Culcipternulus mareebensis Bartlett & Lambkin 2022, sp. nov.

Culcipternulus mareebensis sp. nov.

ZooBank registration: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 97EF3741-9818-47CA-8C44-7533069E1777

(Figs 8, 18, 36, 75, 111, 148; Map 1)

HOLOTYPE (sex unknown): Queensland: Qld: 16°58′ Sx 145°26′E Emerald Hill, Mareeba. 6-7 Nov 2004. G.B. Monteith. Open forest. 11680 (QM, type reg. T258550). PARATYPES (3): Queensland: Water trap Bakerville 9- xii-1969 J.D. Brown (1 ♁, QDPC); 15.29S 145.16E Mt. Cook Nat. Pk. QLD 11-12 Oct. 1980 T. Weir (1, ANIC); Queensland. F.P. Dodd. 1904-27. // Opilo congruus Newm. aberr. script. S. Schenkling det. (1, NHML).

Additional material. Western Australia: 14.37S 125.48E, 8km SW Walsh Pt., 17 May 1983, WA, I.Naumann, J.Cardale (1 ♁, ANIC); Nita Downs Station 19°05′S 121°41′E Western Australia January 1981 A.M. & M.J Douglas // mostly from swimming pool or vicinity of homestead light. Ex alcohol (1, WAM).

Diagnosis. Middle of pronotum rounded, broader than anterior part, disc densely punctate; elytra dark brown with black areas bordering orange fasciate and apical maculae, punctation without nodules, 8 th stria beginning near base, most striae terminating before apical maculae; femora mostly brown though yellow at base, all tarsi with 4 ventral tarsal pads.

Description. Habitus: Fig. 148. Total length: 12.2–15.8 mm (holotype 12.4 mm). Head: Cranium reddishbrown, supra-antennal elevations darker, anteclypeus, labrum, palpi and antennae also reddish-brown; eyes separated by 0.9–1.08 eye widths (holotype 0.9); vertex and frons dense with circular to irregular-shaped punctures (surface appearing weakly rugose in parts), frons weakly convex, clypeus smooth with a few circular punctures (seta-associated); genae wrinkled, submentum partly wrinkled (a narrow smooth strip medially); ratio of exterior to interior edges of terminal palpomeres about 2.5:1 (maxillae) and 3:1 (labium); antennae relatively short (compared to other species treated in this revision) not reaching base of pronotum; eyes and most of cranium vested with erect pale setae, frons with shorter medially-directed setae. Prothorax: Reddish-brown; pronotum 1.16–1.23 times longer than wide (holotype 1.23), sides rounded, widest at middle; subapical depression v-shaped, terminating in a shallow non-sulcate central depression; disc dense with large irregular-shaped punctures, spaces between punctures rugose in appearance, a smooth transverse tumescence either side of central impression, a smooth longitudinal strip behind central impression; short fine multi-directional setae and long erect setae. Pterothorax: Ventrites reddishbrown to dark brown; metaventrite with numerous seta-associated punctures, most setae directed postero-medially; elytra brown and black with orange to yellowish fasciate and apical markings (each elytron with a large orange transverse hatchet-shaped fascia which is broadest laterally, and an orange apical macula which meets the outside margin; the brown areas between base and fascia and fascia and apex infused with black); elytra length to width ratio 2.48–2.55:1 (holotype 2.53); 8 th stria beginning near base; punctation without lateral nodules; punctures large at base, reducing in diameter towards apices (to about half diameter or smaller posterior of fascia), most striae ending before apical maculae; epipleurae virtually obsolete at apical maculae; interstriae with singular rows of fine posteriorly-directed semi-decumbent setae, and less frequent longer erect setae. Legs: Femora yellow basally and brown apically (apical two-thirds to three-quarters of profemora and a little more than the apical half of mesoand metafemora brown), tibiae and tarsi brown, all basitarsi with a small but distinct ventral tarsal pad (Fig. 18), tarsal pads yellowish; profemora slightly thicker than other femora. Abdomen: Ventrites brown. Male genitalia: Tegmen as in Figs 8, 36, tegminal plate with an incurved lateral sclerite at its broadest point, weakly sinuate towards parameroid lobes which neatly taper to a rounded (not digitiform) point distally, dorsal sinus weakly narrowed in middle, about one-quarter tegmen length, ventral sinus about three-quarters as long as dorsal sinus; median lobe as in Fig. 75; pygidium as in Fig. 111.

Etymology. This species is named after its type locality, the northern Queensland town of Mareeba.

Biology. Specimens have been collected in October, November and December.

Distribution (Map 1). Queensland: Atherton Tablelands. Western Australia: Kimberley.

Remarks. Specimens from Western Australia cannot be morphologically differentiated from the Queensland specimens constituting the type series. A male from Walsh Point (Mitchell Plateau, WA) was dissected and the tegmen found to differ slightly in proportion (though not in shape) to that of the male from Bakerville (Irvinebank, Qld). The absence of the blackish colouration above and below the fascia observed on the Walsh Point specimen does not correlate with geography as the elytral colouration of the other Western Australian specimen is more like those from Queensland. In the absence of strong evidence for species-status for the Western Australian specimens we consider them, and the Queensland specimens to be disjunct populations of a single species. The Western Australian specimens are not given paratype status in case strong evidence for species-status is presented at a later date.