Orthocis flavipennis
Creators: name: Lawrence, John F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Ciidae
Orthocis
Orthocis flavipennis

description: Orthocis flavipennis (Pic 1923)
(Figs 41–42, 52, 72–73, 87)
Cis flavipennis Pic, 1923: 12; Orthocis flavipennis (Pic), Lawrence, 1971.
Diagnosis. This species, described by Pic (1923) based on specimens from Vietnam, differs from O. latimarginatus Lawrence in its smaller size, less than 2.6 mm, and black head and pronotum and from both O. leanus (Blackburn) and O. aequalis (Blackburn) in its shorter, finer dorsal vestiture. The elytra are primarily yellow with black markings, unlike O. quadrimaculatus Lawrence and O. inordinatus sp. nov., in which the elytra are primarily black with yellow markings.
Redescription. With characters of the genus. Length = 1.75–2.15 (1.92 ± 0.13, n = 10) mm. Body elongate, more or less parallel-sided and slightly convex: BL/EW 2.11–2.28 (2.20); GD/EW = 0.68–0.73 (0.70). Colour of head and pronotum dark reddish-brown to black, sometimes with yellow patch at anterior edge; scutellar shield either yellow or black; elytra usually yellow with varying amounts of black, usually at anterior third or along suture, rarely entirely yellow or almost entirely black; undersurfaces usually dark reddish-brown to black; legs yellowish-brown; antennae yellow with club darker. Dorsal vestiture single, consisting of very short, erect, fine hairs, not or barely longer than the punctures from which they arise and barely visible at lower magnification. Longest eye diameter 0.19 times as great as head width. Frontoclypeal ridge more or less evenly truncate in both sexes; clypeus in male convex and densely clothed with stiff, erect setae. Antennomere length ratio: 4.17: 2.67: 4.17: 2.67: 1.67: 1.33: 1.00: 2.50: 2.67: 4.83; length/width ratios: 1.56, 1.54, 3.57, 2.29, 1.25, 0.73, 0.46, 0.74, 0.76, 1.32. Apical maxillary palpomere 2.00 times as long as wide, widest near middle, with narrowly truncate apex. Prementum with distinct setose ligula; Labial palps separated by 0.50 times basal width of one; ratio of palpomere lengths 1.00: 2.12: 1.50, apical palpomere distinctly narrower than preapical one, which is somewhat inflated subapically. Male gula 0.55 times as wide as head, densely filled with micropores, which extend anteriorly onto submentum as a broad, rectangular patch; female gula 0.52 times as long as head, with sparsely distributed micropores. Pronotum 0.76–0.82 (0.79) times as long as wide, widest at middle in both sexes, with narrow lateral margins just visible for their entire lengths from above; anterior angles barely produced forward and rounded; posterior angles oblique; disc coarsely and densely punctate, with punctures usually separated by a fourth of a diameter; interspaces smooth and shiny. Prosternum in front of coxae 1.42 times as long as mid length of coxal cavity, slightly convex; prosternal process 0.50 times as wide as mid length of coxal cavity, rounded at apex. Scutellar shield 0.14 times as wide as pronotum, acute at apex. Elytra 1.37–1.51 (1.44) times as long as wide and 1.81–2.07 (1.92) times as long as pronotum; punctation somewhat finer and sparser than that on pronotum; interspaces finely sculptured and shiny. Mesocoxal cavities separated by 0.25 times shortest diameter of one. Metaventrite slightly convex, with discrimen 0.50 times as long as ventrite; shortest distance between meso- and metacoxal cavities 1.32 times length of ventrite 1 at same point. First abdominal ventrite 1.57 times as long as 2nd; sex patch in male (Fig. 52) about 0.70 times as long as ventrite, located at middle, about as long as wide, without marginal rim. Sides of sternite VIII in male strongly converging and slightly curved, its apex narrowly but deeply emarginate, forming a pair of subtriangular, setose angles. Pregenital ring moderately broad but anteriorly acute. Tegmen (Fig. 72) 2.92 times as long as wide, sides weakly converging to about middle, diverging to apical third and then converging to subapex, where there is on each side a small but deep emargination; apex broadly cleft between a pair of oblique processes, each with a lateral recurved hook, just beyond small emargination; base bimarginate with a median, narrowly rounded projection. Penis (Fig. 73) 1.45 times as long as tegmen, 6.4 times as long as wide; sides more or less parallel to apical fifth, then converging to narrowly acute apex; base with very long struts. Ovipositor (Fig. 87) 4.05 times as long as wide, widest near bases of coxites; sides subparallel, but slightly wider near base of coxites and narrowing towards apex; paraprocts 1.45 times as long as gonocoxites, longitudinally oriented; gonocoxites 1.53 times as long as their combined widths; proximal lobe longer than wide
and divided transversely into two parts; distal lobe twice as long as proximal lobe, gradually narrowed to about middle and then more abruptly so to form a cylindrical extension, more heavily sclerotised and rounded at apex; gonostylus 0.25 times as long as distal lobe and 5 times as long as wide.
Type specimens: Lectotype, ♂, “ Tonkin, Hoa-Binh, Coll. J. Clermont / Cis flavipennis n. sp. ” (MNHN).
Paratype?. Vietnam: ♀, “Tonkin Hoa-Binh” (possible cotype, MNHN).
Other specimens examined: VIC: Vietnam: Intercepted at Melbourne, VA 16042225 d, 5.xi.2016, ex Auricularia sp. (50?, DAWRV, ANIC); QLD: Vietnam: Intercepted at Brisbane?, QA13048681b, 15.x.2013, dried mushrooms, AQIS, QLD (1, QDPC).
Distribution. Southeast Asia; introduced into Australia.
Biology. Collected in Auricularia sp.
description: Published as part of Lawrence, John F., 2019, The Australian Ciidae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea): supplement, pp. 451-490 in Zootaxa 4555 (4) on pages 482-483, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4555.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2584905