Lepanus cardwellensis Gunter & Weir 2021, new species
Creators: name: Gunter, Nicole L.
name: Weir, Thomas A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Scarabaeidae
Lepanus
Lepanus cardwellensis

description: Lepanus cardwellensis Gunter & Weir, new species
(Figs. 2I, M; 3B; 4B; 5B; 7A)
Type series. Holotype: ♂ “ Cardwell Gap QLD, 15km N Ingham, 80m. 9 Aug 1982, S. & J. Peck SBP102” / “rainforest, carrion bait” / “ ANIC database 25 058170” / “ Lepanus NQ 25, det T.A. Weir 2011” / “ ANIC Image”, [18°32’00”S, 146°11’00”E], (in ANIC). Paratypes (4x ♀): Queensland: Cardwell Gap, 15 km N Ingham, 80 m [18°32’00”S, 146°11’00”E], 9.viii.1982, S. Peck & J. Peck (25-65534 2 specimens ♀ in ANIC); Cardwell Range, 18°31’44”S, 146°11’10”E, 130 m, 15–16.iii.2012, G.B. Monteith (25-053916 1 specimen ♀ in ANIC also as COL2408); Kirrama Range, 18 km NW of Kennedy [18°10’00”S, 145°47’00”E], 700 m, 29.xii.1986, H. Howden & A. Howden, (CMNEN-00030067 1 specimen ♀ in CMNC).
Description. Uniform in colour, dark brown to black. Antennal clubs grey. Dorsal surfaces nitid with extremely fine setae (often rubbed off).
Total length: 4.0 mm. Holotype measurements: Total length 4.0 mm; elytral width 2.9 mm.
Male. Head: Width to length ratio 35: 24. Surface smooth and nitid, with very fine punctation. Dorsal part of eyes wide, separated by an interocular space approximately 11 times eye width (54: 5); eye canthus dividing or nearly dividing eye.
Prothorax: Pronotum with posterolateral angles rounded and obtuse, lateral margins bordered. Pronotal surface smooth, nitid, finely and densely punctate. Hypomeral surface very finely reticulate, hypomeral stria absent. Pronotum width to length ratio 57: 35.
Elytra: Surface smooth, nitid. Striae superficial, impunctate. Stria 6 not extending to elytral base and stria 7 extending to the elytral base. 8th stria impunctate where it curves inwards posteriorly. Ratio of length of the elytra along suture to maximum elytral width 65: 72.
Legs: Ventral ridge of protibiae without crenulations but with small flange. Protibia with 2 teeth on the outer edge, front edge truncate, apical digit narrow and sharp, apical spur absent. Mesotibia with a brush of setae apically on inner side. Metatibia with inner edge nearly straight and not crenulate. Basal metatarsomere with slight lobe on inner edge.
Abdomen: Pygidium with a transverse sinuate fold across base that is curved and not impressed medially. Pygidial disc with a large flat, shiny, finely reticulate central area that occupies about half the disc. Ventrite 6 impunctate.
Pterothorax: Mesometaventral suture slightly arched. Medial lobe of metaventrite smooth, nitid, virtually impunctate, broadly margined beside mesocoxae. Mesoventrite smooth, nitid, and notched anteriorly. Mesepimeron smooth. Metanepisternum finely reticulate.
Female. Protibia with front edge truncate and apical spur arising directly from front edge. Apical digit absent. Mesotibia without a brush of setae apically.
Etymology. Named after the Cardwell Range of the Australian Wet Tropics, where most records are known.
Distribution. Known from rainforests below 700 m in the contiguous Cardwell and Kirrama Ranges in the Wet Tropics (WET) IBRA bioregion [Zone 13] (Fig. 7A). This species may represent a short-range endemic.
Comments. Only known from a total of five specimens collected from either dung or carrion traps. This species has been referred to under the informal name of “ Lepanus NQ 25”. The Lepanus NQ 25 specimen sequenced in Gunter et al. (2019) was collected from Cardwell Range, is designated as a paratype here (ANIC 25-053831 also as COL2408) and was recovered within the clade that contains all species in the Lepanus ustulatus species group. Its relationship with L. globulus and L. cameroni is only moderately supported.
description: Published as part of Gunter, Nicole L. & Weir, Thomas A., 2021, Revision of Australian species of the dung beetle genus Lepanus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae): review of the L. ustulatus, L. storeyi, and L. nitidus species groups and description of eight new species, pp. 1-66 in Zootaxa 4923 (1) on pages 31-33, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4923.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4496757