Protoconnus carabobonus, Jałoszyński, 2020

Jałoszyński, Paweł, 2020, Three new species of the Neotropical genus Protoconnus Franz (Coleoptera Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae), Zootaxa 4809 (2), pp. 383-389 : 387-389

Protoconnus carabobonus sp. n.

( Figs 3 , 12–15)

Type material. Holotype: VENEZUELA (Carabobo State): ♂, two labels: “VENEZUELA / Carabobo;Mun.: Bejuma / Via Palmichal ; 750-850m; / Nov.2005;leg. Brachat ” [white, printed], “ PROTOCONNUS / carabobonus m. / HOLOTYPUS, P. JAŁOSZYŃSKI, 2020” [red, printed] ( MNHW).

Diagnosis. BL <0.8 mm; body stout, elytra 1.7 times as broad as strongly transverse pronotum; frons in male much broader than width of eye in dorsal view, unmodified; vertex unmodified, convex and with posterior margin weakly rounded; pronotal base with barely discernible pits connected by sharply marked transverse groove; lateral pronotal carinae distinct in posterior third; humeral carinae weakly marked, rounded; aedeagus in ventral view with basal capsule oval, broadest near middle, distal region ventrally not demarcated from basal capsule, strongly elongate, nearly parallel-sided in proximal 2/3, with rapidly narrowed and sharply pointed apex, in lateral view distal portion of median lobe weakly recurved but with conspicuous dorsal sub-basal broadening and a deep rounded dorsal emargination just above distal margin of basal capsule; parameres slender, not broadened.

Description. Body of male ( Fig. 3 ) strongly convex, dark brown with indistinctly lighter stripe along elytral suture, covered with setae distinctly lighter than cuticle; BL 0.78 mm.

Head broadest at large, strongly convex and coarsely faceted eyes, HL 0.13 mm, HW 0.18 mm; tempora in lateral view vestigial; vertex weakly convex, posterior margin weakly rounded; frons between moderately large supraantennal tubercles narrow and slightly impressed. Punctures on vertex shallow and diffuse, slightly more distinct along mesal margins of eyes; setae short, sparse and suberect, bristles on tempora and vertex dense but short. Antennae stout, AnL 0.33 mm, less than half as long as body, club broad and distinctly delimited; antennomere I slightly less than twice as long as broad, II about 1.5 × as long as broad, III–X each strongly transverse, XI indis- tinctly longer than X, distinctly transverse.

Pronotum distinctly transverse, subtrapezoidal, broadest shortly in front of base; PL 0.20 mm, PW 0.25 mm. Anterior and posterior margins weakly convex, lateral margins strongly rounded; lateral carinae distinct in posterior third; transverse antebasal groove distinct, connecting five barely discernible, tiny pits. Punctures on pronotal disc inconspicuous; setae sparse, short, suberect.

Elytra much more convex than pronotum, together oval, broadest in front of middle; EL 0.45 mm, EW 0.43 mm, EI 1.06; humeral carinae developed as elongate and rounded protuberances. Punctures and setae similar to those on pronotum.

Legs moderately long and slender, unmodified.

Aedeagus (Figs 12–15) slender; AeL 0.23 mm; in ventral view basal capsule slender, oval and about as long as distal region; distal region with nearly parallel sides in proximal 2/3 and with rapidly narrowed, triangular, slender and pointed apex, in lateral view distal region weakly recurved, with broad and rounded dorsal proximal thickening; in lateral view area beneath thickening and above parameral base with deep, rounded emargination; parameres with apices not broadened, each with long apical and similarly long subapical seta.

Female unknown.

Distribution. Northern Venezuela ( Fig. 16 ).

Etymology. After Carabobo State of Venezuela.

Remarks. This is another externally unremarkable Protoconnus , distinguishable from similar congeners primarily by male genital structures. The aedeagus of P. carabobonus in ventral view has the apical region conspicuously long, but not longer than the basal capsule, nearly parallel-sided in proximal 2/3, and rapidly narrowed in subapical area to form a demarcated, slender triangular apical projection. A somewhat similar shape can be found in P. acutus Jałoszyński , P. minusculus Jałoszyński , and P. costaricanus Jałoszyński. However , in lateral view, the distal region in P. carabobonus has strongly recurved dorsal wall, with a large dorsal expansion just above the basal capsule, so that between this expansion and a subtriangular dorsal projection above the parameral base a narrow and deep emargination can be seen. None of the aforementioned species has such a dorsal broadening and emargination at the base of the distal region; in each of them this area is distinctly concave, not convex. Moreover, in P. acutus , P. minusculus , and P. costaricanus the parameres are conspicuously short, their apices at most reaching middle of the distal region of the median lobe, whereas in P. carabobonus the apices of parameres reach distal 2/3 of this structure.

Figures

FIGURE 16. Distribution of nominal Protoconnus species.

FIGURES 1–3. Dorsal habitus of Protoconnus fenestratus sp. n. (1), P. brachati sp. n. (2), and P. carabobonus sp. n. (3).