Agyrtodes newtoni Seago 2009, new species
Creators: name: Seago, Ainsley E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Leiodidae
Agyrtodes
Agyrtodes newtoni

description: Agyrtodes newtoni Seago, new species   
(Figs. 7, 44, 64, 84, 99)  
 Holotype: male, card-mounted, labeled ‘‘ Cardwell Range, N. E. QLD, Mt. Macalister area, 1,000 m, 19 Dec 1986, Monteith, Thompson & Hamlet, Pyrethrum knockdown.’’ (QMBA)   
 Paratypes: listed in Appendix 1 (52 specimens).   
 Distribution. Australia: Northeast Queensland, Atherton Tableland (Fig. 99).   
 Diagnosis. This species has a color pattern very similar to that of A. monteithi, new species, but with more acutely pointed dark elytral chevrons and a light scutellar region (darker reddish-brown in A. monteithi). The light brown to yellow terminal antennal segments are nearly identical to those of A. monteithi, but the genitalia are similar to those of A. variabilis and A. koebelei. Maxillae with lacinial spore-brush; male protarsi less broadly expanded than those of A. monteithi.   
 Description. TBL 5 2.1 mm, EW 5 1.2 mm, PNW 5 1.1 mm, HW 5 0.55 mm. (TBL variation: 1.9–2.1 mm)   
 Body size small, broadest just posterior to elytral base, elytra tapering acutely posteriad. Dorsum (Fig. 7) medium to light brown, elytra with three medium-brown chevroned fasciae similar to those of A. monteithi but more elongate and laterally compressed, with serial fasciae confluent at ‘‘peaks’’ of chevrons in most specimens. Dorsal vestiture of long, semirecumbent golden hairs, with darker setae on fasciae.   
 Head broad, abundantly setose, with large, shallow punctures; eyes large, produced. Epistomal suture absent. Clypeus short, trapezoidal, tapering distally; labrum transverse and apically cleft. Mandibles normal. Maxillae with robust, well-sclerotized galea bearing pointed, membranous apical brush; lacinia reduced, slender, width subequal to galea, with dense apical spore-brush of short, stout, curving spines. Maxillary palp with apical segment long, slender, lanceolate, weakly constricted at base, attenuate apically; penultimate palpomere longer than wide, very slightly wider than terminal segment. Labium with four large, robust digitiform sensillae, two medially at anterior margin of ligula, two laterally, below margin; labial palpi with basal two segments short and transverse, penultimate segment with long seta on outer face, extending past apex of palp, terminal segment long, slender, cylindrical, smoothly curving interiad, without digitiform setae. Antennae (Fig. 44) basally slender, segments 1–2 yellow, 3–6 medium brown, 7–10 dark brown, 11 yellow. Segments 1 and 2 expanded, of approximately equal width, 1 slightly longer; segments 3–6 subequal in length, gradually increasing in width, 6, 1.5 3 as wide as 3. Segment 7 elongate, longer than each of 3–6, twice as long as 8, expanded apically. Segment 8 subquadrate, narrower than 7 and 9, slightly wider than 6. Segments 9 and 10 subquadrate, barely longer than wide, both shorter than 7; segment 11 longer than all preceding segments, subequal to segment 1 in length, ovate with small, produced papilliform projection at apex.   
Pronotum strongly convex, lateral margins arched, hind angles produced posteriad, bluntly pointed. Integument matte, very finely and shallowly strigulose. Vestiture of long, golden semi-erect pubescence.  
Elytra convex, parallel-sided, with fine, closely spaced, deeply punctate strigae, without traces of longitudinal impressions. Elytral color pattern variable, always with two darkly fuscous, chevroned fasciae across disc and dark elytral apices; discal chevrons sharply pointed and discontinuous, often confluent with other fasciae at peaks. Light and dark regions of elytra emphasized by correspondingly colored light gold or dark brown vestiture.  
Hypomeron and epipleura light golden brown, weakly convex. Mesosternum with elevated median carina, smoothly curved in lateral view. Mesepimera subtly elongate, broadly ovate at mesocoxal articulation. Metasternum with deeply punctate, abundantly setose median bulge, lateral regions weakly convex with fine, shallow strigulae. Metepisternum elongate, square anteriorly, tapering to slender, truncate point posteriorly.  
Abdominal sterna III–VI normal, male sternum VII very shallowly emarginate, sternum VIII deeply emarginate, nearly completely divided, connate only at basal margin.  
Legs of normal proportions and armature. Male protarsi with first three segments expanded, ovate, basal segment slightly narrower than tibial apex, fifth segment longer than previous three combined; segments 1–3 with dense pads of tenent setae. Male mesotarsi with first two segments weakly expanded, approximately half as wide as tibial apex; first three segments bearing tenent setae. Female tarsi and claws simple.  
Male genital segment (Fig. 64) broad, roundly curving to apical point, pleurites acutely pointed and abundantly setose at apices; anterior apophysis large, stout, weakly constricted at base, with roundly truncate, spoon-shaped apex. Aedeagus (Fig. 84) with median lobe stout, extremely broad, penis short and triangular, with apex bluntly rounded. Parameres small, short, barely extending past apex of median lobe, each with a small, sparse array of short, stiff setae on interior face, at apex. Parameres parallel and close together in repose, splaying out and away from penis when aedeagus is everted. Endophallus armed with abundant small, flat, pointed scales distally, with 4–5 long, well-sclerotized, sinuate, slenderly conical processes and a single enormous, elongate, bluntly triangular sclerite basally. Female genitalia with coxites large and conical, armed with four long, curving stiff setae; styli extremely short and narrow, less than one-fifth as long as coxite, bearing terminal seta 2/3 as long as coxite.  
 Natural History. Collected by pyrethrum knockdown, litter sifting, stick brushing and flight-intercept trap in rainforests.   
 Etymology. This species is named for Alfred Newton, an unparalleled expert on Leiodidae whose 1998 review of the family, ongoing advice, and generous loans of agyrtodine specimens made the completion of this work possible.
description: Published as part of Seago, Ainsley E., 2009, Revision Of Agyrtodes Portevin (Coleoptera: Leiodidae), pp. 1-73 in The Coleopterists Bulletin (mo 7) (mo 7) 63 on pages 32-34, DOI: 10.1649/0010-065x-63.sp7.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4912048