Scirtes albotaeniatus Yoshitomi

Yoshitomi, Hiroyuki, 2009, The Scirtes (Coleoptera: Scirtidae: Scirtinae) of Micronesia, Zootaxa 1974, pp. 1-16 : 14-15

Scirtes albotaeniatus Yoshitomi sp. n.

Figs. 1 F, 8

Type series. Holotype ( BPBM): male, “ginajana Guam XII 2 ‘68”, “Host: Light trap”, “N. R. Spencer Collector”, “A. A. LaPlante Collection BISHOP Museum Acc. #1977.84”.

Description. Male. Body oblong-oval, slightly convex above, shining, closely covered with yellowishwhite setae throughout. Color of body blackish-brown; antennae, mouth parts, front and middle legs, and hind tibiae and tarsi pale brown; elytra with yellowish-white oblique bands in proximal 1/3.

Head moderate in size, slightly convex above, finely punctate; clypeus wide and short, slightly expanded laterally, anterior margin straight. Eyes moderate in size, weakly prominent; the distance between eyes about 2.0 times the maximum diameter of an eye. Antennae slender, reaching about proximal 1/3 of elytra. Pronotum convex above in mesal part of disk, strongly punctate; anterior margin almost straight; antero-lateral corners about 120º, slightly projecting anteriorly; lateral and posterior margins gently arcuate; postero-lateral corners rectamgular; PW/PL 2.86. Scutellum small, an equilateral-triangle, punctate as pronotum. Elytra oblong, widest at proximal 1/3, punctate as pronotum; shoulders indistinct; EL/EW 1.28; EL/PL 4.94; EW/ PW 1.35; TL/EW 1.54. Hind coxal plates subtriangular, postero-lateral corners distinctly projecting. Legs relatively long. Hind legs very large; hind tibial spurs short, gently curved laterally, closely covered with minute setae; dorsal spurs of tibiae about 1.6X length of ventral spurs, about 0.6X length of hind tarsal segment I.

Sternites III–IV sparsely covered with short setae, but somewhat longer in mesal part of sternite IV; sternites V–VII closely covered with long setae; caudal margin of sternite VII ( Fig. 8 A) shallowly concave. Tergite VIII trapezoidal, bearing short spines on apical margin, shagreened in mesal part, with a pair of long apodemes. Aedeagus (tegmen + penis) complicated ( Figs. 8 B–C), distinctly asymmetrical; basal part narrow and undivided; apical part with four long projections; right dorsal one longest, serrate in mesal part, pointed at apex; left dorsal ones almost straight, pointed at apex; right ventral one shortest, slender, with short projection in basal part; left ventral one long, expanded apically, with long projection in basal part.

Female. Unknown.

Measurements. Male (n = 1): TL 2.08 mm; PW 1.00 mm; PL 0.35 mm; EL 1.73 mm; EW 1.35 mm.

Distribution. Guam.

Remarks. This species is closely related to Scirtes elegans Waterhouse (1880) and differs from it by the following characteristics: (i) elytra with white stripes (yellow markings in elegans ), and (ii) dorsal right projection of penis serrate mesally (serrate in apical parts of both left and right projections in elegans ).

Etymology. The species name is composed of the Latin words “albus” (white) and “taenia” (band) and refers to the white elytral bands.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Holotype of Scirtes spp. A) Scirtes micronesianus sp. n.; B) Scirtes tinianensis sp. n.; C) Scirtes palauensis sp. n.; D) Scirtes gressitti sp. n.; E) Scirtes babeldaobensis sp. n.; F) Scirtes albotaeniatus sp. n. Scale bar = 1.0 mm.

FIGURE 8. Scirtes albotaeniatus sp. n., holotype, male. A) sternites V – VII; B) tegmen (t) and penis (p) in dorsal aspect; C) tegmen (t) and penis (p) in ventral aspect.