A peculiar new species of the genus Amblytelus Erichson (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Psydrinae) from southern Queensland, Australia

2006·1.7 MB·

by  Martin Baehr

SPIXIANA
Fig.1. Aiublytcliisfallax,spec. nov.,holotype.Habi- Fig. 2. Amblytehisfallax, spec. nov.Arrangenientof
tusand colour pattern. Length: 9.5mm. chetotaxy. Length: 9.5mm.
darklateralstripesofelytrapiceoustoalmostblack, and2; anterior supraorbital (either side): 1; poste-
thesuturalstripereddish.Sutureofelytraincluding riorsupraorbital (eitherside): 2.
2"^^ intervaldark,darklateralstripesoccupyingthe Pronotum (either side): anterior pronotal: 3;
lateral two thirds of 6"' interval and the whole 7"' posteriorpronotal: 1.
interval, margin light from 8"' interval onwards. Elytra: scutellar(eitherside): 2; 1"interval: 5-8;
Sutural stripe not reaching base, gradually fading 3'^^^ interval: 18-19; 5"^ interval: 22-23; 7"' interval:
towards base. The light discal stripes ending at a 23-25; marginal: 19-21;apical: 4-5.
Shortdistancefromapex,apexofelytracompletely Abdomen (either side): female terminal: 4-5;
reddish, because the black lateral stripes are also male terminal: unknown.
abbreviated nearapexand arefading intoreddish. Head. Ratherwide,depressed,aboutonefourth
Chetotaxy (Fig.2; different from the revision, narrowerthanpronotum. Eyesverylarge,laterally
chetotaxyisnotabbreviatedduetothemanydiffer- markedlyprotruded,orbitsshort,veryoblique,very
ences from allotherspecies). slightly convex, evenly merging into curvature of
Head: labial: 6; clypeal (either side): 1; man- eye. Labrumanteriorlyslightlyconcave.Manciibles
dibular: 0; mental: 2; submental (either side): 1 moderatelyelongate,differenttoallotherspeciesof
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Amblyteliniscrobewithoutanytraceofmandibular
pore and seta. Tooth of mentum large, wide, api-
cally convex. Glossa transverse at apex, bisetose,
paraglossae hyaline, barely surpassing glossa. La-
cinia with few very strong spines. Both palpi ob-
liquelycutatapex, sparselyand very finelypilose.
Antennaelongate, surpassingbaseofpronotumby
c. 3 antennomeres. Median antennomeres c. 3x as
long as wide. Posterior supraorbital setae slightly
removed from eye, situated at posterior margin of
eye.Frontalfurrowsshallow,aboutcircular.Surface
absolutely smooth, without any punctuation and
microreticulation, veryglossy.
Pronotum. Wide, somewhat cordiform, dor-
sallyratherconvex.Apexmoderatelyconcave,api-
calanglesverywidelyrounded,slightlyprotruded.
Lateral margin convex throughout, basal angles
distinct though obtuse, forming an angle of about
110°. Base slightly convex, but laterally barely ex-
cised. Apex in middle not margined, base finely
margined. Marginal Channel moderately deep, lat-
eral margins wide, widened towardsbase, slightly
rexepalcahniantgeaapnedxunpotrurmnaerdg.inM,edbioathnlainnteerdiisotrinacnt,dnpeoistthee-r Friegs.13.anAdmb2l.ytSecallues:fa0l.l2axm,ms.pec.nov.Femalestylome-
rior transversal sulci very shallow. Basal grooves
aboutcircular,barelyseparatedfrommarginalChan- S genitalia. Unknown.
nel. The three anteriorlateral seta inserted in ante- 9 genitalia (Fig.3). Female stylomere 2 fairly
riorhalf, situated inmarginal Channel farremoved elongate,regularlycurved,with2largelatero-ven-
from margin. The posterior lateral seta arising at tral ensiform setae, a large medio-dorsal ensiform
lateral margin very slightly in front ofbasal angle. setasituatedatapicalthird,andtwoshort,attached
Surfaceabsolutelysmooth,withoutpunctuationand nematiforni setae originating from a groove near
microreticulation, very glossy. apex.Stylomere1ratherelongate,longerthanwide,
Elytra. Moderatelyelongate,moderatelyconvex, with 3 Short ensiform setae of slightly decreasing
distinctlywidenedposteriorly,widestatapicalthird. size situated on latero-ventral rim. Lateral plate
Humeri widely rounded, lateral margin gently ventro-mediallywithafieldofdenselypacked,very
convex, in middle almost straight, at apex convex short, knob-shaped ensiform setae.
though with slight excision where the apical epip- Variation. Unknown.
leuralfoldmeetsthemargin.Apexofeitherelytron
gently angulate, hence elytra slightly dehiscent at Distribution. South-easternQueensland,Australia.
suture. Lateral apical fold very strong. All Striae Known onlyfrom type locality.
complete, rather deep, at bottom finely crenulate,
intervalsdepressed.Scutellarporeandsetadoubled, CoUecting circumstances. CoUected on "Banksia
alloddintervals,includingthefirst,withremarkably flowers".
numerous setiferouspunctures (s. chetotaxy), mar- Etymology. Latin "fallax" means "fraudulent" and re-
ginalChannelalsounusuallymultisetose,seriesvery fersto themockingnumberofsetaeonalmostallbody
slightlyinterruptedbehindmiddle. Intervalsfinely parts thatusuallybeartactilesetae.
and rather sparsely punctulate, distinctly though
veryfinelyandrathersuperficiallymicroreticulate,
meshes about isodiametric to slightly transverse. Remarks
Surfaceratherglossy.
Posteriorwings. Fullydeveloped. It is surprising why this peculiar species has been
Lowersurface. Metepisternumveryelongate,c. so far collected in a Single specimen only and was
3X as longaswide at apex. Abdominal sterna uni- not represented in the thousands of specimens of
setose on either side, terminal sternum s. cheto- bilineate Amblytelus from south-eastern Australia
taxy. thatIhaveexaminedinthecourseoftherevisionof
Legs. Ofaveragesize. this genus. The exceptional chetotaxy ofthe Single
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availablespecimen ofthenewspecies, incombina- Evenwhenthenewspecieslacksthemandibu-
tion with the likewise unusual collecting circum- larsetawhichabsenceisuniquewithinAniblytelini
stances renders this a quite enigmatic species, and in general, I guess thatitmaybeyetratherclosely
thus itmaybeallowed to speculate aboutpresum- related to the c;/;'fus-fcrei7fs-sznMflh(s-assemblage of
ably aberrant habits. Normally, in south-eastern rather large, quite similarly shaped and patterned
Australia, species ofthegenusAmbh/teliis, butalso species that bear bilineate elytra with multisetose
amblyteUnesingeneral,arefoundeitherunderbark oddintervals,andwhicharecommoninopenforests
ofbark-sheddingeucalyptsinopensclerophyllfor- of south-eastern and south-western Australia (for
estorwoodland,oronmossyfreetrunksintemper- more Information see Baehr 2005). Unfortunately,
ateandsubtropicalrainforest. Reportsofamblyte- the male genitalia of A.fallax which could either
hnespecimenscoUectedonfloweringplants areso corroborate or refuse this assumption are still un-
farunknown to me. However, atpresent and with known.
a Single specimen only, it seems superfluous to
speculatewhetherthismaybetheregulärhabitsof
thisspecies. Buttheremarkablymultipliednumber Acknowledgements
oftactilesetaeonthewholebodyand,ontheother
hand,thelossofthemandibularsetathatispresent IamindebtedtoP. Bouchard,Ottawa,forthekindloan
in all other amblyteline species, must be of some of this and a great number of other Australian speci-
ecologicalsignificance.Futurecollectorsofamblyte- mens.
Unesthusareadvisedtopayspecialattentiontothis
habitat.
References
Baehr, M. 2005. TheAmblyteUni. A tribe ofcorticolous
ground beetles from Australia. Taxonomy, phylo-
geny, biogeography (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carab-
idae, Psydrinae). -Coleoptera 8: 1-286 (2004)
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