Aphaniosoma scutellare Ebejer 1998

Aphaniosoma scutellare Ebejer, 1998

Fig. 75

EGYPT • 2 ♀♀; Alexandria, Abu Kir; 20 Oct. 2003; P. Gatt leg.; beach, wrack; PG • 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀, preserved in alcohol; same collection data as for preceeding; MJE.

A species described from Turkey and later reported from Germany. The species is distinctive when the pale scutellum contrasts with the uniformly dark grey scutum and the dark basal flagellomere (Fig. 75A), but completely grey specimens and others with a yellow basal flagellomere do occur (see above under A. notatum). It shares characters with the creperum group of species on account of its dark colouration, the long pair of setae on the frons and in the male, the shape of the postgonite: a narrow, curved, dark, blunt-ended structure often easily seen without dissection. It also shares the ‘globular’ appearance of the epandrium, as seen in situ (Fig. 76B), with A. notatum and A. proximum (see above under A. notatum). It is identified from the shape of the ventro-lateral margin of tergite 6, which is narrowed at its lower antero-lateral angle, and from the shape of the pregenital sternite, which is irregularly hexagonal in shape bearing a broad ventrally directed lobe from each antero-lateral margin (Ebejer 1998: 222, figs 68–70). It is not a common species.

Cyprus, Germany, Turkey (Ebejer 1998, 2021a; Bährmann 2006). New record for Egypt.