Safrina jaedoni Reid & Beatson, new species
Creators: name: Reid, C. A. M.
name: Beatson, M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lucanidae
Safrina
Safrina jaedoni

description: Safrina jaedoni Reid & Beatson, new species
(Figs 4, 13, 22, 31, 41, 55, 62, 70)
Material examined. Types: AUSTRALIA: HOLOTYPE: Ƌ, Kroombit Tops, 65 km SW Gladstone, 1000–1100 m, open forest, 22–26.ii.1982, Monteith, Thompson, & Yeates (QMB); PARATYPES (17): 10Ƌ, 6♀, same data as holotype (AMS, DPIM, QMB); 1Ƌ, Kroombit Tops, 65 km SW Gladstone, 1000 m, ex Eucalyptus log in open forest, 22–26.ii.1982 (AMS).
Diagnosis. Male. Length 18−21 mm. Dark brown to black, with (usually) or without dark green reflection, legs reddish brown; prothorax almost parallel-sided, elytra slightly rounded at sides; head with genal lobe greatly laterally projecting as an elongate triangle with a notch on posterior margin; mandibles without pre-apical dorsal tooth, basal internal dorsal and ventral teeth separated; basal half of elytron without ridges, with 5 striae.
Female: length 17−20 mm. Colour as male; with or without distinct tooth at base of outer mandibular carina; pronotum relatively strongly and sparsely punctured, punctures of basal third of median groove separated by more than diameters, discal punctures not coalescent; lateral margins of pronotum feebly crenulate; elytra not or weakly transversely wrinkled, dull with dense microsculpture; elytral intervals 1−5 weakly convex at base, without carina from shoulder to disc; explanate margin of elytra narrow, 1.0−1.5x width of base of metatibia, without or with shallow lateral grooves.
Description. (Note: all available specimens teneral or at least recently emerged). Male. Length 18−21 mm. Dark reddish brown to black, usually with dark green reflection, legs reddish brown. Body sub-parallel sided: pronotum generally broadest at middle third, often slightly broader than elytra, sides of elytra slightly rounded. Head closely setose around median tubercles, with sparse setae elsewhere, pronotal disc glabrous.
Head: sides greatly laterally produced, as an acute-angled approximately isosceles triangle, height 1.0−1.5x width of base, notched on posterior edge; strongly transverse, width more than 4x length; dorsum strongly punctured with smooth interspaces; 2 separate anteromedian tubercles, on slightly elevated median prominence; anterior margin deeply concave; dorsally visible part of mandibles 1.5−2.0x longer than head, almost symmetrical; mandibles without dorsal tubercle, 1/3 from base of outer edge, externally keeled on middle third; mandibular preapical dorsal tubercle absent or small and inconspicuous on inner edge; ventral inner edge with 3−4 angulate teeth, usually similarly sized but often asymmetrically partly fused, before upturned apex; base of inner face of mandible with large separated dorsal and ventral tubercles; pregular swelling sharply convex, height ≥ longitudinal length, without setose punctures on each face.
Thorax: pronotum usually almost parallel-sided in basal half, sometimes slightly contracted from posterolateral angles to apex, posterolateral angles not laterally projecting; lateral margins not crenulate, but with 0−7 minute nicks; pronotal disc finely and sparsely punctured, with or without pair of foveolate depressions anterior to middle, sides more strongly and closely punctured, densely in lateral depressions; pronotal disc shiny, but minutely and evenly microreticulate; scutellum transversely half ovate, sparsely but strongly punctured; elytra slightly rounded at sides, broadest 1/3−1/2 from base; basal half of elytron with intervals 1−5 convex, 3 slightly more so than others, without an oblique ridge from humerus to disc; elytra shiny, but finely microreticulate except extreme base; elytral disc striate, with 5 fine sparsely punctured grooves reaching apical half, intervals with or without shallow transverse grooves, remainder of elytra smooth, with scattered punctures; elytral sides explanate, width 1.0−1.5x width of base of metatibia, smooth or almost so; wing fully developed, apex sharply folded to within basal third of elytra; external margin of protibia with 2 large and 2−3 minor teeth, inner margin with 0−2 prominent teeth; metatibia with 1−2 small external teeth.
Abdomen: basal ¾ of ventrites I −IV dull, microreticulate, apical ¼ shiny without surface sculpture; ventrite I rugulose, finely and closely punctured on intercoxal process and sides, II −V closely but finely punctured, I −III glabrous except sides and intercoxal process, IV with sparse and minute recumbent setae, V with long erect setae on apical half; apex of ventrite V truncate. Genitalia: phallobase almost glabrous, but with scattered minute setae, medially unsclerotised on dorsal surface, apex of venter with triangular less strongly sclerotised depression, dorsal surface weakly convex; parameres with short but moderately close setae, apices blunt in lateral view; ventral sclerite of penis entire, apex with V-shaped notch; endophallus in repose with 1 large loop.
Female. As male, except: length 17−20 mm; head more strongly and rugosely punctured, anterior truncate; genal lobe laterally produced as a short asymmetric triangle or trapezoid, broadest at posterior then approximately convexly curved to anterior of head; dorsally visible part of mandibles about as long as head; mandibles with or without small elongate dorsal tubercle, 1/3 from base of outer edge, remainder of outer edge keeled, preapical dorsal tubercle absent; sides of pronotum more strongly punctured, punctures often confluent, lateral margins evidently notched or bluntly crenulate, hind angles obtuse; internal margin protibia without teeth; apex ventrite V shallowly notched; proctiger of ovipositor triangular with long apical spine.
Larva: unknown.
Etymology. Named after Jaedon Marr.
Distribution and natural history. Safrina jaedoni is the northernmost species of Safrina and is endemic to Kroombit Tops, an area of approximately 100 km 2 above 800 m altitude, well known as an isolated area of rainforest (McDonald & Sharpe 1986; Monteith 1987). Safrina jaedoni was illustrated as R. laticeps on the cover of the Queensland Naturalist for 1986 and similarly in Mizunuma & Nagai (1994: 206, plate 3).
The material examined for this study was collected on a single visit in February 1982 by staff of the Queensland Museum, when all the specimens were found in a single hollow log of only 10−12 cm diameter, on the ground, in woodland not rainforest (G. Monteith, personal communication 2015). This habitat is similar to that of its sister species, S. laticeps.
Notes. Safrina jaedoni and S. laticeps are similar and might be considered conspecific. We believe the consistent differences in male mandibles and genitalia validate their status, backed by slight comparative differences in female dorsal sculpture. The two species are geographically separated by 275 km of mostly lowland dry woodland.
description: Published as part of Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2016, Revision of the stag beetle genus Ryssonotus MacLeay (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), with descriptions of a new genus and three new species, pp. 1-39 in Zootaxa 4150 (1) on pages 26-29, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4150.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/272084