Laferollaeus angustissimus Kirejtshuk & Kovalev 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Kirejtshuk, Alexander G.
name: Kovalev, Alexey V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Nitidulidae
Laferollaeus
Laferollaeus angustissimus

description: 41. Laferollaeus angustissimus Kirejtshuk et Kovalev, sp. nov.
Figs 30, A–J
LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 67EF17E0-E05A-449A-B208-49C89EA9A97D
Type specimens examined. Australia, QLD: Holotype, male (ANIC) and 4 paratypes (ANIC, ZIN)— “ 16.03S to 16.05S, 145.28E, QLD, Cape Tribulation area, 1–11 May 1992, J.F. Lawrence ”, “living frond of Licuala ramsayi”; 3 paratypes, females (ANIC, ZIN)— “ Kuranda St. Forest, 3 km N Kuranda, 360 m, 25 June—3 Aug. 1982, S. & J. Peck, SBP5”, “ flight intercept trap. rainforest”; 1 paratype, male (ANIC)— “Ravenshore S.F., N. QLD, Tully Falls Rd., 15 Nov.—12 Dec. 1987, A. Alford-Huggins, rainf. Interce. trap”.
Diagnosis. As for the genus.
Etymology. The epithet of this new species applies to its very narrow body.
Description of holotype (male). Length of body with abdomen 3.8, length without abdomen 2.2, width 0.7, height 0.3 mm. Body rather narrow and elongate, subparallel-sided; somewhat subflattened dorsally and slightly convex ventrally; subunicolorous yellowish to reddish with somewhat darker (infuscate) head, distal part of elytra and abdominal apex; body with almost mat dorsal surface and with slight shine on underside; dorsum with slightly observable fine and dense hairs, although anterior and posterior edges of pronotum with dense microsetae, dorsal abdominal sclerites more conspicuous pubescence, pronotal and elytral sides with row of short hairs; underside with longer and sparser hairs.
Head and pronotum with punctures, about as coarse as eye facets, separated by somewhat greater than one puncture diameter, interspaces between them alutaceous. Elytra with punctures somewhat finer and sparser than those on head and pronotum. Exposed abdominal dorsal sclerites with small microtrubercles, as dense as punctures on elytra, smoothly microreticulate. Prosternum and metaventrite with coarser, shallower and sparser punctures than those on head and pronotum, separated by about 2–4 puncture diameters, and interspaces between punctures smooth. Abdominal ventrites with somewhat finer punctation than that on thoracic underside and becoming denser on hypopygydium; interspaces between punctures smooth on ventrirtes 1–4 and with somewhat pronounced mesh microreticulation on hypopygidium.
Head subflattened and subpentangular, widest at eyes; with moderately large and finely faceted eyes located anteriorly from rather long temples (at least about as long as eyes). Labrum very short, transverse and divided into lobes by median deep suture and with subtruncate anterior edge. Mandibles stout and short, externally curved forming right angle and with narrow bidentate apices.Antennal grooves distinctly outlined and C-shaped convergent. Mentum moderately wide and widening anteriorly, and with anterior lateral angles rounded and projecting anteriorly. Pregenal process at hypostomal sinus rather wide and slightly curved. Terminal labial palpomere short, subcylindrical and slightly longer than wide, truncate at apex; terminal maxillary palpomere moderately long and subconical about 2.5 × as long as thick. Antennae with scape nearly 2.0 × as long as thick, pedicel 0.7 × as long as scape, antennomere 3 about 0.5 × as long as pedicel, following antennomeres 4–7 about 0.5 × as long antennomeres 3, compact club about 2.0 × as long as thick and with comparable width af antennomeres 9–11.
Pronotum mostly subquadrangular and slightly subarcuate outline at sides, anterior edge moderately convex at middle and slightly sinuate at slightly projecting anterior angles; posterior edge slightly convex and with more or less widely rounded posterior angles; sides gently sloping to narrowly bordered lateral edge. Scutellar shield about 1.5 × as wide as long, subpentagonal, with subangular apex. Elytra about 1.5 × as long as combined width, with subtruncate apices and widely rounded at outer apical angles, leaving last three abdominal segments completely and most part of segment 4 exposed, sides gently sloping to rather explanate at edge. Abdominal laterosternites V and VI moderately or strongly narrow. Three last abdominal tergites slightly convex. Male pygidium somewhat longer than wide, nearly rectilinear narrowinig to subtruncate apex.
Prosternum medially convex and with process very narrow between procoxae (not curved along procoxae), very strongly and arcuately widened at subtruncate apex, with maximum width somewhat greater than that of tibiae. Pro- and metacoxae extremely narrowly separated and distance between mesocoxae as great as scape thickness. Mesothorax with sharply isolated premesocoxal depressions. Metaventrite with a distinct discrimen nearly reaching midlength. Metepisterna very narrow, at anterior end somewhat wider than thickness of scape. Hypopygidium somewhat longer than wide, subtruncate at apex.
Tibiae subtriangilar, protibia about as wide as antennal club and with slightly projecting apical tooth, meso- and metatibiae widely rounded at outer subapical angles, spurs short and rather stout; outer side of meso- and metatibiae with two rows of rather short spines becoming stout at apex. Femora rather wide and moderately short; profemur about 2.0 ×, meso- and metafemora about 3.0 × as wide as corresponding tibiae. Protarsus nearly as wide as scape, meso- and metatarsi about as wide as antennal flagellum.
Male anal sclerite with two transverse rows of clear fine serration, lower one with smaller subuniform teeth and obove one with larger teeth interrupted at middle of apex. Aedeagus slightly to moderately sclerotized; tegmen subparallel-sided to slightly arcuate at sides of basal half and subrectilinearly narrowing in distal half, with sparse short setae at apex; penis trunk about 0.7 × as long as tegmen, widely rounded at apex. Inner sac of penis demonstrating very slight sclerotization with trace of one pair sclerites thickening at end of sac.
Female. Differs from the male only in the slightly narrower protarsi, and also in the length and shape of sclerites of the last abdominal segment (pygidium about 1.5 × as long as wide, convex along middle and subtruncate at apex; hypopygidum about 1.2 × as long as wide and widely rounded at apex). Ovipositor moderately sclerotized; rather wide, inner and outer lobes of gonocoxites clearly isolated and outer lobe about 0.7 × as long as inner lobe; styli located at distance from acuminate apex, styli as long as half of distance between styli and ovipositor apex.
Variations. Body length 3.6–4.6 mm. In addition to a certain variability in coloration and sculpture of integument, it is necessary to note that some paratypes have almost completely infuscate elytra (except elytral base) or dorsal surface of abdomen. The paratype from Ravenshore seems to be not completely mature, soft, and probably, therefore, somewhat compressed.
Distribution. Only north of Queensland (type locality: Cape Tribulation area).
Notes on bionomy. This species was collected in rainforest, and one series on “living frond of Licuala ramsayi.”
description: Published as part of Kirejtshuk, Alexander G. & Kovalev, Alexey V., 2022, Monograph on the Cillaeinae (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) from the Australian Region with comments on the taxonomy of the subfamily, pp. 1-133 in Zootaxa 5103 (1) on pages 104-106, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5103.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6245709