed with dense coat of long, predominantly light-golden hairs, legs and venter with shorter, sparse setae. Antennae with segments 1–6 and 8 pale golden-brown, segments 7 and 9–11 dark brown.  
Head approximately one-third as wide as pronotum, shining, bearing loose arrangement of small, evenly spaced, shallow punctures, each with a single minute seta. Eyes large, bulging, narrowly emarginate ventrally. Epistomal suture present, without stem. Clypeus transverse, labrum broad, rectangular, shallowly emarginate but not cleft apically. Mandibles stout with strongly curved lateral margins. Maxilla with narrow galea bearing membranous, setose apical lobe, lacinia broader than galea, with small, dense apical spore-brush, stipes narrow and well-sclerotized. Maxillary palpi short, robust; terminal palpomere rounded basally with slender acuminate apex, penultimate segment wider then terminal segment, approximately half as long, armed with sparse vestiture of long, stiff setae. Labium with paired median digitiform sensillae on anterior margin of ligula, two long, slender submarginal spines laterally. Labial palps with slender, tapering apical palpomere bearing large basal cluster of digitiform sensillae; penultimate palpomere extremely short, ring-shaped.  
Antennae (Fig. 42) robust, scape and pedicel expanded, lighter in color than remaining segments. Segments 3–6 short, narrower than all other antennal segments, 6 slightly shorter and wider than 3. Segment 7 large, wider than all preceding segments, as long as segment 11. Segment 8 globular, subquadrate, neither transverse nor elongate. Segments 9–11 robust, slightly longer than wide, segment 11 ovoid, rounded basally, apex tapering abruptly to blunt point.  
Pronotum short, transverse, widest at hind angles, posterior margin transparent. Microsculpture of fine, confused microlines, shallow punctures at setal insertions. Pronotal vestiture stiff, semierect, dark gold in color. Hind angles very slightly produced posteriorly.  
Elytral with deep, punctate, longitudinal impressions parallel to suture. Transverse striolation formed by irregular puncture rows bearing long, stiff setae; setal coloration largely concordant with cuticular coloration of elytra (gold vestiture on light-colored areas, dark vestiture on dark-colored distal region, save for paired clumps of light golden setae at elytral bases and approximately halfway along elytra. Elytral coloration somewhat variable but always light golden-brown basally, dark brown apically, interface of color patches forming a chevron in dorsal view.  
Hypomeron pale yellow, strongly convex laterally and posterior to coxal insertions. Mesosternum broad, transverse, glabrous, with shallow, whorled microsculpture; mesosternum with complete longitudinal median carina. Mesocoxal cavities oval, transverse, with exposed trochantins; separated anteriorly by mesosternal carina, posteriorly by medial process arising from metasternum. Mesepimera broad, rectangular, extending proximally to mesocoxal cavities. Metasternum transverse, bulging, with loose array of large deep punctures each bearing a single seta. Metacoxal cavities and metacoxae transverse, narrowly triangular, extending laterally to meet posterior margins of narrow, parallel-sided metepisterna.  
Legs robust, femora tapering distally with paired ventral flanges at apex. All tibiae with loose, apical ring of long, robust spines. Protibiae subequal in length to profemora, bearing two external rows of 3–4 stout spines. Male protarsi with first three segments cordate, broadly expanded, first segment wider than tibial apex; first three segments bearing tenent setae ventrally. Mesotibiae equal in length to mesofemora, with two external rows of 4–5 spines. Male mesotarsi not expanded, without tenent setae. Metatibiae slightly longer than metafemora, with two external rows of 5–6 spines and large, robust spines at apex, one external spine longer than others and slightly bent subapically.  
Male genital segment (Fig. 62) long, constricted just posterior to base, with numerous long, robust setae at apex; anterior apophysis extremely long (nearly half as long as genital segment), spoon-shaped, constricted at base, flared distally. Aedeagus (Fig. 82) with median lobe long, straight, slender, cylindrical in basal half, flattened at apex, tapering smoothly to dull point. Parameres long and slender, apically flattened with spoon-shaped expanded apices bearing short, stiff setae on interior faces. Endophallus with many small, lightly sclerotized spines and a short, rectangular patch of robust, well-sclerotized scale-like teeth.  
Female terminalia with each coxite bearing three external and one internal seta; styli short, slender, each with short terminal seta.  
 Natural History. Collecting by sifting debris from under bark in Nothofagus grove and berlese in temperate rainforest.   
 Etymology. The specific epithet flaviceps is a noun in apposition composed of the Latin flavus (yellow) and ceps (head), referring to the yellow-colored head that readily distinguishes this species from A. bicolor.
description: Published as part of Seago, Ainsley E., 2009, Revision Of Agyrtodes Portevin (Coleoptera: Leiodidae), pp. 1-73 in The Coleopterists Bulletin (mo 7) (mo 7) 63 on pages 28-30, DOI: 10.1649/0010-065x-63.sp7.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4912048