Protoconnus quillabambanus, Jałoszyński, 2018

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2018, Revision of the Neotropical genus Protoconnus Franz (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4392 (1), pp. 41-82 : 62

Protoconnus quillabambanus sp. n.

( Figs 48 , 54–55 , 101 )

Type material. Holotype: PERU (La Convención Province): ♂, five labels: "Sierra Garavito / b. Quillabamba, 1800 m / Nebelwald,Peru" with "Sa 84" on the reverse side [white, printed], "♀" [white, handwritten in blue], " Protoconnus / peruensis / m. / PARATYPUS" [yellow, handwritten and printed], " PROTOCONNUS / quillabambanus m. / P. JAŁOSZYŃSKI, 2018 / HOLOTYPUS" [red, printed] (NHMW).

Diagnosis. BL 0.89 mm; body stout, elytra 1.73 times as broad as strongly transverse pronotum; frons in male flat between supraantennal tubercles; vertex unmodified, convex and with posterior margin straight in its median portion; pronotal base with small but distinct pits and distinct groove; lateral pronotal carinae distinct in posterior third; humeral carinae weakly marked, rounded; aedeagus in ventral view with basal capsule narrowing distad, distal region rapidly narrowed and slender, broadly but shallowly constricted in proximal half, with a delimited long flame-like apical portion; apex slightly asymmetrical, subtriangular and pointed, strongly curved ventrad; parameres slender, not broadened.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 48 ) strongly convex, brown with indistinctly lighter stripe along elytral suture, covered with setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 0.89 mm.

Head broadest at very large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.16 mm, HW 0.20 mm; tempora in lateral view as long as 1/3 of the longest diameter of eye; vertex distinctly convex, posterior margin straight in its median portion, laterally forming indistinct angles with rounded tempora; frons flat between large supraantennal tubercles. Punctures on frons and vertex inconspicuous; setae short, sparse and suberect. Antennae slender, AnL 0.38 mm, less than half as long as body, club distinctly delimited; antennomeres I and II each about twice as long as broad; III–X each distinctly transverse, XI distinctly longer than X, about 1.1 × as long as broad.

Pronotum moderately transverse, subtrapezoidal, broadest shortly in front of base; PL 0.23 mm, PW 0.28 mm. Anterior and posterior margins weakly convex, lateral margins weakly rounded; lateral carinae distinct in posterior third; transverse antebasal groove and five pits distinct. Punctures on pronotal disc inconspicuous; setae sparse, short, suberect.

Elytra much more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest in front of middle; EL 0.50 mm, EW 0.48 mm, EI 1.05; humeral carinae developed as elongate and rounded protuberances. Punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus ( Figs 54–55 ) slender; AeL 0.18 mm; in ventral view basal capsule about as long as distal region, slightly narrowed distad; distal region laterally delimited from sides of basal capsule by a rapid narrowing, slender, arrow-shaped, with shallow constriction in basal half which delimits flame-like apical half with narrow, slightly asymmetrical, pointed apex, in lateral view distal half strongly curved ventrad; in lateral view area above parameral bases forming a broad subtriangular projection; parameres slightly divergent distad, each with one or two long apical and one subapical seta of equal length.

Female unknown.

Distribution. Southern Peru ( Fig. 101 ).

Etymology. Locotypical, after Quillabamba in Peru.

Remarks. One of the paratypes of P. peruensis , identified by Franz as a female, turned out to be a male of an unknown species, described here as P. quillabambanus . Externally, this species is relatively unremarkable and the aedeagus must be examined for identification. As mentioned in remarks for P. paraguayanus , the aedeagus of the latter species and those of P. quillabambanus , P. ecuadoranus and P. magnus are similar. The two latter species have a conspicuously broad and punctate frons between supraantennal tubercles, in contrast to the narrow and impunctate frons in P. quillabambanus and P. paraguayanus . The aedeagus of P. quillabambanus differs from that of P. paraguayanus in the shape of the basal capsule, which in ventral view narrows from its broadest site toward the base of the narrow distal region, whereas in P. paraguayanus the basal capsule is distinctly constricted, and distinctly broadens in its distal portion. In lateral view, the subtriangular projection of dorsal wall (above the parameral base) in P. quillabambanus is sharp-angled, vs. nearly right-angled in P. paraguayanus .

Figures

FIGURE 101. Distribution of nominal Protoconnus species.

FIGURES 48–53. Dorsal habitus of Protoconnus species. Protoconnus quillabambanus sp. n. (48); P. ecuadoranus sp. n. (49); P. napoanus sp. n. (50); P. impressifrons sp. n. (51); P. angustus sp. n. (52); P. maximus sp. n. (53).

FIGURES 54–61. Aedeagi of Protoconnus species. Protoconnus quillabambanus sp. n. (54–55); P. ecuadoranus sp. n. (56– 57); P. napoanus sp. n. (58–59); P. impressifrons sp. n. (60–61).