Notapterocis acutus Lawrence 2019, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Lawrence, John F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Ciidae
Notapterocis
Notapterocis acutus

description: Notapterocis acutus sp. nov.
(Figs 38–39, 70, 85)
Diagnosis. This species is distinguished by the very short fine dorsal vestiture, elytra less than 1.6 times as long as the pronotum, and the male with frontocypeal plates and an abdominal sex patch. It differs from N. grossulus sp. nov., in being somewhat larger in size with coarser and denser pronotal punctation and acute frontoclypeal plates in the male.
Description. With characters of the genus. Length = 1.20–1.50 (1.34 ± 0.11, n = 10) mm. Body broadly ovate and strongly convex: BL/EW 1.49–1.55 (1.53); GD/EW = 0.69–0.76 (0.75). Colour of head and pronotum reddishbrown to black, elytra yellowish-brown to black; undersides usually reddish-brown; legs yellowish-brown to reddish-brown; antennal funicle yellow, club darker, surfaces shiny. Dorsal vestiture single, consisting of very short, fine hairs, which are barely longer than the punctures from which they arise and not visible under lower power. Frons and vertex in female flat, in male concave with broad shallow impression but without vertexal sex patch. Longest eye diameter 0.22 times as great as head width. Frontoclypeal ridge in both sexes incomplete at middle, in female weakly produced and rounded laterally, in male strongly produced forming a pair of acutely triangular plates separated by slightly more than one basal width. Antennomere length ratio: 4.17: 2.33: 2.83: 2.50: 1.17: 1.33: 1.00: 2.00: 1.83: 4.00; length/width ratios: 1.56, 1.40, 2.83, 1.87, 1.00, 1.00, 0.67. 0.71, 0.52, 1.20. Apical maxillary palpomere 1.87 times as long as wide, widest near base, narrowly rounded at apex. Labial palps separated by 0.17 times basal width of one; ratio of palpomere lengths 1.00: 2.75: 1.50, apical palpomere slightly narrower than preapical one, which is not inflated. Male gula 0.52 times as wide as head, densely filled with micropores, the pores extending anteriorly onto submentum as a narrow, apically rounded patch; female gula 0.42 times as wide as head. Pronotum 0.64–0.74 (0.68) times as long as wide, widest behind middle in both sexes; anterior edge strongly rounded in female, usually truncate or very weakly emarginate in male; lateral margins barely visible for their entire lengths from above; anterior angles produced forward and rounded; posterior angles slightly obtuse; posterior edge evenly rounded, without narrow bead; disc strongly, evenly convex; punctation fine and sparse, punctures usually separated by two diameters; interspaces very finely sculptured and shiny. Prosternum in front of coxae 0.91 times as long as mid length of procoxal cavity, strongly tumid with median longitudinal carina, prosternal process 0.64 times as wide as mid length of coxal cavity, rounded at apex; procoxal cavities very narrowly open; postcoxal process narrowly acute. Elytra 0.8 4–0.96 (0.90) times as long as wide and 1.28–1.69 (1.43) times as long as pronotum; punctures usually distinctly larger than pronotal punctures but somewhat variable, more or less evenly distributed, the interspaces smooth and shiny. Mesocoxal cavities separated by 0.12 times shortest diameter of one. Metaventrite slightly convex; discrimen absent; shortest distance between meso- and metacoxal cavities 0.77 times as long as abdominal ventrite 1. Outer apical angle of protibia more or less rounded in both sexes. First abdominal ventrite 1.44 times as long as 2nd; sex patch in male about 0.42 times as long as ventrite 1, behind at middle, longitudinally oval, without marginal rim. Sides of sternite VIII sinuate and slightly concave, its apex broadly and shallowly emarginate with rounded lateral angles. Pregenital ring subacute and slightly produced anteriorly forming a slightly curved strut. Tegmen (Fig. 70) 2.70 times as long as wide, sides subparallel but somewhat sinuate to apical third, then converging for a short distance and abruptly diverging to form a pair of recurved teeth flanking a rounded and mesally cleft apical lobe; base subangulate. Penis 0.94 times as long as tegmen and 5.54 times as long as wide, sides subparallel but slightly sinuate, with apex acute, but with broadly truncate lobe at different level; base slightly emarginate. Ovipositor (Fig. 85) 2.75 times as long as wide, widest at base with sides gradually narrowing apically; paraprocts 1.25 times as long as gonocoxites, longitudinally oriented; gonocoxites 1.39 times as long as their combined widths, proximal lobe slightly longer than wide, distal lobe 2.00 times as long as proximal lobe, gradually narrowed to subtruncate apex; gonostylus 0.19 times as long as distal lobe and 4 times as long as wide.
Type specimens: Holotype, ♂: “SEQ 24.32Sx 151.28E, Bulbirin Barracks 580m, 7-8 Oct 1999 C. J. Burwell, ex polyporous fungi, rainforest 50169” / ANIC image” (QMB # T244708).
Paratypes: QLD: Bulburin Barracks (24.32S, 151.28E), 580m, 7–8.x.1999, 50169, ex polyporus fungi, rainforest, C. J. Burwell (10, QMB); Oakview S. F. (26.09S, 152.20E), 400m, 24.xi.2001, 50759, dry rainforest, ex fungi A, C. J. Burwell (1, QMB).
Distribution. Known from only two localities in central QLD.
Biology. Found in unidentified polypore basidiomes.
Etymology. Derived from the Latin acutus, meaning sharp, pointed, and referring to the acute frontoclypeal plates.
description: Published as part of Lawrence, John F., 2019, The Australian Ciidae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea): supplement, pp. 451-490 in Zootaxa 4555 (4) on pages 478-479, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4555.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2584905