Pachycyphon Zwick 2013
Creators: name: Zwick, Peter
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scirtidae
Pachycyphon

description: Pachycyphon sp., cf. funicularis Zwick, 2013a
(Figs 10–14)
Material studied. 1♀: Bellenden Ker Range N.Qld Cable Tower 3, 1054m 17.Oct.-Nov. 5,1981 EARTHWATCH/ QLD. MUSEUM Pyrethrum knockdown; 1♀: Bellenden Ker Range N.Qld Cable Tower 3, 1054m 17.Oct.- Nov. 5,1981 EARTHWATCH/QLD. MUSEUM Malaise trap, rainforest (ANIC).
Cable Tower 3 on the Bellenden Ker Range is the type locality; in the past, only males were available. The probable female is here described.
Female. BL 2.6–2.7 mm. Habitus similar to male, but micropterous (Fig. 10). T8 has thick straight apodemes, those of S8 are much thinner, shorter, and lyre-shaped. Bacula of the ovipositor very long and thick, connected to the strongly sclerotized triangular upcurved gonocoxae by a ball-and-socket joint; no gonostylus (Fig. 12). The bag-shaped prehensor is internally densely covered by small triangular cuticular platelets. Caudolaterally are two darker pouches, a slender median sclerite plate and a pair of antler-like strong sclerites with several large teeth (Fig. 13).
Note. The minute hind wing remnant was not noticed until recently; female Pachycyphon are flightless but not totally wingless as I reported previously (Zwick 2013a). Its occurrence in a Malaise trap was unexpected.
The specific identity of the present females is not certain. Three species of Pachycyphon were taken at the Bellenden Ker Cable Tower site. Male P. obesus Zwick are darker and distinctly larger. Their genitalia are of a type very different from the closely related P. funicularis and P. elegans. The similarity of the prehensors of the latter two species (Figs 13, 14) lends corollary support to the assignment of the present females to P. funicularis, which are as small as, but a little stouter than, the females of P. elegans recorded below.
New material of other Pachycyphon species. Representatives of the genus are not common in collections. A few additional specimens are therefore listed, even though most are from known sites of the respective species.
Pachycyphon elegans Zwick, 2013a. 3♀: QLD. Mt Lewis Rd. Julatten 13.5mi. 3'500' 12 Nov. 1975 A.Walford-Huggins (ANIC). 1♀: Bellenden Ker Range N. Qld Cable Tower 3, 1054m 17.Oct.-Nov. 5,1981 EARTHWATCH / QLD.MUSEUM Pyrethrum knockdown; 1♀: Bellenden Ker Range N.Qld Cable Tower 3, 1054m Oct. 21,1981 EARTHWATCH/QLD.MUSEUM \ Q.M.BERLESATE No. 367 17.16S, 145.52E Rainforest Root debris. - The species was named from Julatten and has now also been found on the Bellenden Ker Range.
Pachycyphon corpulentus Zwick, 2013a. 1♂: 17.37S 145.34E QLD BS8 Massey Creek 5 Nov 1995 - 3 Jan 1996 L.Umback 1000m FI Trap JCU (ANIC).
Pachycyphon serratus Zwick, 2013a. 2♂: 17.96S 145.36E QLD GS1 Mt Haig 1150m 31 Oct-29 Nov. L. Umback FI Trap JCU (ANIC).
description: Published as part of Zwick, Peter, 2016, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae). 9. The relations of Australasian Ypsiloncyphon species to their Asian congeners, additions, mainly to Petrocyphon and Prionocyphon, and a key to Australian genera of Scirtinae, pp. 151-198 in Zootaxa 4085 (2) on pages 158-160, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4085.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1052535