Sinocatops, Wang & Zhou, 2016

Wang, Cheng-Bin & Zhou, Hong-Zhang, 2016, Sinocatops gen. nov., an apterous genus of Cholevini (Coleoptera: Leiodidae: Cholevinae) from China, with emphasis on differences with allied Rybinskiella Reitter, 1906, Zootaxa 4085 (3), pp. 393-415 : 394-395

Sinocatops gen. nov.

Type species: Sinocatops ruzickai sp. nov.

Description. This new genus with sexual dimorphism: male rather narrow which is rarely seen in Cholevini , while female are wider and stout. Body size small; body shape elongate, regularly convex; dorsum continually clothed with homogeneous fine and recumbent pubescence, interspaces without microsculpture, smooth. Head distinctly wider than long; clypeofrontal suture absent. Maxillary palps with 3rd palpomere distinctly dilated; 4th feebly arched, shorter than 3rd. Labial palps with 3rd palpomere more than twice as long as 2nd. Antennae long and slender, AL just a little more than twice of HW. Pronotum subcampanulate and transverse, widest around middle; sides regularly narrowed forward from widest and weakly constricted before hind corners; hind corners rounded, protruding backward; surface without depression in each latero-basal area. Elytra tightly fused with each other; sutural striae absent; epipleura commonly narrow. Metathoracic wings absent. Tibiae with smooth outer spurs; male with basal three protarsomeres strongly expanded and 1 st mesotarsomere moderately expanded. Aedeagus symmetrical, with filiform parameres reached about apical 2/5 of median lobe; endophallus without apical tooth. Female ventrite VIII with spiculum ventrale; ovipositor with minute stylus.

Distribution. China (Sichuan).

Etymology. The new genus name is derived from the Latin prefix “ sino -”, which means “Chinese” and “ catops ”, a genus name in the same subtribe Catopina . The gender is masculine.

Diagnosis. Sinocatops undoubtedly belongs to the subtribe Catopina Chaudoir, 1845 by the combination of following characters: clypeofrontal suture absent, outer tibial spurs smooth, parameres filiform, male 1 st mesotarsomere moderately expanded and female spiculum ventrale present on ventrite VIII. Within this subtribe, as mentioned in the Introduction, five known genera have the phenomenon of loss of metathoracic wings: Apterocatops Miyama, 1985 , Catops Paykull, 1798 , Cholevinus Reitter, 1901 , Dzungarites Jeannel, 1936 and Rybinskiella Reitter, 1906 . The new genus can be distinguished from all of them by sexual dimorphism (male rather narrow; female wider and stout); body size small (EBL: 3.20 mm); pronotum subcampanulate and transverse, widest around middle, sides weakly constricted before hind corners; elytra without sutural striae. However, Sinocatop looks quite like a mini version of Rybinskiella , its body shape bears close resemblance to some species of the latter genus; common characters also include subcampanulate pronotum, fused elytra and loss of metathoracic wings. We compared them in detail with some selected but important morphological characters to show the differences (Table 1), from which we can see the new genus has following characters distinctly different from two Rybinskiella species at generic level: EBL considerably smaller; whole dorsum without microsculpture, smooth (×270); head distinctly wider than long, ratio approximate 1.30; maxillary palps with 3rd palpomere distinctly dilated; labial palps with 3rd palpomere more than twice as long as 2nd; AL just a little more than twice of HW; pronotum without depression in each latero-basal area; metendosternite with length of stalk much shorter than width of furcal arm; elytral epipleura commonly narrow; endophallus without apical tooth.