Safrina parallela Deyrolle 1881, new combination
Creators: name: Reid, C. A. M.
name: Beatson, M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lucanidae
Safrina
Safrina parallela

description: Safrina parallela (Deyrolle, 1881) new combination.
(Figs 8, 17, 26, 35, 59, 70)
Rhyssonotus parallelus Deyrolle, 1881: 238; Moore & Cassis 1992: 17; Mizunuma & Nagai 1994: 313, plate 152 (photograph of ♀ syntype).
Material examined. Non-types: (31). 3, no data, Bomans coll. (BMNH); Ƌ, no data (MMM); 2Ƌ, 1♀, no data, colls Simson & Blackburn (SAM); New South Wales: Ƌ, Bago Forest, Batlow, 11.iii.1957, T. G. Campbell (ANIC); Ƌ, junction Yarrongobilly Caves Road and Snowy Mountains Highway, 15.ii.1997, M. Moulds (AMS); Queensland: 1, no further data, Fry coll. (BMNH); Victoria: 1, no further data, Nevison coll. (BMNH); Ƌ, Victoria (MMS); Ƌ, Victoria, E. W. Ferguson coll. (ANIC); Ƌ, Australian Alps, 1920, J. E. Dixon (MMM); Ƌ, Australian Alps, ii.1940, C. Oke (MMM); Ƌ, Australian Alps, i.1940, no collector (MMM); ♀, Australian Alps, no date (MMM); ♀, Balook, C. Oke (MMM); Ƌ, Belgrave, C. Oke (MMM); Ƌ, Glen Wills, 22. ii.1 953, F. E. Wilson (MMM); Ƌ, Macedon, 4.iii.1950, F. E. Wilson (MMM); 3, Macedon, no date, no collector (MMM, SAM); 2Ƌ, Mount Bencairn, 16.ii.1950, B. Given (MMM); ♀, ex larva, Mount Donna Buang, 700 m, 20.x.1992 adults emerged i.1995, leg G. J. Krake (RDK); Ƌ, Mount St Leonard, Healsville, 900 m, 20.iii.1995, G.J. Krake (RDK); ♀, Thorpdale, Gippsland, ii.1889 (MMM); ♀, Upper Tarago River, 30.i.1979, G. May (ANIC); ♀, Warburton, 16.ii.1920 (MMM).
Diagnosis. Male. Elytral disc irregularly strigose, with mixed large and small punctures; pregular ridge slightly convex; inner face of protibia without teeth; form narrower; length 15−18 mm; head distinctively shaped, with posterior angle of genal lobe apically acute and at 45° to eye, anterior angle rounded; mandibles without basal tooth on upperside of internal face; elytral suture (interval 1) raised as a smooth and shiny ridge, contrasting with dull, microsculptured unridged disc.
Female. Elytral disc irregularly strigose, with mixed large and small punctures; pregular ridge slightly convex; inner face of protibia without teeth; form narrower; length 15−18 mm; first elytral interval convex and shiny, not microsculptured, in contrast to dull, densely microsculptured flat elytral disc; anterior face of pregular ridge densely punctured; outer margin of upper surface of mandible with complete keel, no basal tooth, inner margin concave, without teeth.
Description. Male. Length 15−22 mm. Head, pronotum, elytra, and venter black or almost so, elytra sometimes slightly paler, dorsum with or without faint green reflection; legs variable, black or reddish brown with darker femora. Body elongate, relatively parallel sided: pronotal width narrower than or equal to elytra (largest specimen), broadest at or near hind angles, sides of elytra almost parallel sided in basal half.
Head: with short laterally projecting genal lobes (longer than broad), posterior of genal lobe obliquely angled from eye to middle of lobe, which has short angular projection, then rounded to anterior of head; head transverse, width 2.3−2.6x length; dorsum strongly punctured, punctures sparse to clustered in grooves or pits, with smooth elevated interspaces, not or faintly microreticulate; anteromedian prominence present or absent, not bituberculate, with or without single tubercle; anterior margin medially deeply to shallowly concave; dorsally visible part of mandibles 1.0−1.5x longer than head, almost symmetrical, apices almost truncate; mandibles without dorsal tubercles or with slight angular swelling on outer ridge about 1/3 from base, outer edge keeled; preapical dorsal tubercle absent; middle of ventral inner edge with 1 large asymmetric tooth (a second small preapical tooth present in 1 specimen), apically angulate, before upturned apex; base of inner face of mandible with large right-angled, ventral tubercle, dorsal tubercle absent; pregular swelling moderately convex and moderately arcuate, anterior face much shrter than posterior, height ≥ longitudinal length, with close coarse setose punctures on anterior face, much fewer on posterior.
Thorax: pronotum contracted anteriorly from posterolateral angles or slightly anterior to them; posterolateral angles variable, from rounded to acute angled (80°); lateral margins bluntly and irregularly crenulate; pronotal disc finely and sparsely punctured (almost impunctate in 2 specimens), with or without small pair of foveolate depressions anterior to middle, sides more strongly and closely punctured in lateral depressions and posterolateral angles, but punctures not confluent; pronotal disc shiny, but minutely and evenly microreticulate; scutellum approximately semicircular, shiny and impunctate or with 1−2 punctures; elytra almost parallel sided at basal half, broadest 1/3−1/2 from base; elytron with interval 1 weakly raised for at least 3/4 of length, otherwise surface without ridges; elytra variably microscuptured, usually apical third densely microreticulate and relatively dull and basal third relatively shiny and shallowly microreticulate, usually basal half of elevated first interval shiny; elytral disc without striae, but entirely irregularly strigose or wrinkled, with fairly dense mixed large and small punctures on disc, and a row of large punctures at edge of basal half of interval 1; base of elytron with 1−4 short deep elongate grooves; elytral sides narrowly explanate, width 0.5−1.0x width of base of metatibia, relatively smooth, with shallow transverse grooves, microsculptured as disc; wing fully developed, sharply folded at apex of elytra; external margin of protibia with 2 large and 1−3 minor teeth; internal margin protibia without median teeth; metatibia with 0−3 minute external teeth.
Abdomen: ventrites relatively shiny, shallowly microreticulate, almost punctured throughout, punctures relatively large, but absent at apical half of middle of ventrites II −III; ventrite I with short erect setae, II −IV with short recumbent setae, V with short erect setae; apex of ventrite V truncate or shallowly concave. Genitalia: phallobase apparently glabrous, but with minute scattered stubble on apical half, medially narrowly unsclerotised on dorsal surface, less than apical quarter of venter less strongly sclerotised, dorsal surface strongly convex; parameres with conspicuous close setae, apices blunt in lateral view; ventral sclerite of penis split along middle by hyaline strip; endophallus in repose mostly straight, apex with 1−2 small loops.
Female. As male, except: length 18−20 mm; head narrower, width about 2.0−2.2x length, mandibles shorter, dorsally visible part slightly shorter than head; 2 tubercles on anteromedian prominence sometimes distinct; mandible outer edge keeled, apex acute, inner edge strongly concave, without obvious teeth; sides of pronotum usually slightly more densely and strongly punctured, lateral margins with crenulations usually more convex; elytral sculpture similar to male; protibia internal margin as male; abdominal ventrites II −V sparsely punctured, with short semi-erect setae, V with longer erect setae; apex ventrite V rounded; proctiger of ovipositor triangular with long apical spine.
Larva. Unknown.
Distribution and natural history. Safrina parallela is a rarely-collected but relatively widespread species, confined to closed forest at low to high altitude in widely separated localities in southeast Australia. It appears to be broadly sympatric with S. jugularis, a similar species. Published records from Mount Macedon and Mount Kosciusko (Moore & Cassis 1992) have not been checked but are likely to be correct. The larva is unknown.
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 34-35, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4150.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/272084