Austrocyphon tinea, Zwick, Peter, 2013

Zwick, Peter, 2013, Australian Marsh Beetles (Coleoptera: Scirtidae) 4. Two new genera, Austrocyphon and Tasmanocyphon, Zootaxa 3706 (1), pp. 1-74 : 56-57

Austrocyphon tinea , sp. n.

(Figs. 185–191)

Type material. Holotype: ♂, Bellenden Ker Range N.Q. 1 km S of Cable Tower 6, Oct. 17–Nov.5, 1981, 500m, EARTHWATCH / QLD. Museum Pyrethrum knockdown ( QMSB T169591). Paratypes: QLD: 2♂: NE.Qld. Thornton peak 11km NE Daintree, 1100–1200m, Monteith, Yeates & Thompson, 10 Oct–10 Nov and 30 Oct–10 Nov 1983, respectively ( QMSB T169592, T169593). 1 paratype ♂: Australia, N.Qld. Mt Lewis 2.vii.1992 beating R.K.Huwer (QDPC-M).

Habitus. BL 2.1–2.5 mm. Contour oval, BL/BW approximately 1.5–1.6. Occiput and rear margin of pronotum dark brown, basal third of elytra yellowish-brown, posterior part darker brown with pale mark shaped like an arrow-head, resembling A. papilio . Punctures on head and pronotum fine, granular, those on elytra normal a little larger.

Male. T8 short and wide with thin short apodemes. Caudal margin with pecten and sparse fringe of long setae. A few fine socketed hairs on disc. S8 V-shaped, weak and narrow, caudal arms barely widened but with some sensory pores and setae.

T9 with short stout apodemes with pronounced anterior expansion, caudally a strong and regular sclerite arch. Middle of plate membranous, no defined sclerite borders. Sides form pointed, gently inwardly curved, slender, apparently hollow processes with longitudinal sulcus. S9 widening backward from triangular base, widest before midlength, then gently convergent. Plate caudally shallowly excised, with some pilosity.

Penis appearing slender when caudal flanges are not expanded, but pala narrower than the bluntly rounded to truncate caudal part when the low flange is spread. Foramen approximately triangular. Trigonium stout, with several strong spinelets at apex between which the centema does not stand out.

Parameres are thin, caudally hooked slender struts originating from a wide, tongue-shaped base.

FIGURES 185–191. Austrocyphon tinea sp. n., male. 185, T8; 186, T9; 187, S9; 188, S8; 189, 190, penis with straight and bent trigonium, respectively; 191, tegmen and parameres. All to the same scale.

Female. Unknown.

Notes. A pecten on T8 is unusual in this group. Other genital structures but also the elytral pattern suggest a close relationship with the species pair A. papilio — A. noctua of which A. tinea may be the primitive sister taxon. Etymology. The scientific name of the moth genus Tinea is used as a noun in apposition to underline the memberships of the present species in the "lepidopteran" species group of Austrocyphon , as well as its smallness.