Safrina dekeyzeri Reid & Beatson, new species
Creators: name: Reid, C. A. M.
name: Beatson, M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Lucanidae
Safrina
Safrina dekeyzeri

description: Safrina dekeyzeri Reid & Beatson, new species
(Figs. 2, 11, 20, 29, 38–39, 53, 70)
Material examined. Types: AUSTRALIA: HOLOTYPE: Ƌ, New South Wales, Warra State Forest, 1170 m, 4.ii- 9.iv.1993, M. Gray & G. Cassis (AMS); PARATYPES (27): New South Wales: ♀, Armidale, under bark, Eucalyptus, 24.iii.1964, K. D. Fairey (AMS); Forest Land State Forest, 22.ii.2007, R. de Keyzer & A. Polak (RDK); Ƌ, Basket Swamp National Park, 20.ii.2002, R. de Keyzer & A. Polak (RDK); 2Ƌ, ♀, Basket Swamp National Park, 20.ii.2002, R. de Keyzer & A. Polak, ‘collected as larva and reared, adult emerged Jan 2003 ’ (AMS, RDK); 4Ƌ, Basket Swamp National Park, 21.ii.2003, R. de Keyzer (AMS, RDK); 2Ƌ, Basket Swamp National Park, 14.ii.2004, R. de Keyzer (RDK); 5Ƌ, Basket Swamp National Park, 16.ii.2005, R. de Keyzer (AMS, RDK); ♀, Ben Lomond, 9.i.1963, B. P. Moore (BPM); ♀, Boonoo SF, 1070 m, 4.ii–9.iv.1993, M. Gray & G. Cassis (AMS); ♀, near Glen Elgin, 19.ii.1998 C. J. Müller (AMS); ♀, 26 mi [les] E Glen Innes, euc[alypt] & oak forest/ oak & euc dry scl[ophyll], 25.xi.1976, F. T. Fricke (AMS); Queensland: Ƌ, ♀, Eukey, 16.iii.1935, E. Sutton (QMB); 2Ƌ, pailing yard, via Wyberba, 7–9.iv.1953, E. Sutton (QMB); ♀, Wyberba, 14.iii.1960, E. Sutton (QMB); ♀, Wyberba Mountain [?] Pk, 13.iv.1941, E. Sutton (QMB).
Diagnosis. Male. Black and parallel-sided; head rectangularly expanded beyond eyes; upper surface of mandibles with elongate tubercle on outer edge 1/3 from base and without preapical dorsal tooth on inner edge; mandible with basal tooth on upper part of internal edge; pregular swelling almost impunctate, with 2−4 large punctures; elytra costate in basal half, with 3 ridges and transverse wrinkles, not dull and densely microreticulate. Female. Black; head broadest at posterior angles of genal lobe, then evenly convex to mandibles; anterior face of pregular swelling impunctate; pronotal disc strongly and fairly closely punctured, interspaces 2− 5x diameters; pronotal hind angles acute; elytra microreticulate, costate in basal half, including ridge from shoulder to disc, and transversely wrinkled.
Description. Male. Length 15−24 mm. Black or almost so, usually with faint greenish tinge on elytra, and ridges of elytra pure black in contrast to dark brown remainder (under strong light), tibiae rarely dark red. Body approximately parallel-sided (head, pronotum, and basal 2/3 of elytra). Head with sparse dorsal setae, more conspicuous at sides, pronotum glabrous to margins.
Head: almost straight sided, parallel-sided, or slightly expanded to apex or slightly concave at sides; head strongly transverse, width much more than 2.5x length; dorsum strongly rugosely punctured, but irregularly so, with smooth interspaces; anteromedian prominence usually bituberculate; anterior margin shallowly concave; dorsally visible part of mandibles slightly longer than head, symmetrical or almost so; mandibles with low elongate dorsal tubercle, 1/3 from base of outer edge, up to 2 additional small tubercles distal to this; mandibular preapical dorsal tubercle absent on inner edge and ventral inner edge with 4−5 usually similarly sized and spaced triangular tubercles before upturned apex; base of inner face of mandible with large bilobed tubercle (connected ventral and dorsal tubercles); pregular swelling evenly convex, impunctate except 2−4 large lateral punctures.
Thorax: pronotum almost parallel-sided (less so in small specimens), posterolateral angles not projecting; lateral margins bluntly and irregularly crenulate; pronotal disc finely and sparsely punctured, with pair of foveolate depressions anterior to middle, sides strongly and closely punctured, some punctures separated by a diameter or less; pronotal disc shiny, minutely, and evenly microreticulate; scutellum semicircular with a few small apical punctures; elytra almost parallel-sided in basal 2/3, broadest 1/3−2/3 from base; basal half of elytron with intervals 1, 3 and 5 raised, plus an oblique ridge from humerus to disc; elytra mostly shiny, ridges and basal half mostly nonmicroreticulate, with large punctures in irregular striae mixed with sparse small punctures, the whole surface transversely grooved or wrinkled; elytral sides broadly explanate, twice width of base of metatibia, with transverse grooves or wrinkles; wings fully developed, apices folded back to base of elytra; external margin of protibia with 2 large and 2−4 minor teeth; internal edge of protibia with 1−2 prominent teeth; metatibia with 1−2 small external teeth.
Abdomen: ventrites dull, microreticulate, I impunctate except for intercoxal process, but finely rugulose, II −V closely and coarsely punctured, II −IV with minute recumbent setae, V with longer semi-erect setae; apex ventrite V truncate. Genitalia: apical half of phallobase with scattered minute setae, phallobase medially unsclerotised on both dorsal and ventral surfaces, dorsal surface weakly convex; parameres conspicuously and moderately closely setose, apices blunt in lateral view; ventral sclerite of penis entire, apex with v-shaped notch; endophallus tightly coiled in repose, with two loops.
Female. As male, except: length 16−22 mm; body not parallel-sided, pronotum and elytra with rounded sides; head distinctly broadest at posterior angles; without obvious anteromedian prominence; dorsally visible part of mandibles about as long as head; mandibles with or without elongate dorsal tubercle, 1/3 from base of outer edge, remainder of outer edge keeled; pronotal disc more strongly and densely punctured; sides strongly and sharply crenulate; internal edge protibia without teeth; apex ventrite V rounded.
Larva. Unknown.
Etymology. Named for Roger de Keyzer who collected most of the type specimens.
Distribution and natural history. This rarely collected species occurs in open New England Blackbutt woodland (Eucalyptus andrewsii) at high altitude on the Dividing Range, from Armidale to Stanthorpe. Adults have been collected from January to April, occurring under half-buried eucalypt logs (R. de Keyzer, personal communication 2014).
Notes. The material described above represents two populations separated by 1° latitude (about 120 km) on the Dividing Range. Males of these populations appear to be inseparable but the single southern female differs from the four northern females by possession of a basal tooth on the upper surface of the mandible. This may not be significant, as these apparently isolated populations were recently connected, by suitable habitat now cleared. The southernmost site at Ben Lomond has also been destroyed by forest clearance (B. Moore, personal communication 2004). The only known specimen from this site was illustrated by Moore (1984: fig. 124), misidentified as Rhyssonotus costatus.
description: Published as part of Reid, C. A. M. & Beatson, M., 2016, Revision of the stag beetle genus Ryssonotus MacLeay (Coleoptera: Lucanidae), with descriptions of a new genus and three new species, pp. 1-39 in Zootaxa 4150 (1) on pages 23-24, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4150.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/272084