Sciacharoides montistamborinensis Franz, comb. n.
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Sciacharoides
Sciacharoides montistamborinensis

description: Sciacharoides montistamborinensis (Franz) comb. n.
(Figs. 148–159, 163, 167, 197 d)
Horaeomorphus montis-tamborinensis Franz, 1975: 149.
Type material studied. Holotype: AUSTRALIA: ♀: six labels (Fig. 167): "Tamborine Mt. / Queensld., Austr. / lg. H. Franz 1970 " [white, printed], " Horaeomorphus / montis - tam - / borini [sic!] m. / det. H. Franz" [white, handwritten and printed], " Typus " [red, handwritten], " SAMA Database / No. 25-037020" [white, printed], " SAMA Digital Image / 20. 8. 2013 " [green, printed and handwritten], " SCIACHAROIDES / montistamborinensis (Franz, 1975) / det. P. Jałoszyński, 2014" [white, printed] (SAM).
Additional material. 1 ♀, Queensland, Joalah National Park, Tamborine Mt., litter in rainforest (Berlesate), 18-21.x.1978, leg. J. Lawrence & T. Weir (ANIC).
Revised diagnosis. Female: BL 1.48–1.53 mm; pronotum with complete antebasal transverse groove and moderately distinct external pair of pits or impressions; mesanepisterna without setal brushes.
Redescription. Body of female (Fig. 163) strongly convex, elongate and relatively slender, with long appendages, BL 1.48–1.53 mm; cuticle glossy, body uniformly light brown with slightly reddish hue, appendages slightly lighter, vestiture yellowish.
Head (Figs. 148, 163) in dorsal view rounded, broadest at eyes, HL 0.25–0.28 mm, HW 0.28–0.30 mm; tempora slightly longer than eyes, strongly curved posteromesally; vertex weakly convex, its posterior margin slightly concave in middle; frons subtrapezoidal. Eyes moderately large and weakly projecting laterally from the head silhouette, finely faceted. Punctures on head dorsum fine and sparse, inconspicuous; setae short, on frons and anterior part of vertex sparse and suberect, tempora and posterior margin of vertex with dense bristles directed posteriorly and slightly posterolaterally. Antennae (Fig. 163) slender, gradually thickened distally, AnL 0.70–0.73 mm; antennomeres I–II distinctly elongate, III–V each slightly longer than broad, VI about as long as broad, VII–X each slightly transverse, XI much shorter than IX–X together, about twice as long as broad, with indistinctly pointed apex.
Pronotum (Figs. 154, 163) indistinctly elongate, broadest between middle and anterior third, PL 0.38 mm, PW 0.35–0.38 mm; anterior and lateral margins rounded; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate; base of pronotum with narrow transverse groove connected at each end with distinct external pit or impression. Punctures on pronotal disc fine and inconspicuous; setae moderately dense, long and suberect to erect, sides of pronotum with moderately dense long bristles.
Elytra (Fig. 163) oval, broadest distinctly anterior to middle, EL 0.83–0.90 mm, EW 0.63 mm, EI 1.32–1.44; basal impressions barely marked; elytral apices separately rounded. Punctures on elytral disc slightly more distinct than those on pronotum but still inconspicuous; setae moderately dense, long and suberect. Hind wings well developed, about twice as long as elytra.
Legs (Fig. 163) long and slender, without modifications.
Male. Unknown.
Distribution (Fig. 197 d). South-eastern Australia: Queensland.
Remarks. This species, known from females only, in dorsal view highly resembles members of various subgenera of Euconnus. Only examination of the ventral characters reveals that it in fact does not differ in any fundamental structures from other species placed here in Sciacharoides. The shape of head is clearly different from that of any Euconnus, but this character may be difficult to examine as the head is often declined and only partly visible in dry-mounted specimens. Similar species were described and placed by Franz (1975) in Euconnus, without paying attention to any ventral structures; it seems possible that more Sciacharoides (or Sciacharis) species can be found among other genera of Australian-Pacific Cyrtoscydmini.
The specimen studied and illustrated in the present paper (Figs. 148–159) is a female highly similar to the holotype of Horaeomorphus montistamborinensis. If collected in the Tamborine Mountain, it might have been identified as belonging to the same species. However, this female comes from near the Cape Tribulation, over 1400 km NW, and it is here identified as Sciacharoides sp., near montistamborinensis. Another similar species with the complete antebasal pronotal groove and without pits was seen from the Lamington National Park in Queensland; this is a male with interestingly modified elytral apices. As some misplaced species of Sciacharoides may hide among previously described Australian Euconnus or Sciacharis, I refrain from describing new species of Sciacharoides until these two genera have been at least preliminarily surveyed.
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2014, ' The curse of Horaeomorphus ': taxonomy of misplaced Australian Cyrtoscydmini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), pp. 1-76 in Zootaxa 3828 (1) on pages 64-65, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3828.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286513