Microscydmus (Scydmomicrus) capitiseboraci Jałoszyński, 2014, sp. n.
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Microscydmus
Microscydmus capitiseboraci

description: Microscydmus (Scydmomicrus) capitiseboraci sp. n.
(Figs. 22, 31, 39, 43, 47, 51, 54, 62)
Material studied. Holotype: ♂: two labels: " 11.51S 142.38E QLD / 12km SSE Heathlands / 1-21 Mar 1992 / P. Feehney, closed / forest MALAISE#3#4" [white, printed], " MICROSCYDMUS / (SCYDMOMICRUS) / capitiseboraci m. / det. P. Jałoszyński, 2013 / HOLOTYPUS " [red, printed] (ANIC).
Diagnosis. Male: body uniformly light brown; frons subtriangular but with weakly marked antero-median projection; punctures on head fine but distinct, slightly more distinct than those on pronotum; BL <0.60 mm; pronotum only 1.1x broader than head, with ante-basal transverse groove; EI> 1.70; aedeagus with lightly sclerotized and indistinct internal armature with large sub-cylindrical structure located near basal foramen. Females and their diagnostic characters unknown.
Description. Body of male (Fig. 22) moderately convex, elongate and slender, with moderately long appendages, BL 0.512 mm; cuticle glossy; body uniformly light brown with slightly lighter appendages; vestiture yellowish.
Head (Fig. 39) subtrapezoidal, broadest at eyes, HL 0.087 mm, HW 0.137 mm; tempora much shorter than eyes, strongly convergent postero-mesally; vertex weakly convex; frons subtriangular but with indistinct anteromedian projection. Eyes large and strongly projecting laterally from the head silhouette, coarsely faceted. Punctures on head dorsum sparse and small but distinct; setae short, sparse and suberect. Antennae slender, AnL 0.250 mm; antennomeres I–II elongate, III–X transverse; XI as long as broad.
Pronotum in dorsal view oval, broadest near anterior third, PL 0.125 mm, PW 0.150 mm; anterior and lateral margins rounded; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate; base of pronotum with two pairs of small and shallow pits, internal pair connected by transverse impression. Punctures on pronotal disc fine and inconspicuous; setae sparse, thin, short and suberect.
Elytra oval, slightly more convex than pronotum, broadest near middle, EL 0.300 mm, EW 0.175 mm, EI 1.714; basal impressions short; elytral apices separately rounded. Punctures on elytral disc as fine as those on pronotum; setae short, sparse and suberect. Hind wings well developed, about twice as long as elytra.
Legs moderately long and slender, without modifications.
Aedeagus (Fig. 54) extremely small, AeL only 0.060 mm; slender, with indistinct, lightly sclerotized internal armature containing in its sub-basal part large sub-cylindrical basally broadening structure; each paramere with long apical seta.
Female. Unknown.
Distribution (Fig. 62 c). NE Australia (N Queensland).
Etymology. The name capitiseboraci refers to the type locality, Cape York Peninsula, in Latin Paeninsula Capitis Eboraci.
Remarks. Microscydmus capitiseboraci is most similar to M. queenslandicus. Both species have similarly pigmented bodies, comparable body length and proportions of body parts, but clearly differ in punctures on the head dorsum: in M. capitiseboraci distinct but sparse and small, while those in M. queenslandicus punctures are strikingly large, deep and dense (adjacent to each other). These two species differ also clearly in the elytral index: 1.714 in M. capitiseboraci vs. only 1.500 in M. queenslandicus. Microscydmus capitiseboraci differs from other Australian congeners in the following characters:
- from M. australiensis and M. nasicornis in the shorter and anteriorly less narrowing frons covered with several distinct punctures (frons more distinctly narrowing anteriorly and covered with inconspicuous punctures in M. australiensis and M. nasicornis), in different proportions of the pronotum (PI 0.833 vs. 1.000 in these two species), in much higher elytral index (EI> 1.700 vs EI <1.600), and a higher ratio EL/PL (2.400 vs. 2.000); - from M. styxianus sp. n. in the subtriangular frons (in M. styxianus the frons is rather subtrapezoidal); and much higher elytral index (EI 1.714 vs. 1.474);
- from M. edithensis sp. n. in the uniformly yellowish-brown body pigmentation (M. edithensis has the head distinctly darker than the pronotum and elytra); elytral sculpture (fine, inconspicuous punctures in M. capitiseboraci vs. dense and fine punctures forming fine transverse wrinkles in M. edithensis); and distinctly smaller body (0.512 mm vs. 0.650 mm);
- from M. tooloomensis in the presence of transverse ante-basal impression on the pronotum (absent in M. tooloomensis); and a smaller body (BL 0.512 mm vs. 0.600 mm).
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2014, The smallest Cyrtoscydmini of Australia: revision of Microscydmus Saulcy & Croissandeau and Penicillidmus gen. n. (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Scydmaeninae), pp. 1-30 in Zootaxa 3774 (1) on pages 20-21, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3774.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/285693