Neolariopsis Audisio & Cline & Biase & Antonini & Mancini & Trizzino & Costantini & Strika & Lamanna & Cerretti 2009, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Audisio, Paolo
name: Cline, Andrew Richard
name: Biase, Alessio De
name: Antonini, Gloria
name: Mancini, Emiliano
name: Trizzino, Marco
name: Costantini, Lorenzo
name: Strika, Sirio
name: Lamanna, Francesco
name: Cerretti, Pierfilippo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Nitidulidae
Neolariopsis

description: 5. Neolariopsis Audisio & Cline, gen. nov.   
(Figs. 5 a–h)  
 Type species. Meligethes cercoides Reitter, 1872: 248 (by present designation) [= Neolariopsis cercoides (Reitter, 1872) comb. nov.].   
 Generic description and diagnosis. Inclusive species vary moderately in size (1.6–2.2 mm length), and share the following combination of characters.   
 Body color and pubescence: pubescence golden to silvery-whitish, variable, short and fine, recumbent, or moderately long, suberect, never obscuring the variably colored dorsal body surface (yellowish, reddish, brown, blackish, frequently with metallic bronze iridescence, or blackish with orange spots on elytra: Figs. 5a, b); pronotal and elytral sides narrowly flattened, typically same color as disc. Lateral margin of pronutum and elytra typically with series of distinct setae, each seta 0.7–0.8× as long as those on elytral disc; posterior margin of pronotum comprising moderately long, usually distally trifid or tetrafid microsetae, microsetae uniformly distributed on middle region anterior to scutellum (as in Fig. 3e).   
 Dorsal habitus: body more or less convex, variably shaped, usually moderately slender and oval (Figs. 5a, b); dorsal punctures on discal portion of pronotum as large as, or larger than eye facets, usually deeply impressed and densely distributed; anterior margin of clypeus moderately to strongly arcuately emarginate, simple, i.e. without small distinct bulge medially, distinctly and widely bordered (Fig. 5c), circum-ocular furrows (occipital sulci) on dorsal side of head almost complete, narrow, moderately to deeply impressed (Fig. 5c); eyes large and usually moderately projected laterally (Figs. 5a, c); pronotum with faintly distinct posterior angles, rounded to obtuse and never directed posteriorly (Figs. 5a, b); scutellum regularly punctured in most of exposed portion; elytra usually with simple punctation, never completely transversely strigose, occasionally with faint traces of orange peel-like rugosity, or with faint traces of uneven rugosity (e.g. N. odiosus); elytral humeral angle moderately distinct, not protruding laterally (Figs. 5a, b); elytral humeral striae absent; elytral pre-sutural striae visible, originating at scutellar vertex, terminating at elytral apex, and delimiting on each elytron a faintly distinct, flat, unraised sutural border, border widest at posterior third and slightly narrower than proximal width of 3 rd antennomere; elytral apices truncately rounded in both sexes (Fig. 5a); pygidium partially exposed, moderately convex, rounded apically in both sexes (Figs. 5a, g).   
 Ventral habitus: antennal furrows markedly delimited, nearly parallel-sided, slightly convergent posteriorly, mentum subpentagonal (Fig. 5d); prosternal antennal furrows moderately raised and short at anterior margin of prosternum (Fig. 5d); prosternal process typically narrow, subapical dilated portion 1.6–1.8× as wide as maximum width of 1 st antennomere, and usually apically bluntly acuminate (Fig. 5f); lateral borders of prosternal process delimiting shallowly impressed but distinct furrows, distally terminating over predistal lateral expansions (Fig. 5f); posterior margin of mesoventrite simple, never incised medially (Fig. 5f); male impressions on metaventrite scarcely developed; first two visible abdominal ventrites simple in both sexes, without tufts of setae; caudal marginal lines of metacoxal cavities simple, parallel and contiguous to posterior margin of metacoxal cavities, without arched impression of outer ‘axillary’ line (as in Fig. 4k); ‘axillary’ space on first abdominal ventrite moderately developed, ‘axillary’ angle widely obtuse (as in Fig. 4k); relatively large but short and shallowly impressed arched impressions on basal portion of last visible abdominal ventrite, frequently partially covered by distal portion of penultimate visible abdominal ventrite (Fig. 5g).   
 Appendages: male 1 st antennomere 0.8–1.0× as long as width of protibiae excluding distal teeth (Figs. 5a, b, d); 3 rd antennomere in both sexes 2.0–2.1× as long as wide, 0.9–1.0× as long but distinctly thinner than 2 nd antennomere (Fig. 5d); 4 th and 5 th antennomeres in both sexes subequal, short, nearly as long as wide; antennal club compact, small, simple, comprising last 3 antennomeres in both sexes (8 th antennomere scarcely widened, 0.4–0.5× as wide as 9 th antennomere) (Figs. 5a, b, d), much narrower than width of protibiae, sexual dimorphism absent; labial palpi relatively short in both sexes (Fig. 5d), terminal segment 1.7–1.8× as long as wide; maxillary palpi moderately long and slender in both sexes (Fig. 5d), terminal segment 2.1–2.2× as long as wide; mandible mid-sized (Fig. 5c), apex moderately acuminate, no sexual dimorphism present; tarsal claws simple, never toothed at base (Fig. 5e); tarsi of normal size and shape, 0.5–0.7× as long as corresponding tibiae (Figs. 5a, b, e); protibiae with a series of usually small, even, moderately sharp teeth on lateral margin (Figs. 5a, b; Figs. 81–85 in KIREJTSHUK & AUDISIO 1995); meso- and metatibiae on lateral margin bearing a single and usually even row of large and robust pegs (Fig. 5e), without U-shaped sinuosity at distal third; meso- and metatibiae of variable width, usually moderately slender and narrow (Figs. 5a, b), never subtrapezoidal or axe-shaped; no sexual dimorphism in tibial shape; tarsal plates of prolegs sligthly wider in males; posterior margin of metafemora simple in both sexes, without tubercles or projections.   
 Male genitalia: processes along inner side of parameres absent (Figs. 29–38 and 45–46 in KIREJTSHUK & AUDISIO 1995), usually comprising moderately deep and narrow excision along distal margin, and always without deep median longitudinal desclerotization from proximal portion of tegmen extending to medial distal V-shaped excision; median lobe of aedeagus variable, without emargination laterally, rounded, subtruncate to acuminate distally, without distal marked excision or emargination.   
 Female genitalia (ovipositor): small; styli moderately long and distinct, simple, cylindrical, usually distinctly pigmented, inserted close to apex of contiguous gonostyloids; each gonostyloid moderately sclerotized and more heavily pigmented distally, with a simple, never indentate outer portion of basicoxites (Figs. 55–59 in KIREJTSHUK & AUDISIO 1995), and a single, narrow, moderately pigmented and sclerotized arcuate area along outer subdistal portion of gonostyloids. ‘Central point’ of ovipositor usually centrally located, with or without proximad directed spicule.   
 Etymology. The generic name is derived from a combination of the Greek ‘ νΈΟΣ ’ (= new), and Lariopsis, emphasizing its relatively more derived position within the Lariopsis complex of genera. Gender masculine.   
 Biology. All species are likely to be strictly associated for larval development with inflorescences and flowers of Mesembryanthemaceae s. l. (including Aizoaceae), particularly with Ruschia Schwant. and allied genera, and with Tetragonia L. (KIREJTSHUK & AUDISIO 1995, and unpublished data).   
 Phylogenetic position. See discussion above regarding the phylogenetic placement of Odontholariopsis gen. nov.   
 Taxonomy and geographic distribution. Neolariopsis gen. nov. includes six described species distributed in Southern Africa (KIREJTSHUK & AUDISIO 1995), which are divided into two species groups (i.e. the cercoides, and odiosus species-groups). A few additional species still awaiting description are known to the authors from the same geographical area.   
 Neolariopsis cercoides (Reitter, 1872) comb. nov. South Africa: W Cape   
 Neolariopsis odiosus (Reitter, 1872) comb. nov. South Africa: W Cape   
 Neolariopsis pulchellus (Reitter, 1872) comb. nov. South Africa: Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu- Natal; Lesotho;? Angola   
 Neolariopsis serrula (Kirejtshuk & Easton, 1988) comb. nov. Lesotho   
 Neolariopsis serruloides (Kirejtshuk & Audisio, 1995) comb. nov. South Africa: W Cape   
 Neolariopsis thalycroides (Kirejtshuk & Audisio, 1995) South Africa: W Cape comb. nov.
description: Published as part of Audisio, Paolo, Cline, Andrew Richard, Biase, Alessio De, Antonini, Gloria, Mancini, Emiliano, Trizzino, Marco, Costantini, Lorenzo, Strika, Sirio, Lamanna, Francesco & Cerretti, Pierfilippo, 2009, Preliminary re-examination of genus-level taxonomy of the pollen beetle subfamily Meligethinae (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae), pp. 341-504 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 49 (2) on pages 360-363, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5319334