Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea 1922
Creators: name: Kejval, Zbyněk
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Anthicidae
Mecynotarsus
Mecynotarsus hortensis

description: Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea, 1922
(Figs 60, 61, 153, 197)
Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea, 1922: 511. Mecynotarsus hortensis: UHMANN (2007): 24 (redescription). Mecynotarsus lateroalbus Lea, 1922: 511, syn. nov. Mecynotarsus lateroalbus: UHMANN (2007): 22 (redescription).
Type locality. Australia, Western Australia, Swan River env.
Type material. M. hortensis – SYNTYPES: 2 ♂♂ 4 ♀♀ [mounted on the same card], ‘ hortensis Lea TYPE Swan R [h+p] // 3483 Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea W. Australia TYPE [h] // SAMA Database No. 25-028559 [p]’ (SAMA); 2 ♂♂ 2 ♀♀, ‘ Swan R Lea [p] // Co-type. [p] // I. 15331 Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea W. Australia Cotype [h] // SAMA Database No. 25-028560 [p]’ (SAMA); 1 ♂ 1 ♀, ‘ Swan R Lea [p] // Co-type [p] // SAMA Database No. 25-028561 ’ (SAMA); 2 spec. [mounted on single card], ‘Swan R. Lea [p] // Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea, Co-type [p+h] // Paratype [p; bluish label] // A. H. Elston Collection [p] // Australian Museum K 269830 [p]’ (AMSA); 1 spec., ‘[bluish round label] // K49902 [h] // Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea, Co-type Swan R [p+h] // PARATYPE [p; bluish label] // Australian Museum K 269831 [p]’ (AMSA); 1 ♂ 1 ♀, ‘ Swan R Lea [p] // PARATYPE [p; blue label] // On permanent loan from MACLEAY MUSEUM University of Sydney [p] // Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea W. Australia Cotype [h] AUST. NAT. INS. COLL. [p; green label] // ANIC Database No. 25 054224 [p]’ (ANIC); 1 ♂ 1 ♀, ‘ Swan R Lea [p] // C/2604 [h] // CO-TYPE [p] // Mecynotarsus hortensis Lea, Co-type Swan R [p+h]’ (QMBA).
M. lateroalbus – SYNTYPES: 1 ♀, ‘ lateroalbus Lea, TYPE Parachilna [p+h] // I. 15270 Mecynotarsus lateroalbus Lea S. Australia TYPE [h] // S.A. Museum Specimen [p; red label]’ (SAMA); 1 ♀, ‘ Mt. Painter Flinders range H. G. Stokes [p] // Co-type [p] S.A. Museum Specimen [p]’ (SAMA); 1 ♀, ‘Cue, W.A. H. W. Brown [p] // Co-type [p] // 20637 Mecynotarsus lateroalbus Lea W. Australia Cotype [h] // S.A. Museum Specimen [p; red label]’ (SAMA).
Additional material. AUSTRALIA: AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY: 5 ♂♂ 2 ♀♀, Paddy’s River, 1.6 km S of Cotter Dam, 17.iv.1969, S. Misko leg. (ANIC); 1 ♂, Casuarina Sands, near Cotter Dam, ex stem Acacia dealbata, 28.xii.1981, P. J. Gullan leg. (ANIC); 1 ♂, Uriarra Crossing, 30 Dec. 1985, K. R. Pullen leg. (ANIC); 1 f *, Kambah Pool, flood debris, 15.ix.1978, Lawrence & Weir leg. (ANIC). NEW SOUTH WALES: 4 ♂♂ 3 ♀♀, Fowlers Gap Research Station, 31°05′S 141°42′E, at light, 29.xi.–2.xii.1981, J. C. Cardale leg. (ANIC, 2 spec. ZKDC); 1 ♂, Bungonia State Park, Shoalhaven River gorge, collected in sand / mud, 5.–7.x.1985, C. Reid leg. (ANIC); 1 ♂, 15 km NW of Moruya, Moruya River, 3.x.1982, J. & E. Doyen (ANIC); 1 ♀, Numbla Vale, Dalgety, 26.xi.1993, V. R. Bejsak leg. (ZKDC). NORTHERN TERRITORY: 1 ♂ 1 ♀, Trephina Gorge National Park, creek above John Hayes Rockhole, 23°32′S 134°21′E, 5.iii.1995, T. Weir leg. (ANIC). QUEENSLAND: 1 ♂, Cooper Creek near Dig Tree, UV light trap, 2.ii.1998, G. Hangay leg. (HNHM).
Redescription (syntype, male). Body length 2.4 mm. Dark reddish brown; legs and antennae reddish.
Antero-lateral margins of frons simple. Gular rugules of different size, anterior coarse rugules ordered, contiguous to nearly fused as in Fig. 139. Clypeal granules nearly indistinct. Setation of head evenly short, dense, finer and appressed on vertex, somewhat coarser laterally along eyes and ventrally. Antennae moderately long; antennomeres III–V about twice, X 1.5 times as long as wide; setation mostly rather short and fine, distinctly coarser in basal third / half, and with several long, stiff setae on basal antennomere.
Pronotum 1.4 times as long as wide, its lateral margins somewhat unevenly shaped, angled at widest point and then straight to slightly concave while narrowing towards base in dorsal view; posterior collar narrow but distinct. Pronotal horn robust, rather wide, its posterior angles distinct in dorsal view (Fig. 153); horn margins armed with 3–4 widely rounded lobules on each side; horn crest very distinct, clearly raised, coarse rugules on its margins nearly completely fused; submarginal rugules numerous, distinct, forming rather dense row laterally; single large median longitudinal rugule and few minute rugules posteriorly. Setation pale brownish, scaly and quite appressed; pronotal horn largely rather sparsely indistinctly setose dorsally; scales on pronotal disc with indistinct fine margins, nearly merging and entirely covering surface; antebasal paired setae distinct (somewhat thickened) both laterally and medially, another tactile setae absent.
Elytra 1.8 times as long as wide; omoplates and postbasal impression absent. Setation similar to that on pronotum, scaly, whitish to pale brownish and brown, forming rather distinct markings, at places (antero-medially) somewhat mixed (Fig. 197); scales elongate, rounded apically, nearly merging and entirely covering surface; erect tactile setae absent.
Male characters. Sternum VII nearly simple. Tergum VIII and aedeagus as in Figs 60, 61.
Variation. Body length (♂ ♀) 1.9–2.7 mm. Pronotal horn with 3–5 lobules on each side; rugules of crest margins may be partly (narrowly) to completely fused, mostly distinct, rarely forming semioval rim with evenly shaped margins (specimens from Trephina Gorge National Park). Markings on elytra (brownish and whitish to silvery spots / bands) may be both conspicuous and partly (dorsally) or entirely absent.
Differential diagnosis. Mecynotarsus hortensis is nearly identical with M. concolor, showing usually somewhat darker colouration of the body scales (especially on the elytra, elytral apices brownish), and slightly different form of the parameres and the ventral lamina of male tergum VIII (median process narrower and more protruding, lateral sides setose) (cf. Figs 60, 61 and 40, 41).
Distribution. Australia: Australian Capital Territory (new record), New South Wales (new record), Northern Territory (new record), Queensland (new record), South Australia (LEA 1922, as M. lateroalbus), Western Australia (LEA 1922).
description: Published as part of Kejval, Zbyněk, 2013, Taxonomic revision of the Australian Notoxinae (Coleoptera: Anthicidae), pp. 1-98 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (suppl.) (suppl.) 53 on pages 48-50, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4272709