Protoconnus minutus Franz

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2018, Revision of the Neotropical genus Protoconnus Franz (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4392 (1), pp. 41-82 : 60-61

Protoconnus minutus Franz

( Figs 38 , 99 , 101 )

Protoconnus minutus Franz, 1980: 198 , fig. 181.

Type material. Holotype: PERU (San Martin Province): ♂, three labels ( Fig. 99 ): "Umg.Tarapoto / Peru,lg.Franz" [white, printed], " Protoconnus / minutus / m. / det.H.Franz" [white, handwritten and printed], " Typus " [red, handwritten] ( NHMW).

Revised diagnosis. BL 0.80 mm; body stout, elytra 1.79 times as broad as strongly transverse pronotum; frons in male between supraantennal tubercles narrow and distinctly impressed; vertex unmodified, rounded; tempora barely marked; pronotal base with indistinct pits and distinct groove; lateral pronotal carinae distinct in posterior third; humeral carinae rounded.

Redescription. Body of male ( Fig. 38 ) strongly convex, brown, setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 0.80 mm.

Head broadest at extremely large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.13 mm, HW 0.18 mm; tempora vestigial, barely discernible; vertex distinctly convex, rounded and unmodified; frons between prominent supraantennal tubercles narrow and impressed. Punctures on frons and vertex inconspicuous; setae short, moderately dense 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–IX each distinctly transverse, XI slightly longer than X, about 1.1 × as long as broad.

Pronotum distinctly transverse, subtrapezoidal, broadest near posterior third; PL 0.20 mm, PW 0.24 mm. Anterior and posterior margins weakly convex, lateral margins weakly rounded; lateral carinae distinct in posterior third; antebasal pits small and indistinct, transverse antebasal groove distinct. Punctures on pronotal disc inconspicuous; setae sparse, short, suberect.

Elytra much more convex than pronotum, oval, broadest in front of middle; EL 0.48 mm, EW 0.43 mm, EI 1.12; humeral carinae indistinct, rounded. Punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus lost in the only known specimen.

Distribution. Northern Peru ( Fig. 101 ).

Remarks. Protoconnus minutus was described on the basis of a single male specimen, and its aedeagus was illustrated (Franz 1980, fig. 181) in lateral view, which is insufficient for unambiguous identification. Unfortunately, the holotype in the Franz Collection (NHMW) lacks the aedeagus, which makes this species difficult to identify. Its small body length (0.80 mm) is the same as for P. tunarianus from Bolivia; these two species with small individuals can be distinguished on the basis of the much larger eyes in P. minutus (with the tempora vestigial, barely marked, vs. as long as about 1/4 of the longest diameter of eye in P. tunarianus ), and different proportions of body parts (the pronotum in P. minutus is shorter in relation to the elytra than that in P. tunarianus ).

In the original description, Franz (1980) gives additional collecting data for the type series, not included in the labels: 28.09.1968, forest near Juan Guerra.

Figures

FIGURE 101. Distribution of nominal Protoconnus species.

FIGURES 34–39. Dorsal habitus of Protoconnus species. Protoconnus araguanus Franz (34); P. paraguayanus Franz (35); P. peruensis Franz (36); P. robustus Franz (37); P. minutus Franz (38); P. minutissimus Franz (39).

FIGURES 90–100. Original labels of primary type specimens of previously described Protoconnus species. Protoconnus andicola Franz (90); P. venezolanus Franz (91); P. bolivianus Franz (92); P. comarapae Franz (93); P. princeps (Franz) (94); P. araguanus Franz (95); P. paraguayanus Franz (96); P. peruensis Franz (97); P. robustus Franz (98); P. minutus Franz (99); P. minutissimus Franz (100).