Aphanocephalus punctulatus
Creators: name: Szawaryn, Karol
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Discolomatidae
Aphanocephalus
Aphanocephalus punctulatus

description: Aphanocephalus punctulatus (Blackburn, 1895)
(Figs 9C, D, 13G–I, 15F)
Eleopthreptus punctulatus Blackburn, 1895: 236.
Aphanocephalus punctulatus (Blackburn, 1895) — Arrow 1920: 3.
Material examined. Type material.
Lectotype (here designated). SOUTH AUSTRALIA: "T [black ink, handwritten], 5983 [red ink handwritten]/ Type [red circle]/ Blackburn coll., 1910-236./ Eleothreptus punctulatus, Blackb [black ink handwritten] " (NHM). Single specimen, here designated as the lectotype.
Other material. VICTORIA: Victorian Alps, Blackburn/ SAMA 25-50378 (1 ex., SAMA); Geelong V., H. W. Davey/ SAMA 25-50375 (2, SAMA); Geelong V., H. W. Davey/ SAMA 25-50376 (2, SAMA); Australia, St. Albans, Vict. I.VI.58, B.P. Moore/ Aphanocephalus, Discolomatidae, det. B.P. Moore'83 (1, ANIC). SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Ad. [red ink handwritten below the specimen on mounting card]/ Adelaide, Blackburn / 19681 Eleothreptus punctulatus Blkb Australia [balck ink, handwritten] Cotype [red ink, handwritten]/ SAMA 25-50371 (2, SAMA); Ad. [red ink handwritten below the specimen on mounting card]/ Adelaide, Blackburn / 19903 Eleothreptus punctulatus Vic: S. Austr. [handwritten]/ SAMA 25-50375 (1, SAMA); in flood debris/ Adelaide C Watts, Nov. 1956 / SAMA 25-50385 (5, SAMA); Turretfield S.A. Oct. 58 C. W. / SAMA 25-50382 (3, SAMA); Turretfield S.A. Oct. 58 C. W. / SAMA 25-50383 (2, SAMA); Turretfield S.A. Oct. 58 C. W. / SAMA 25-50384 (4, SAMA). NEW SOUTH WALES: NSW: Bourke & Wilcannia, Darling River Foods, Helms; v & vi 90 (9, AMS; 1 MIZ).
Type locality. South Australia, Adelaide.
Distribution. New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria (Fig. 16).
Diagnosis. Aphanocephalus punctulatu s is most similar to A. slipinskii in body coloration (dark brown elytra usually with paler humeral areas), however, it can be distinguished by the following set of characters: body distinctly more flattened (Figs 9C, D) and more elongate (moderately convex in A. slipinskii (Figs 9H, I) and rather oval body outline); pronotum with dark brown discal macula touching basal pronotal margin (in A. slipinskii discal macula usually separated from basal margin by a narrow light brown/rufous band); scutellar shield brown (yellow in A. slipinskii); mesoventrite, metaventrite and abdomen dark brown (light brown in A. slipinskii). Also, male genitalia of A. punctulatus are diagnostic, tegmen in inner view is elongate with penis guide slightly narrowing towards apex (Fig. 13I), while in A. slipinskii tegmen is much shorter, and more stout with sides regularly rounded (Fig. 14F).
Redescription. Length: 1.88–2.05 mm, width: 1.29–1.39 mm. Body elongate oval about 1.4–1.5 times as long as wide (Figs 5A, 9C), flattened in lateral view (Fig. 9D). Pronotum and elytra covered with yellowish, long, dense setae. Head, pronotum, elytra and ventral side dark brown, just lateral sides of pronotum and epipleuron orange to light brown, sometimes humeral parts of elytra slightly paler, antennae, mouthparts, hypomera and legs yellow.
Pronotum covered with punctae of single size (Fig. 1E), densely distributed, punctae at base of pronotum slightly coarser. Lateral margins of pronotum bordered, anterior margin without bordering line. Elytra covered with punctae of two sizes, uniformly intermixed. Pronotum and elytra broadly explanate laterally, margins well visible throughout. Lateral sides of elytra broadly rounded, without pseudopores. Epipleuron with shallow sub-marginal furrow.
Mentum without lateral carinae. Labial palps narrowly separated. Prosternum with notosternal carinae short but visible; prosternal process with lateral carinae absent. Metaventrite about same length as ventrite 1. Ventrite 1 much longer than ventrites 2–4 combined. Ventrite 1 almost entirely covered with large punctae, only middle area covered with smaller punctae; ventrites 2–5 covered with punctae of two sizes, coarser at base forming a single row, and smaller on the rest of surface, ventrites 2–5 with base with bordering line.
Male genitalia. Tegmen in inner view with sides sub-parallel in basal half, slightly tapering toward apex in apical half, apically broadly rounded, with a few short setae at apex (Fig. 13I); in lateral view broad, sub-triangular, pointed at apex, outer margin straight, inner margin slightly sinusoidal in middle (Fig. 13H). Penis long, broadening toward apex, outer margin straight in basal 2/3 and roundly curved in apical third, inner margin apically sinuate; gonopore about as long as wide, with apex at the same level as apex of penis, apically truncate (Fig. 13G).
Female genitalia. Coxites narrow, elongate. Sperm duct diverging apically from bursa copulatrix, spermatheca with vermiform basal part and bulbous apical part (Fig. 15F), apical part with greater diameter than basal part, and connection between both parts very narrow.
Remarks. In the original description, Blackburn (1895) did not clearly state how many specimens he examined. He only mentioned that the species was collected near Port Adelaide (South Australia), "on a fungus on marshy ground." A single specimen from Blackburn's collection is deposited in the Natural History Museum in London, and it is designated here as the lectotype to fix the taxonomic status of this species.
description: Published as part of Szawaryn, Karol, 2025, Revision of the Australian species of Aphanocephalus Wollaston (Coleoptera: Discolomatidae), pp. 401-440 in Zootaxa 5632 (3) on pages 431-432, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5632.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/15372416