Pallodes Erichson, 1843

Pallodes Erichson 1843: 50. Type species: Pallodes silaceus Erichson, 1843 (= Sphaeridium pallidus Palisot de Beauvois, 1805).

Notes. As mentioned above, the genus Pallodes, as currently understood, is large and variable. All known species have relatively long and simple metatarsi, and the posterior edges of mesocoxal cavities are joined mesally by a fine line extending across the anterior process of the metaventrite. The Australian species also have a distinct frontoclypeal suture, while most Indo-Malayan species have either a weak transverse depression, a pair of small concavities or no depression at all. Australian species also lack a metathoracic discrimen, while in the those from some other areas a suture can be more or less traced at the posterior end of the metaventrite. Although the type species, P. pallidus (Palisot de Beauvois), and other species from the Western Hemisphere have a distinct frontoclypeal suture, they differ from all Australian species, including the two described here, in having the labrum broadly, weakly impressed, the prosternum only weakly convex, the mesocoxal cavities more narrowly separated, and the axillary spaces absent. Pallodes adults and larvae are often associated with the softer fruiting bodies (mushrooms) of a wide variety of Basidiomycetes, including species of Pleurotus (Tricholomataceae), Amanita (Amanitaceae), Boletus (Boletaceae), Strobilomyces (Boletaceae), Lactarius (Russulaceae), Russula (Russulaceae), Laccaria (Hydnangiaceae) and Pluteus (Pluteaceae) (Leschen 1988; Cline & Leschen 2005). A number of unnamed Australian species have been seen in collections, but a species-level revision is beyond the scope of the present work. Here we include a distinctive species previously described from New Guinea and known from northern QLD and new species based on a small series from southern QLD.