Mecynotarsus amabilis Lea 1895
Creators: name: Kejval, Zbyněk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Anthicidae
Mecynotarsus
Mecynotarsus amabilis

description: Mecynotarsus amabilis Lea, 1895
(Figs 10–12, 122, 143, 168, 187)
Mecynotarsus amabilis Lea, 1895: 608.
Mecynotarsus amabilis: PIC (1911): 13 (catalogue); LEA (1922): 473 (catalogue, record); UHMANN (2000): 146 (records); UHMANN (2007): 22 (redescription, record).
Type locality. New South Wales, Windsor, Hawkesbury River.
Type material. LECTOTYPE (hereby designated, Fig. 122): ♂, ‘ amabilis Lea TYPES Windsor [h] // 19017 Mecynotarsus amabilis Lea N. S. Wales TYPE [h] // SAMA Database No. 25-028554 [p]’ (SAMA). PARALECTOTYPES: 2 ♀♀, same data as holotype [mounted on the same card, see Remarks]’ (SAMA).
Additional material: AUSTRALIA: NEW SOUTH WALES: 1 ♂ 1 ♀, Bungonia State Park, Shoalhaven River Gorge, 5.–7.x.1985, C. Reid leg. (ANIC); 2♀♀, 15 km NW of Moruya, Moruya River, 3.x.1982, J. & E. Doyen leg.(ANIC); QUEENSLAND: 1 ♂ 1 ♀, Helidon, 1890, C. J. Wild leg. (QMBA).
Redescription (male, Shoalhaven River Gorge, ANIC). Body, legs and antennae reddish brown.
Antero-lateral margins of frons simple. Gular rugules rather distinct, anteriorly larger and ordered in row as in Fig. 138. Setation of head rather evenly short and appressed, very dense and finer on vertex, coarser near ventral margins of eyes, with some inconspicuous, longer, erect setae dorsally at base. Antennae moderately long; antennomeres III–V about twice, X 1.4 times as long as wide; setation mostly rather short and fine, inconspicuous, distinctly coarser on basal 1–2 antennomeres.
Pronotum 1.6 times as long as wide, its lateral margins unevenly shaped, slightly convex anteriorly, somewhat angled at widest point, and then nearly straight in narrowing towards base in dorsal view; posterior collar narrow but distinct, somewhat concealed by scaly setation. Pronotal horn rather robust, moderately long and wide, its posterior angles obsolete in dorsal view (Fig. 143); horn margins armed with 5 rounded lobules on each side; horn crest distinct, long and rather wide, with coarse rugules on margins, evenly lowering towards apex; submarginal rugules minute, rather ordered in long, dense row laterally; 12 distinct median rugules of different sizes, some of them contiguous to fused, and several minute granules posteriorly. Setation whitish laterally, goldish to cupreous shiny dorsally, largely appressed to subdecumbent and scaly, finer on pronotal horn dorsally, but even here dense and rather distinct; scales on pronotal disc of two sizes, all elongate and distinctly truncate apically, those longer more raised (subdecumbent); antebasal paired setae long and distinct laterally and absent medially, additional tactile setae absent.
Elytra 1.7 times as long as wide; omoplates and postbasal impression absent. Setation scaly, multi-coloured, whitish, brown, cupreous and goldish, somewhat shiny, forming dark markings (Fig. 168), evenly developed / ordered; scales linear, bluntly rounded to truncate apically, very densely spaced but distinct; erect tactile setae absent.
Male characters (lectotype). Sternum VII subtruncate and moderately angled posterolaterally (Fig. 10), its surface shallowly impressed medially. Tergum VIII and aedeagus as in Figs 11, 12.
Variation. Body length (♂ ♀) 2.7–3.0 mm. Horn margin with 5–6 lobules on each side, 6–12 median rugules.
Differential diagnosis. Mecynotarsus amabilis is undoubtedly close to M. albellus, M. ziczac, and other externally similar species that have a narrower pronotum (unevenly shaped laterally in dorsal view), a distinctly setose dorsal surface of the pronotal horn, and the colour pattern of elytra as in Figs 187, 209 (if well-developed). It may resemble especially M. canthariphilus sp. nov. by the partly goldish to cupreous shiny colouration of the scales and the finer setation of the pronotal horn, however, it differs clearly by the male characters (cf. Figs 10–11 versus 35–37).
Distribution. Australia: New South Wales (LEA 1895; UHMANN 2007), Queensland (LEA 1922).
The records from New South Wales and Queensland by UHMANN (2000) are based on misidentified specimens of M. phanophilus Lea, 1922, M. setulosus sp. nov., and M. ziczac King, 1869. The record from Queensland (Gayndah) by LEA (1922) needs verification as the type series of M. amabilis contains two different species (see below), and some identifications of M. amabilis by Lea were found to be erroneous (see the material of M. albellus and M. ziczac).
Remarks. LEA (1895) described Mecynotarsus amabilis from three specimens collected from flood debris along the Hawkesbury river near Windsor. The syntypes examined are mounted on the same card. Two of them are seriously damaged, both lacking heads and pronota. The third one (female) is in perfect condition, however it belongs to a different species (probably M. kingii MacLeay, 1872, judging from rather shortly oval elytral scales). For this reason, a lectotype is designated for the male syntype mounted near handwritten ‘TY’, and redescription of external characters is based on a male specimen from Shoalhaven River Gorge, that is quite identical with the lectotype in male characters.
description: Published as part of Kejval, Zbyněk, 2013, Taxonomic revision of the Australian Notoxinae (Coleoptera: Anthicidae), pp. 1-98 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (suppl.) (suppl.) 53 on pages 17-18, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4272709