Cyllodes ruficeps
Creators: name: Lawrence, John F.
name: Kirejtshuk, Alexander G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Nitidulidae
Cyllodes
Cyllodes ruficeps

description: Cyllodes ruficeps (Reitter, 1880a)
(Figs 2, 10, 28–29, 44. 50, 55)
Strongylus ruficeps Reitter 1880a: 459. Type locality: “Yule Island” (Papua New Guinea).
Pseudocamptodes blackburni Grouvelle 1902: 184, syn. nov. Type locality: “ Australie ”.
Pseudocamptodes fulviceps Grouvelle 1906: 325, syn. nov. Type locality: “Salvatti”.
Redescription. Length = 3.00–5.20: 3.00–3.80 (3.50 ± 0.28, n = 5) mm. Body broadly ovate, strongly convex: body length/elytral width = 1.18–1.31 (1.23); greatest depth/elytral width = 0.55–0.63 (0.58). Pronotum, scutellar shield and elytra primarily black; head reddish-brown or dark brown anteriorly and red posteriorly; lateral and anterolateral portions of pronotum red; pygidium, undersurfaces, legs and antennal funicle yellow to reddishyellow; antennal club darker. Dorsal vestiture very short and not visible under lower magnification; undersurfaces and legs with short, fine setae. Head 1.06× as long as wide. Eyes 0.37× as long as head width. Temples 0.18× as long as eye, straight. Vertexal line present at sides only. Frontoclypeal suture absent. Clypeus with sides subparallel to weakly concave apex. Labrum about 0.39× as long as wide; anterior edge weakly, broadly rounded with distinct notch at middle. Antennal scape 1.47× as long as wide and 1.83× as long as pedicel; antennomere 3 about 1.5× as long as 4; club as long as antennomeres 3–8 combined and 1.75× as long as wide; terminal antennomere 0.85× as long as wide. Mandible strongly but gradually curved towards apex, which is unidentate with dorsal and ventral serrations; mola well-developed with a number of transverse ridges; thin membrane of prostheca lined with hairs, which are longer apically; base of mola, ventrally with densely setose lobe. Apical maxillary palpomere about 2.27× as long as wide, widest near base with narrowly rounded apex. Mentum 0.88× as long as wide, sides slightly curved and apex deeply biemarginate forming one pair of broadly rounded lateral lobes and one shorter, subacute median lobe. Apical labial palpomere about 1.50× as long as wide, widest at base with broadly rounded apex. Genal ridges converging, extending to just beyond middle of eye; anterior genal lobes broadly truncate; postocular ridges present but weakly developed; submental region with relatively large patch of large, shallow pits. Pronotum 0.39–0.44 (0.43)× as long as wide, widest at posterior end; sides strongly rounded and obliquely explanate; anterior edge moderately deeply and abruptly emarginate forming relatively sharp anterior angles; lateral margins very narrow, barely visible for their entire lengths from above; posterior angles more or less right; posterior edge broadly curved laterally, distinctly produced mesally forming a short, broad prescutellar lobe; disc strongly, evenly convex; punctation very fine and sparse, punctures separated by at least two diameters; interspaces smooth and shiny. Prosternum 0.67× as long as mid length of procoxal cavity, weakly carinate, with carina extending onto prosternal process, which is 0.4× as wide as mid length of procoxal cavity, weakly expanded with truncate at apex, but continued behind coxae as a slightly oblique wall with emarginate apex. Scutellar shield 0.34× as wide at base as pronotum, subpentagonal, with both sides and apex angulate; punctation as on pronotum. Elytra 0.77–0.89 (0.83)× as long as wide and 1.88–2.29 (2.11)× as long as pronotum; sides steep and lateral margins not visible from above; apices broadly, independently rounded, exposing part of pygidium; disc with all punctures relatively small, but larger than those on pronotum; megapunctures forming somewhat irregular rows, the punctures relatively widely spaced within a row; interspaces relatively shiny, with scattered micropunctures and very fine sculpturing; epipleuron strongly declined and somewhat concave, not visible in lateral view, wider anteriorly and gradually narrowing to posterior edge of abdominal ventrite 3. Anterior edge of mesoventrite on distinctly different plane than metaventrite, with small, triangular prosternal rest continued as a long weak median carina separating two weakly concave prosternal rests; posterior edge vertical and deeply emarginate, visible in ventral view as a pair of mesothoracic lobes (Fig. 50) visible on either side of truncate anterior process of metaventrite. Mesocoxae separated by distance equal to longest longitudinal diameter of mesocoxal cavity. Metaventrite slightly convex; shortest distance between meso- and metacoxal cavities 0.29× as great as width of ventrite; discrimen absent; axillary spaces relatively small; posterior edges of mesocoxal cavities not joined by line across base of anterior process of metaventrite. Metanepisternum 4.75× as long as wide, widest near anterior end and narrowed posteriorly. Metacoxae separated by 0.86× mid length of metacoxa. Protibia slightly expanded apically, its outer edge densely lined with short serrations, each bearing short, stout, blunt spine; outer apex angulate, with apical spine sometimes enlarged to form blunt tooth and without additional spines along apical edge. All femora excavate to receive tibiae. Meso- and metatibiae relatively narrow at base, but abruptly expanded at basal fifth and more or less parallel to apex; outer edge finely crenulate with blunt spines similar to those on protibia; outer apex more or less angulate; apex densely lined with long spines. Anterior face of meso- and metatibiae each with subapical, transversely oblique setal row. All tarsomeres expanded and lobed and metatarsus about 0.68× as long as metatibia. Abdomen with ventrite 1 at lateral third 0.65× as long as ventrite 2, without postcoxal lines and with broadly rounded intercoxal process; ventrites 2–4 more or less equal in length; ventrites 2–5 each with fine transverse carina near base and a more prominent one anterior to middle; ventrite 5 2.25× as long as 4, with apex biemarginate in both sexes. Pygidium with straight transverse basal carina, and apex broadly rounded in both sexes. Tergite VIII (anal sclerite) in male apically truncate. Tegmen (Fig. 28) 1.81× as long as wide, sides parallel and apex subtruncate and densely lined with long setae; tegminal strut (Fig. 55) very short, broad and apically rounded; penis (Fig. 29) 0.71× as long as tegmen and 1.5× as long as wide, with penile strut 2.37× as long as body of penis and expanded at apex. Ovipositor (Fig. 44) 2.30× as long as wide, widest at base, more or less flattened; paraprocts 0.50× as long as gonocoxites, which are 1.68× as long as their combined widths, more or less fused together, widest at base and gradually narrowing to subacute apex, with finely crenulate sides in distal two-thirds (not visible under lower magnifications), without gonostyli.
Types. Two syntypes of Strongylus ruficeps (MCNG), “Yule Island, VI.1875, L. M. D'Albertis”, “ Strongylus ruficeps m. n. sp.”, “ Strongylus rufipapillus m. n. sp.”; one syntype of Pseudocamptodes blackburni (MNHN), “ Australie, C.H.French”,“type”, “ Pseudocamptodes blackburni ”,“Grouvelle”; lectotype of Pseudocamptodes fulviceps here designated (MCNG), “N. Guinea, Salvatti, XI, Becarri, 1875”, “Typus”, “ Pseudocamptodes fulviceps Grouv. ”.
Notes on Cyllodes fulviceps. Grouvelle (1906: 325) wanted to include in the type series some specimens regarded by him as Pseudocamptodes fulviceps, pointed out the variability in body size as between 3–5 mm (“Long. 3 mill. à 5 mill.”), designated some specimens with label “Nuova Guinea, Andai, Ag, 72, L.N.D’Albertis” as types of P. fulviceps and deposited them in MNHN and NHML, although the specimen from Andai in MCSG remains without an identification label. Nevertheless, Grouvelle in the original description included only one locality (Salvatti – see above) and wrote (Grouvelle 1906: 326): “Je rapporto provisoirement à cette espèce un exemplaire imparfaitement colore provenant des lies Arou (O. Beccari)." It means that the latter specimen can be regarded only as an additional one. Thus there is only one specimen named by Grouvelle and included by him in the original description and all other specimens identified by him as Pseudocamptodes fulviceps cannot be part of the type series. Therefore this specimen alone named and referred to by Grouvelle in his description should be interpreted as the lectotype of P. fulviceps.
Note on synonymy. The genus Cyllodes is represented in Australia and New Guinea by a single species demonstrating a wide variability in body size and colouration. Nevertheless this variability is comparable with that in other members of the genus Cyllodes and other cyllodines. The original descriptions of the “ Pseudocamptodes blackburni ” and “ P. fulviceps ” almost completely correspond to the characters of C. ruficeps in the current interpretation, although the dorsal colouration in the specimens was characterised as “nigro-cyaneus” (blackish blue) (Grouvelle 1902: 184; 1906: 325), while in the original description of “ Strongylus ruficeps ” (Reitter 1880a: 459) the dorsal colouration of the specimens was described as: “das Halsschild bis auf die Seiten schwarz; die Flügeldecken schwarz mit schwach grünlichem Scheine” (elytra are black with slight greenish shine). The type series of C. ruficeps and C. fulviceps are known to the authors based only on the photos made by Roberto Poggi (MCNG); however, the characters seen on these photographs completely support the synonymy of all mentioned names here proposed.
Specimens examined. QLD: Cairns Distr., A. M. Lea (2, SAM, ZIN); Cameron Ck.,upper (21°35’S, 149°12’E), 100m, rainforest, 18.xii.1999 – 22.iii.2000, 9244, intercept trap, G. Monteith (1, QMB); Cockatoo Creek Crossing, 17 km NW Heathlands (11.36S, 142.27E), 25.iv–7.vi.1992, malaise a5, open forest, T. McLeod (1, ANIC); Cook’s Hut, 1 km N of Lamond Hill, Iron Range Nat. Park (12.43S, 143.18E), 7–10.vii.1998, surfaces at night, closed forest, T. A. Weir (1, ANIC); Iron Range, West Claudie R., 50m, rainforest, 3–10.xii.1985, G. Monteith, D. Cook (6, QMB); Iron Range, Cape York Pen., 1–9.vi.1971, G. B. Monteith (2, QMB); Kenny Road (17°28’S, 145°32’E), 850m, 25.xi.1994 – 10.i.1995, FIT intercept, Monteith, Hasenpusch (1, QMB); Lockerbie, 3km E, Cape York, rainforest, 19–23.iii.1987, Pyrethrum on logs, G. B. Monteith (4, QMB); Lockerbie, Cape York Pen., 6–10.vi.1969, G. B. Monteith (1, QMB); Mt. Hayward (20°25’S, 148°45’E), 350m, 20.xi.1992 –mid-iv.1993; intercept & pitfalls, rainforest, D. Cook, G. B. Monteith (2, QMB); Mt. Tozer, 11 km ENE (12.43S, 143.18E), 11–16.vii.1986, T. Weir, A. Calder (1, ANIC); Normantown (1 FD, ANIC); Packers Creek, via Portland Roads, 6.xii.1985, Pyrethrum, rainforest, G. Monteith, D. Cook (1, QMB); Thompson Creek, Daintree, 19.xi–19.xii.1998, flight intercept trap 26, S. Grove (10, ANIC); Upper Hall Creek via Camila (21°52’S, 147°18’E), rainforest at creek, 4.xii.1996 – 6.iv.1997, G. Monteith, E. Mulder (2, QMB); Upper N Funnel Ck (ridge) (21°34’S, 149°12’E), 250m, rainforest, 16.xi.1992 –mid. IV.1993, intercept & pitfalls, D. Cook, G. Monteith (1, QMB); Upper N Funnel Ck (21°34’S, 149°12’E), 200–450m, Monteith, Thompson, Cook, Janetzki (1, QMB). Papua New Guinea: Andai, Ag. 72, L.N. D’Albertis (cotype of Pseudocamptodes fulviceps Grouvelle) (2, MNHN, NHML); Hatam, VA, Beccari, 1895 (1, MCNG); New Ireland (Latangai), Danu, Kalili Bay, 30.iv.1962, Noona Dan Exp. 61-62 (named as fauveli) (1, ZMC); Indonesia (Aru Islands): Maluku Prov.: Isole Aru, O. Beccari, 1895 (1, MCNG).
Distribution. Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia (Northern QLD).
Biology. Collected primarily in flight intercept or Malaise traps, but likely to breed in soft basidiomes (mushrooms).
description: Published as part of Lawrence, John F. & Kirejtshuk, Alexander G., 2019, Review of the Australian Cyllodini (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae: Nitidulinae), with descriptions of new taxa, and notes on the genus Macleayania (Nitidulini), pp. 301-334 in Zootaxa 4544 (3) on pages 318-320, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4544.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2618373