Chelagyrtodes haasti Seago & Leschen, new species
Creators: name: Seago, Ainsley E.
name: Leschen, Richard A. B.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Leiodidae
Chelagyrtodes
Chelagyrtodes haasti

description: Chelagyrtodes haasti Seago & Leschen, new species
(Figs. 4 d, 5d, 8)
Type material. Holotype: Male, labeled: NEW ZEALAND: WD, Mt Aspiring NP, Douglas Creek at Hwy 6, 65 m, 11–18.i.85; Noth. menz.-hdwd.-podocarp for. A. Newton / M. Thayer, berl. leaf & log litter, forest floor (FMNH).
Paratypes: NEW ZEALAND: SC: 1, Hakataramea Pass, 548 m, 28 Feb 1966, J I Townsend, forest litter (NZAC); WD: 1, Opp. Makaroa (Makarora) R. Gorge, Haast area, 457 m, 26 May 1965, D J Kershaw, litter under N. menziesii (NZAC); 8, Mt Aspiring NP, Douglas Creek at Hwy 6, 65 m, 11 Jan 1985 – 18 Jan 1985, A Newton & M Thayer, Noth. menz.-hdwd.-podocarp for. berl leaf & log litter, forest floor (FMNH); 1, Mt Aspiring NP, Arawhata Biv., 840 m, 5 Feb 1989, J W Early & R M Emberson, fern litter (LUNZ); 1, Haast Pass, 1850! [m], 28.2.66, J. I. Townsend, moss under beech trees; OL: 11, Mt Aspiring NP, SE of Haast Pass, 600 m, 11 Jan 1985 – 17 Jan 1985, A Newton & M Thayer, Nothofagus menziesii for., pyrethrin fogging fungusy Nothofagus menziesii logs (FMNH); 7, Mt Aspiring NP, 5.5 km NNE Makarora, 330 m, 11 Jan 1985 – 17 Jan 1985, A Newton & M Thayer, Nothofagus menziesii for., berl. leaf & log litter, forest floor (FMNH); 6, Mt Aspiring NP, 12.5 km NNE Makarora, 370 m, 11 Jan 1985 – 17 Jan 1985, A Newton & M Thayer, Noth. menz.-hdwd.-podocarp forest, window trap (FMNH); 1, Makarora Vly, 12 Dec 1977, R R Forster (JNIC); 1, NZ, OL, Makarora Bush, Makarora, 7 Nov 1997 – 9 Nov 1997 (JNIC); 2, OL / FD, Haast Pass, 560 m, 22 Oct 2006, on moss on beech bole (JNIC); 1, WD / OL, Haast Pass, 31 Jan 2005, J Nunn, in forest floor moss (JNIC); FD: 4, Tempest Spur, W Olivine Ra, 1220–1463 m, 25 Jan 1975, G Ramsay, litter in Nothofagus forest (NZAC); 6, Haast Pass, road summit, sifted ground moss, 6 Feb 2009, J Nunn (JNIC); 1, Jackson Bay, 23 Sep 1979, A K Walker, litter, moss, and dead wood (NZAC).
Diagnosis. Male protibia simple. Body form elongately oval, parallel-sided in dorsal view. Epistomal suture absent. Elytra with sides converging in apical third, closed elytra bluntly rounded; transverse strigae present. Pronotum with sparse, even vestiture of fine setae; elytral punctures setiferous. Metaventrite extremely short, with abundant, confused punctation; and raised median bulge bearing minute, stiff setae. Abdominal ventrite 6 medially emarginate, not divided. Median lobe short, bluntly triangular, apex simple; base of median lobe with large paired internal sclerites proximally fused into a single median process. Parameres slender, longer than median lobe, strongly apically curved.
Description. Length 1.7 mm (n = 2). Body about twice as long as wide (BL / EW = 2.1), and greatest depth 0.6 X as great as elytral width (GD / EW = 0.63). Body form compact and oval, with sides of elytra converging apically at basal ½. Color of body unicolorous red to red-brown; mouthparts, tarsi, and clypeus light brown to pale, with femora same color as tibiae; vestiture of thin yellow setae. Dorsum glabrous with sparse, setiferous punctures.
Antennomere ratios: 13:13:10:7:10:7:11:5:12:12:17; segment 6 quadrate, segment 8 transverse. Eyes small, protuberant, with slight posterior emargination. Eyes not coarsely facetted (edges of ommatidia smooth), greatest length 5 facets, greatest hight 7 facets. Epistomal suture absent, clypeus subquadrate. Mandibles with single apical tooth, small prostheca and mola present. Maxillae with slender galea, broad lacinia with loose, non-articulated apical brush of minute, curved spines; maxillary palp with penultimate segment longer and wider than other segments, terminal segment apically attenuate. Labial palpi stout, three-segmented, each segment wider than long. Pronotum about 0.6 X as long as wide (PL / PW = 0.59). Rim of procoxal fossae strongly developed anteriorly and contiguous with prosternal process. Elytra about 0.96 X as long as wide (EL / EW = 0.96) and about 1.7 X as long as pronotum (EL / PL = 1.69), widest at base; sides curved and converging apically from base (not parallel-sided and curving apically at middle); transverse strigae present; setae biseriate, decumbent to suberect, with setae reaching to or beyond next seta in series; width of epipleuron at level of metacoxa subequal to width of metanepisternum. Metaventrite extremely short, narrowly separating meso- and metacoxae medially. Metanepisternal clamp poorlydeveloped. Mesothoracic, metathoracic and abdominal ventrites glabrous, lacking distinct punctures. Abdominal ventrites 1–4 each with single transverse row of minute setae; abdominal ventrite 5 longer than 4 or 6; ventrite 6 complete but broadly emarginate medially.
Tibia with 5–6 large blunt spines at apex, protarsi with segments 1–3 weakly expanded, segment 1 two-thirds as wide as tibial apex; male with protibia simple, tenent setae present on protarsomeres 1–3, absent from mesotarsomeres. Male genital segment ovate, convex, nearly globular; tergite 9 bluntly pointed at apices (not angulate) with setae confined apically, anterior apophysis short and robust; sternite 9 longer than wide; tergite 10 (= proctiger) lacking apical notch. Aedeagus relatively short and broad with median lobe about 2 X longer than wide; apex of median lobe produced and narrowly triangular in distal half; median lobe bulb-shaped and constricted at base. Phallobase (basal piece) forming a narrow strap surrounding the anterior portion of the median lobe; parameres extending well beyond apex of median lobe and strongly curved inwards apically, broad and dorsoventrally flattened, slightly overlapping at middle in some specimens, with apical and subapical setae and variolate microsculpture. Endophallus membranous, with rows of minute, sharply pointed well-sclerotized teeth and three pigmented sclerites (elongate laterosclerites, mediosclerite irregular to elongate). Female genitalia not available for study.
Remarks. This species can be distinguished from most members of Chelagyrtodes by its parallel body form, the absence of chelate protibia in the male, and the aedeagus with weakly apically-hooked parameres. Chelagyrtodes haasti can be distinguished from most specimens of C. newtoni by the lack of the epistomal suture and the distribution of the sclerites of the internal sac, and is highly similar to the allopatric species C. glacicola, which is found in central Westland and has weakly apically hooked parameres. Specimens were collected mainly in Nothofagus and podocarp forests from leaf litter or rotten wood by sifting and pyrethrum fogging.
Distribution. New Zealand: South Island, South Canterbury (SC), Otago Lakes (OL), Fiordland (FD), and Westland (WL) regions.
Etymology. The specific epithet refers to Haast Pass, near which this species has been most commonly collected.
description: Published as part of Seago, Ainsley E. & Leschen, Richard A. B., 2011, Revision and phylogeny of Chelagyrtodes Szymczakowski (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Camiarinae: Agyrtodini), pp. 1-20 in Zootaxa 3090 on pages 11-12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.201677