Sciacharoides thompsoni Franz, comb. n.
Creators: name: Jałoszyński, Paweł
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Staphylinidae
Sciacharoides
Sciacharoides thompsoni

description: Sciacharoides thompsoni (Franz) comb. n.
(Figs. 129–140, 160, 164, 168–170, 197 a)
Horaeomorphus thompsoni Franz, 1975: 145, Fig. 122 a, b.
Type material studied. Holotype: AUSTRALIA: ♂: six labels (Fig. 164): "Umg. [i.e., env.] Maipoton [sic!] / Queensld., Austr. / lg. H. Franz 1970 " [white, printed], " Horaeomorphus / thompsoni / m / det. H. Franz" [white, handwritten and printed], " Typus " [red, handwritten], " SAMA Database / No. 25-037021" [white, printed], " SAMA Digital Image / 20. 8. 2013 " [green, printed and handwritten], " SCIACHAROIDES / thompsoni (Franz, 1975) / det. P. Jałoszyński, 2014" [white, printed] (SAM).
Additional material (7 exx.). 2 ♀♀, New South Wales, Wild Cattle Creek State Forest, "in moss on fallen tree", 30.v.1993, leg. T. Gush; 1 ♂, New South Wales, Pines Creek State Forest, "in upright dead tree stump", 31.v.1993, leg. T. Gush; 1 ♂, New South Wales, Chichester State Forest, "in debris on log", 6.vi.1992, leg. T. Gush; 1 ♀, New South Wales, Wang Wauk State Forest, "in moss on fallen tree and stump", 26.iv.1993, leg. T. Gush; 1 ♂, Queensland, Mt. Glorious, leaf and log litter with fungi (Berlesate), 21.xii.1990, leg. J. Lawrence; 1 ♂, Queensland, Mt. Glorious, 800 m, bark and log litter, 28.vi.1978, leg. S. & J. Peck (specimens in ANIC and cPJ).
Revised diagnosis. Male: BL 1.68–1.80 mm; pronotum with antebasal transverse groove interrupted in middle and with distinct internal pair of pits; mesanepisterna without setal brushes; subtriangular apical region of aedeagus in ventral view distinctly demarcated from basal capsule by lateral constriction. Females are unremarkable and may not be possible to identify if not collected together with males.
Redescription. Body of male (Fig. 160) strongly convex, elongate but relatively stout, with long appendages, BL 1.68–1.80 mm (mean 1.74 mm); cuticle glossy, body uniformly light brown with slightly lighter appendages, vestiture yellowish.
Head (Fig. 129, 160) in dorsal view rounded, broadest at eyes, HL 0.30–0.33 mm (mean 0.31 mm), HW 0.33–0.38 mm (mean 0.34 mm); tempora slightly longer than eyes, strongly curved posteromesally; vertex weakly convex; frons subtrapezoidal. Eyes moderately large and moderately projecting laterally from the head silhouette, finely faceted. Punctures on head dorsum fine and sparse, inconspicuous; setae short, on frons and anterior part of vertex sparse and suberect, tempora and posterior margin of vertex with dense bristles directed posteriorly and slightly posterolaterally. Antennae slender (Fig. 160), with five terminal antennomeres forming indistinct club, AnL 0.83–0.90 mm (mean 0.86 mm); antennomeres I–VI elongate (but only II strongly), VII–VIII about as long as broad or barely discernibly longer than broad; IX–X slightly transverse; XI only slightly longer than X, 1.4x as long as broad, with blunt apex.
Pronotum (Fig. 160) indistinctly elongate, broadest between middle and anterior third, PL 0.40–0.45 mm (mean 0.44 mm), PW 0.38–0.40 mm (mean 0.39 mm); anterior and lateral margins rounded; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate; base of pronotum with shallow and narrow transverse groove interrupted in middle and with two pairs of pits: larger internal pair and smaller external pair. Punctures on pronotal disc fine and inconspicuous; setae sparse, thin, short and suberect, sides of pronotum with moderately dense bristles.
Elytra (Fig. 160) oval, broadest distinctly anterior to middle, EL 0.98–1.03 mm (mean 0.99 mm), EW 0.70–0.80 mm (mean 0.75 mm), EI 1.28–1.39 (mean 1.33); basal impressions short but distinct; elytral apices separately rounded. Punctures on elytral disc much more distinct than those on pronotum, in anterior median area separated by spaces comparable to diameters of punctures, on sides and posteriorly punctures reducing in diameter and depth; setae much longer than those on head and pronotum, moderately dense, curved and erect. Hind wings well developed, about twice as long as elytra.
Legs (Fig. 160) long and slender, without modifications.
Aedeagus (Figs. 168–170) relatively stout, AeL 0.33 mm, in ventral view drop-shaped with demarcated and strongly narrowing subtriangular apical region; internal armature composed of H-shaped subapical structure proximally connected to two lateral bunches of thin hair-like sclerites and with a similar bunch of shorter sclerites in middle; H-shaped structure in erected aedeagus (Figs. 169–170) protruding distally and hair-like sclerites projecting outwards from the surface of endophallus; parameres slender, each with three apical setae.
Female. Similar to male, externally indistinguishable; BL 1.55–1.73 mm (mean 1.67 mm); HL 0.28–0.30 mm (mean 0.28 mm), HW 0.30–0.33 mm (mean 0.31 mm), AnL 0.78–0.80 mm (mean 0.79 mm); PL 0.38–0.43 mm (mean 0.41 mm), PW 0.35–0.38 mm (mean 0.36 mm); EL 0.90–1.03 mm (mean 0.98 mm), EW 0.70–0.75 mm (mean 0.73 mm), EI 1.29–1.37 (mean 1.33).
Distribution (Fig. 197 a). South-eastern Australia: Queensland and New South Wales.
Remarks. The name "Maipoton" on the locality label is misspelled Mapleton. This species highly resembles Sciacharoides eucalypti comb. n., but is clearly larger. Small differences in the shape of the aedeagus and its internal structures and in proportions of antennomeres may fall within an interindividual variability of a single species. However, a small available sample is insufficient to decide whether Sciacharoides thompsoni and Sciacharoides eucalypti are synonymous names; this problem is pending further study.
description: Published as part of Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2014, ' The curse of Horaeomorphus ': taxonomy of misplaced Australian Cyrtoscydmini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), pp. 1-76 in Zootaxa 3828 (1) on pages 56-57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3828.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/286513