Ostomopsis watti, Jałoszyński & Ślipiński, 2021

Jałoszyński, Paweł & Ślipiński, Adam, 2021, Revision of the subfamily Ostomopsinae (Coleoptera: Cerylonidae), Zootaxa 4985 (4), pp. 459-481 : 478-481

Ostomopsis watti sp. n.

( Figs 34–37 )

Type material examined. Holotype ( New Caledonia ): sex unknown, “ NEW CALEDONIA / Rivière Bleue / 10 Oct 1978 / G.Kuschel: “Sifted litter / and rotten wood/ 78/221” ( NZAC) . Paratypes. New Caledonia: 9 exx (incl. one dissected male), same data as for holotype ( NZAC, ANIC, MNHW) .

Diagnosis. Body uniformly light brown; elytra stout, with EL/EW not exceeding 1.1 and sides rounded on entire length; eyes large; sides of pronotum with conspicuously long, sparse setae; median area on pronotum and median area on mesoventrite punctate; punctures on sides of elytra in anterior half comparable to those on median region of pronotum; prosternal process with weakly concave sides and strongly rounded distal margin; mesoventral process only slightly broader than prosternal process; scutellar shield over twice as broad as long; antennomere 3 about twice as long as broad, 4–5 each distinctly transverse; tegmen conspicuously short, barely longer than wide.

Description. Body of both sexes ( Figs 34–35 ) short oval, moderately convex; BL 1.30–1.38 mm, BL/EW 1.67–1.73; pigmentation uniformly light brown.

Head ( Figs 21–22 ) subtrapezoidal, HL 0.15–0.18 mm, HW 0.36–0.39 mm; vertex and frons weakly convex; eyes large and strongly convex, coarsely faceted. Vertex and frons densely covered with distinct punctures of nearly uniform diameters and slightly unevenly distributed, all with diffuse margins and separated by spaces subequal to their diameters, except for a few punctures distinctly closer one to another. Setae long and dense, erect.

Antenna ( Fig. 35 ) clearly shorter than pronotum, AnL 0.28–0.30 mm; scape weakly elongate, pedicel 2.2 × as long as broad, antennomere 3 strongly elongate, about twice as long as broad, 4–9 each distinctly transverse, club weakly elongate and indistinctly subdivided by constriction into fused antennomeres 10 and 11.

Pronotum ( Fig. 34 ) broadest near posterior third or fourth, 1.74–1.86 × as broad as head; PL 0.35–0.38 mm, PW 0.68 mm, PL/PW 0.52–0.56; anterior margin evenly, strongly rounded; anterior corners blunt and distinctly projecting anterad; lateral margins broadly rounded and sparsely crenulate; posterior corners blunt, only slightly obtuse-angled; posterior margin shallowly bisinuate. Relatively broad area along each lateral margin distinctly flattened and largely impunctate, with distinct submarginal line; remaining surface of pronotum covered with circular, variable in diameter and depth, unevenly distributed punctures; largest have sharp margins and are distributed near middle of each lateral half or convex portion of disc, they are separated by spaces equal to or distinctly narrower than diameters of punctures; remaining areas with smaller, shallower but similarly dense punctures with variously distinct margins; relatively broad lateral regions of median, convex portion of pronotal disc appear impunctate. Setae about as long and dense as those on head, erect; those on lateral pronotal margins over twice as long as width of flattened area along each side.

Ventral surface of prothorax ( Fig. 35 ) with prosternal process about as long as wide, with sides distinctly but not strongly concave, slightly broadening posterad, posterior corners blunt, nearly right-angled and distinctly projecting laterad, distal margin strongly convex; entire prosternum covered with circular alveolate punctures slightly larger than those on pronotum and unevenly distributed; those on median area sparser, separated by spaces wider than their diameters, those along anterior prosternal margin and on sides denser, separated by spaces narrower than their diameters; hypomera punctate only in inner halves, with punctures similarly large and sparse as on middle of prosternum; outer regions of hypomera impunctate and smooth. Setae on prosternum sparse, short and nearly recumbent; setae on hypomera barely discernible; anterior prosternal margin microcrenulate and with dense row of short setae directed anterad.

Mesoventrite ( Fig. 35 ) with mesoventral process between mesocoxae with concave sides, expanding distad and only slightly broader than prosternal process; mesoventrite covered with variously large circular and oval alveolate punctures, largest distributed on sides, in front of each mesocoxa, where punctures are almost touching one another; median area including mesoventral process with smaller and sparser punctures.

Metaventrite ( Fig. 35 ) strongly transverse, subequal in length to mesoventrite; large median area impunctate, with indistinct short discrimen in posterior 1/3; sides with large circular alveolate or somewhat scaly punctures, spaces between punctures equal to their diameters or narrower (especially for those along anterior metacoxal margins). Posterior metaventral margin between metacoxae nearly straight.

Hind wings long and functional.

Elytra ( Fig. 34 ) together drop-shaped, 2.20–2.29 × as long as pronotum and distinctly broader than pronotum; EL 0.78–0.83 mm, EW 0.75–0.80 mm, EL/EW 1.03. Sides rounded and strongly convergent posterad in posterior half, with relatively well-defined broadest site near anterior third; broad area along each lateral margin distinctly flattened; humeri slightly obtuse-angled, humeral calli weakly marked; each elytron with poorly defined nine longitudinal rows of small, circular punctures, at least some of those on anterior third of each elytron with sharply defined margins, slightly smaller than largest pronotal punctures, punctures clearly reducing in diameter toward apices, also those on adsutural half small and shallow, in some specimens poorly marked; remaining cuticle virtually impunctate; setae similar to those on pronotum. Epipleura ( Fig. 35 ) near middle length slightly broader than width of metafemur, each with distinct undulate ridge along mesal margin.

Mesoscutellar shield ( Fig. 34 ) subtrapezoidal, nearly three times as broad as long, with sides nearly straight in front of broadest site, lateral corners rounded, posterior margin weakly angulate.

Abdominal ventrites ( Fig. 35 ) together slightly longer than meso- and metaventrite combined; ventrite 1 slightly longer than 2–4 together, with lateral groups of circular alveolate punctures similar in diameters to those on sides of metaventrite but shallower, separated by spaces narrower than their diameters, median region impunctate; ventrite 2 with indistinct transverse ridge with posterior triangular projections, ventrites 3–5 with indistinct, inconspicuous punctures.

Aedeagus ( Figs 36–37 ); tegmen ( Fig. 23 ) conspicuously short, with three pairs of slender lateral apical setae and slightly emarginate apex; penis slender, largely parallel-sided, with rounded subtriangular apex.

Etymology. This species is dedicated to the late Dr. John Charles Watt, former Coleoptera curator at NZAC.

Distribution. New Caledonia.

Remarks. Ostomopsis watti is most similar to the sympatric O. kuscheli ; see Remarks for the latter species.

Figures

FIGURES 34–37. Ostomopsis watti sp. n. Dorsal (34) and ventral (35) habitus, aedeagus (36) and its distal region (37) in dorsal view.

FIGURES 21–24. Ostomopsis kuscheli sp. n. Dorsal (21) and ventral (22) habitus, aedeagus (23) and penis in dorsal view (24).