Zarcosia brunnea Gompel 2020, n. sp.
Creators: name: Gompel, Nicolas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Aderidae
Zarcosia
Zarcosia brunnea

description: Zarcosia brunnea n. sp.   
(Figures 1; 3t; 4w; 5s; 6o)  
 Etymology. The species is named in reference to the overall brown color of the specimens.   
 Type locality. Sri Lanka: Central, Kandy district, Victoria Rendenigala Ramtembe Sanctuary [07°13’ N 80°57’ E].   
 Distribution. Sri Lanka (Figure 1).   
 Description. (Figure 3t). Female unknown. Body length. ♂: 2.80± 0.13 mm (n=3). Robust, sturdy, uniformly reddish brown, covered with double pubescence.   
 Head. Transverse, wider than pronotum, covered with blond pubescence. Punctation fine and very dense. Palpi dark orange, last article securiform.   
 Antennae. Strong, shorter than elytra, antennomere 3–10 short, at most twice longer than wide, conical. Covered with hirsute blond pubescence.   
 Pronotum (Figure 6o). Globose, as long as wide, disc convex. Sides diverging outward from the base to the apical third, then converging markedly inward toward apical margin anteriorly. Densely punctuated, space between points smaller than the diameters of points. Covered with double pubescence, moderately long blond hairs borne from the punctation and pulverulent interspersed hairs. Base bi-sinuated with a dense fringe of golden pubescence anterior to the scutellum.   
 Elytra. Length: ♂: 1.92± 0.03 mm (n=3). Densely punctuated, space between points larger than the points themselves, covered with double pubescence. Moderately convex, depressed on disc. Apex with a few long hairs (similar to Z. srilankaensis n. sp., Figure 5h, but much fewer hairs).   
 Legs. Short, sturdy. Sexual characters: foretibia with a sharp tooth on their inner side (Figure 5s). Mesothoracic femora with an acute apical tooth, straight and pointing outward (similar to that of Z. dentatifemur (Pic, 1912), Figure 5w).   
 Aedeagus (Figure 4w). Sturdy, sides regularly parallel in dorsal view, strongly convergent in the apical fifth, ended with a small rounded lobe. Strongly and regularly bent in lateral view.   
 Type material. Sri Lanka: Holotype (♂, UCDC). Central, Kandy district, Victoria Rendenigala Ramtembe Sanctuary, 07°13’ N 80°57’ E (445 m) (M. & J. Wasbauer) 23.VIII.1999. Paratypes. Sri Lanka: Central, Kandy district, Victoria Rendenigala Ramtembe Sanctuary, 07°13’ N 80°57’ E (445 m) (M. & J. Wasbauer) 23.VIII.1999 (1 ♂ paratype, NGPC); Central, Kandy district, Victoria Rendenigala Ramtembe Sanctuary, 07°12’ N 80°57’ E (135 m) (M. & J. Wasbauer) 23.VIII.1999 (1 ♂ paratype, UCDC).   
 Note. This species was collected together with Z. dentatifemur (Pic, 1912), Z. spinifemur n. sp., Z. srilankaensis n. sp. and Z. intermedia n. sp. The sample contained a large series of females, which I could not assign to the respective species. In particular, Z. brunnea n. sp., Z. srilankaensis n. sp. and Z. intermedia n. sp. form a very homogeneous group. Their males are easily distinguished by stable sexual characters (aedeagus, teeth on the tibiae, hooks on the femora), but in spite of extensive comparisons of the females collected with them, I could not decide whether these females represented one or more taxa, nor which.
description: Published as part of Gompel, Nicolas, 2020, Synopsis of the Asian species in the genus Zarcosia Collado & Alonso-Zarazaga 1996 with new combinations and descriptions of fourteen new species, pp. 151-178 in Zootaxa 4838 (2) on pages 155-156, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4838.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4403783