Aenigmoronia echinodes Lawrence 2019, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lawrence, John F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Nitidulidae
Aenigmoronia
Aenigmoronia echinodes

description: Aenigmoronia echinodes, sp. nov.
(Figs 1–2, 13, 24, 26, 29, 34, 40, 46, 55, 58, 63, 77, 84)
Description. Length = 3.30–4.20 (3.78 ± 0.26, n = 8) mm. Body (Figs 1–2) oblong, moderately convex: BL/EW = 1.49–1.62 (1.56); GD/EW = 0.61–0.68 (0.64). Dorsal and ventral surfaces, legs and antennae primarily yellowish-brown; head dark brown; pronotum with distinctive black markings, usually consisting of a broad longitudinal band divided posteriorly by a light area in front of scutellum and a pair of black lateral maculae varying in size and shape; elytra with pair of anterolateral black maculae partly overlapping humeri, a zig-zag black marking crossing both elytra at about middle, and a pair of posterior black maculae; undersides primarily yellowish-brown with elytral epipleura somewhat lighter. Dorsal vestiture consisting of a relatively sparse covering of moderately long, fine, decumbent setae and ten longitudinal rows of erect, light-coloured, brush-like setae; ventral surfaces and legs with relatively sparse covering of short, decumbent, fine setae.
Head 1.05 times as long as wide. Eyes 0.29 times as long as head width, with weak supraocular ridges. Temples 0.27 times as long as eye, straight, setose. Vertexal line absent but replaced with narrow band of transverse microcells (Fig. 34); anterior to this band, head covered with pits and setae similar to those on pronotum but surface behind transverse band spiculate. Frontoclypeal suture absent. Labrum 0.30 times as long as wide, sides subparallel; apex truncate and simple. Antennal scape 1.29 times as long as wide and 1.80 times as long as pedicel; antennomere 3 about 1.73 times as long as 4; club 0.66 times as long as antennomeres 3–8 combined and 1.37 times as long as wide; terminal antennomere 0.67 times as long as wide. Antennal grooves very weakly converging, almost parallel, extending beyond ends of temples; genal ridges more or less following edges of grooves, slightly widened at about middle; genal lobes broadly rounded. Mandible with outer edge strongly, evenly curved, apex bidentate, without serrate lobes; incisor edge simple; mola well-developed; prostheca extensive and densely setose. Apical maxillary palpomere 2.14 times as long as wide, widest near base with narrowly rounded apex. Mentum 0.55 times as long as wide, apex without mesal lobe and with narrowly rounded lateral lobes; apical labial palpomere (Fig. 40) 1.87 times as long as wide, sides subparallel, apex obliquely emarginate with two well-separated sensory areas.
Pronotum 0.45–0.53 (0.48) times as long as wide, widest near posterior edge; anterior edge weakly emarginate; anterior angles produced and broadly angulate; lateral margins very slightly explanate, with narrow marginal bead; posterior angles slightly acute; posterior edge sinuate on each side of short, broad, rounded, prescutellar lobe; disc moderately, evenly convex; punctation relatively fine and dense, with punctures usually separated by less than a diameter and intermixed with thick, suberect brush-setae; interspaces finely, irregularly sculptured and somewhat shiny. Pronotal punctation consisting of circular pits, 0.7–0.9 times as large as an eye facet and usually separated by 1.0–1.5 diameters, each with a thick raised rim and centrally located pore, and associated with a microseta, with fewer scattered punctures giving rise to megasetae (see elytra). Prosternum 0.68 times as long as mid length of procoxal cavity, moderately tumid mesally, but without elevated mesal section; prosternal process 0.68 times as wide as mid length of procoxal cavity, not curved behind coxae, and expanded towards apex, which is subangulate, without vertical wall. Scutellar shield 0.23 times as wide as pronotum, broadly rounded at apex. Elytra 1.06–1.17 (1.11) times as long as wide and 2.27–2.76 (2.45) times as long as pronotum; sides narrowly explanate, forming lateral margins extending to apical fifth; elytral apices conjointly rounded; humeri moderately well developed and well removed from anterolateral angles, which are right; disc moderately convex; punctation and vestiture dual and seriate, each elytron with ten rows of moderately long, erect, tuft-like megasetae separated by fine, decumbent microsetae (Figs 13, 24, 46), usually forming two irregular rows; surfaces distinctly sculptured but relatively shiny. Elytral punctation consisting of longitudinally oval pits slightly larger than those on pronotum with median pore and similar raised rim, as well as similar microsetae and megasetae. Epipleura somewhat tilted and mostly visible in lateral view, broad at base, gradually narrowed and extending to posterior fifth. Anterior edge of mesoventrite on same plane as apex of metaventrite but on different plane than major portion of metaventrite, weakly convex, apunctate, with short median carina; posterior edge not elevated, weakly emarginate. Mesocoxae separated by 0.68 times longest longitudinal diameter of mesocoxal cavity. Metaventrite moderately convex, except for paired posterolateral crural impressions; apex of anterior lobe subtruncate and strongly declined to meet apex of mesoventrite; discrimen about 0.80 times as long as ventrite; postcoxal lines arising at mesal fourth of coxal cavity extending laterally and then gradually turning posteriorly and extending to lateral edge of ventrite near its posterior end, so that axillary spaces are relatively large; a pair of curved precoxal lines near posterior end of ventrite; posterior edge between metacoxae somewhat angulate. Metacoxae separated by a distance equal to mid length (shortest diameter) of metacoxa. Ratio of distances between procoxae, mesocoxae and metacoxae 1.00: 1.00: 1.50. Protibia in male gradually expanded to apical two-fifths, then angulate and more abruptly narrowed to truncate apex; outer edge moderately densely lined with short, blunt pale spines to point of angulation, then very densely, more or less continuously lined with slightly longer dark, blunt spines forming a long protibial ridge (Fig. 26); female protibia slightly expanded to subapex, with outer edge lined with similar pale, blunt spines, subapex somewhat angulate and apex with several longer, well separated spines (Fig. 29). Mesotibia and metatibia both slightly expanded to apex with outer edge moderately sparsely lined with long, dark, acute spines and apex more densely lined with slightly shorter, blunt spines. Anterior edges of meso- and metatibiae with longitudinal rows of slender spines. Basal protarsomeres slightly widened, meso- and metatarsomeres not so.
Abdomen with subtruncate intercoxal process; ventrite 1 with very weak postcoxal lines barely separated from rims of metacoxal cavities; ventrites 2–5 each with transverse, sub-basal carina; ventrite 5 subtruncate in male, rounded in female. Mentum, postmentum, prosternum, metaventrite and all abdominal ventrites densely covered with circular pits of various diameters and their associated setae; postcoxal processes and mesal portions of hypomera, mesoventrite and axillary spaces mostly impunctate; larger, longitudinally oval pits lining postmesocoxal and premetacoxal lines. Pygidium with transverse basal carina, its apex truncate in male and broadly rounded in female. Male genital capsule (Fig. 55) 1.20 times as long as wide, with small deep pit before broadly rounded apex and with basal struts only slightly oblique and meeting at midline; ventral plate (Fig. 58) about 0.47 times as long as wide with paired inner lobes each 1.82 times as long as outer lobes, 1.3 times as long as wide and strongly, obliquely emarginate so that outer angle is acute; spiculum gastrale slender, straight and distinctly curved at apex. Tegmen 2.24 times as long as wide, sides slightly diverging to about middle then more strongly converging to apex (Fig. 84), which is deeply emarginate forming paired acute lobes; basal fifth abruptly declined in lateral view; tegminal strut 0.28 times as long as body of tegmen and subtruncate at apex. Penis 1.20 times as long as tegmen and 3.8 times as long as wide; sides subparallel for basal two-thirds, then briefly converging to form narrow apical section broadly rounded at apex, with elongate-oval translucent area occupying most of basal section; penile strut about 1.20 times as long as body of penis, widened and truncate at apex. Ovipositor 2.42 times as long as wide, paraprocts 1.19 times as long as gonocoxites, which are 1.61 times as long as their combined widths, widest at base with well-developed outer lobes, fused together at base and strongly, gradually narrowed to narrowly truncate, contiguous apices (Fig. 77); gonostyli lateral/subapical, highly reduced, much shorter than wide and apically setose (Fig. 63).
Types. Holotype, ♂, “ 17.33 S, 145.32 E QLD, BS2 Mt. Fisher 1150m, 2-30 Nov 1995, L. Umback, FI Trap JCU/ ANIC Image” (ANIC, No. 25-067889).
Paratypes. Queensland: Hugh Nelson Range (17.27 S, 145.29 E), 1150m, 6.iii–4.iv.1995, FI Traps, P. Zborowski (1, ANIC); Massey Creek, BS3 (17°27’S, 143°34’E), 1000m, 30.xi.1995 – 3.i.1996, FI Trap JCU, L. Umback (1, ANIC); Mt. Haig, GS1 (17.06S, 145.36E), 1150m, 1.xii.1994 – 3.i.1995, FI Trap, JCU (East), P. Zborowski (5, ANIC, QMB); Mt. Haig, GS1 (17°06’S, 145°36’E), 1150m, 4.ii–17.iii.1995, FI Traps, P. Zborowski (1, ANIC); Mt. Spec, S1 (19ۥ00’S, 146°11’E), 875m, 1.x–4.xi.1995, FI Trap JCU, M. Cermak (1, ANIC).
Distribution. Northern QLD.
Biology. All specimens have been collected in flight intercept traps.
Etymology. Generic name a shortened combination of the Latin aenigma, riddle, mystery, and part of the generic name Physoronia. Species name from the Latin echinos, hedgehog, referring to the dorsal vestiture.
description: Published as part of Lawrence, John F., 2019, Australian Nitidulinae: general review with descriptions of new genera and species (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), pp. 261-290 in Zootaxa 4657 (2) on pages 268-269, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4657.2.3, http://zenodo.org/record/3769191