Hypocacculus (Colpellus) praecox
Creators: name: Lackner, Tomáš
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2010
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Histeridae
Hypocacculus
Hypocacculus praecox

description: Hypocacculus (Colpellus) praecox (Erichson, 1834)
(Figs. 23, 58, 93, 123, 398–416)
Saprinus praecox Erichson, 1834: 193. Saprinus praecox: MARSEUL (1855): 685, t. XIX, Fig. 127; SCHMIDT (1885a): 311. Saprinus minyops Wollaston, 1864: 174. Synonymized by SCHMIDT (1895): 177. Saprinus novellus Marseul, 1876: xxxv. Synonymized by PEYERIMHOFF (1917): 139. Hypocaccus praecox: RAGUSA (1892): 265. Hypocacculus novellus: BICKHARDT (1916): 97. Hypocacculus praecox: REICHARDT (1932): 33, 97, t. I, Fig. 7; REICHARDT (1941): 282, 287; THÉROND (1963b): 68;
KRYZHANOVSKIJ & REICHARDT (1976): 202, 205, Fig. 401; VIENNA (1980): 172, 173, Fig. 63a; MAZUR (1984): 84;
MAZUR (1997): 250; YÉLAMOS (2002): 309, 313, Figs. 156B, 157B; MAZUR (2004): 93.
Type locality. Egypt.
Material examined. ALGERIA: Ain Sefra, 26.iv.1987, 2 ♁♁ 3 spec., A. Olexa lgt. EGYPT: Mamura, x.1967, 1 spec., A. Olexa lgt. (TLAN).
Redescription. Body length: PEL: 1.575 –2.375 mm; APW: 0.625–0.75 mm; PPW: 1.125 – 1.675 mm; EL: 0.925 –1.375 mm;
Body (Figs. 398–399) oval, moderately convex, cuticle dark-brown with metallic luster; legs, antennae and mouthparts rufopiceous.
Antennal scape (Fig. 400) not thickened, with few short setae; club (Fig. 401) oval, without visible articulation, entire surface imbricate, basal third of club glabrous, apical two-thirds with dense short sensilla, intermingled with sparse somewhat longer sensilla; sensory structures of antennal club (Fig. 23) in form of stipe-shaped vesicle situated under circular sensory area on internal distal margin of the ventral side of antennal club, supplemented by another large sensory area under apical surface of club.
Mouthparts. Mandibles (Fig. 93) with rounded outer margin curved inwardly, acutely pointed, sub-apical tooth on inner margin of left mandible moderately large, almost perpendicular; labrum (Fig. 58) strongly convex with two well-impressed labral pits, with two well-sclerotized setae in each pit; anterior margin of labrum without concavity interrupting convexity; terminal labial palpomere elongated, its width about half its length; mentum (Fig. 402) sub-trapezoid, with shallow emargination in middle of anterior margin (Fig. 123); anterolateral corners with few ramose setae, lateral margins with two rows of much shorter ramose setae; disc of mentum imbricate, medially glabrous; cardo of maxilla with few short setae on outer margin; stipes triangular, with three much longer setae; terminal maxillary palpomere elongate, its width shorter than half its length, approximately twice as long as penultimate.
Clypeus (Fig. 400) laterally carinate; disc rugulose-lacunose; frontal stria carinate, straight, elevated above of eyes, continued as carinate supraorbital stria; frontal disc (Fig. 400) with fine shallow punctation, punctures separated by 2–4 times their diameter becoming sparser and finer posteriorly; eyes rather flat, visible from above.
Pronotal sides (Fig. 398) feebly arcuate anteriorly, apical angles rather blunt; disc with round punctures, separated by 1–3 times their diameter; medially punctation weakens; pronotal base with a row of coarse round punctures; marginal pronotal stria complete, carinate; pronotal hypomeron with very short, almost invisible amber setae.
Elytral epipleura with fine scattered punctures, almost smooth; marginal epipleural stria complete, rather thin, marginal elytral stria well impressed, its apical end attaining near the posterior third of elytron; apical elytral stria obliterated. Humeral elytral stria weakly impressed, present on basal third; inner subhumeral stria very short, present only as a medial fragment. Elytral disc with four dorsal elytral striae 1–4; first the longest, reaching about three-fourths of elytral length apically; second and third dorsal elytral striae about the same length, reaching elytral half apically, second stria somewhat longer than third; fourth dorsal elytral stria the shortest, not reaching elytral half posteriorly, basally well connected with sutural elytral stria; sutural stria thin but complete, in sparse moderately large punctures; between sutural stria and elytral suture a row of very fine punctures present. Entire elytral disc punctate; punctation coarser and denser on apical half, basal half with only scattered fine punctation; punctation weakens apically, stopping just short of elytral apex.
Propygidium (Fig. 405) transverse, with sparse fine punctures, separated by 2–4 times their diameter; punctation becoming denser apically; pygidium (Fig. 405) with similar punctation, becoming sparser and finer towards the apex.
Anterior margin of median portion of prosternum (Fig. 404) almost straight; marginal prosternal stria fragmentally present anteriorly and laterally; pre-apical foveae deep; prosternal process slightly concave, laterally finely strigulate-coarsely punctate, dorsally substrigulate, with scattered fine punctation; lateral prosternal striae strongly carinate, not united in front of united parallel carinal prosternal striae.
Anterior margin of mesoventrite deeply emarginate medially; discal marginal mesoventral stria complete; disc of mesoventrite with dense and coarse punctures separated about by 2–3 times their diameter; meso-metaventral sutural stria well impressed, undulate; intercoxal disc of metaventrite with very fine scattered punctation; punctures becoming coarser near hind coxa. Lateral metaventral stria carinate on outer side, reaching just short of hind coxa; lateral disc of metaventrite (Fig. 407) with sparse setiferous punctures; metepisternum + fused metepimeron (Fig. 407) evenly covered with coarser and denser punctation than that of lateral disc of metaventrite; along metaventral-metepisternal suture short curious parallel stria present basally.
Intercoxal disc of the first abdominal sternite completely striate laterally, with scattered sparse punctation; punctures becoming denser and coarser along lateral and apical margins.
Protibia (Figs. 408–409) flattened and somewhat dilated, outer margin with six low teeth topped with short denticle followed by two minuscule denticles; setae of outer row rather sparse, regular and short; setae of median row similarly dense and regular, but much shorter than those of outer row; protarsal groove shallow; anterior tibial stria shortened apically; single, rather long tarsal denticle present apically; protibial spur tiny, bent, growing out from apical protibial margin; apical margin of protibia posteriorly with two tiny apical denticles; outer part of posterior surface of protibia (Fig. 409) rugulose-lacunose; distinctly separated from glabrous median part of posterior surface, basally with row of about 5 minuscule denticles; posterior protibial stria complete, with very sparse weakly sclerotized setae, apical margin with two tiny inner-posterior denticles present; inner margin with double row of short setae.
Mesotibia (Fig. 403) slender, outer margin with two sparse rows of thin denticles growing in size apically; setae of outer row regular, well sclerotized; setae of median row irregular, much shorter than those of outer row; posterior mesotibial stria complete; anterior surface of mesotibia imbricate (Fig. 403) with scattered minuscule punctures with microscopic setae; anterior mesotibial stria complete, terminating in single tiny inner ventral denticle; mesotibial spur stout, short; apical margin with two tiny denticles; claws of apical tarsomere shorter than half its length; metatibia (Fig. 406) basically similar to mesotibia, but denticles of outer margin much sparser than those of mesotibia.
Male genitalia. Eighth sternite (Figs. 410–411) longitudinally separated medially, apically with small inflatable membrane (velum) fringed with few sparser setae; eighth tergite and eighth sternite not fused laterally (Fig. 412). Morphology of 9 th tergite (Figs. 415–416) typical for the subfamily; spiculum gastrale (Fig. 415) expanded on both ends. Basal piece of aedeagus (Figs. 413–414) rather short, ratio of its length: length of parameres 1: 3; parameres fused along their basal three-fourths; aedeagus gently curved ventrad (Fig. 414).
Remarks. A variable species, elytral striae (including the first dorsal elytral stria) can be shortened apically, reaching just elytral half; alternatively, they can surpass elytral half apically and reach as far as three fourths of elytral length. Punctation on elytral disc can be sparser; punctures can be separated by 3.0–3.5 times their diameter.
description: Published as part of Lackner, Tomáš, 2010, Review of the Palaearctic genera of Saprininae (Coleoptera: Histeridae), pp. 1-254 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (suppl.) (suppl.) 50 on pages 129-133, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4272127