Pallodes nigroapicalis Lawrence & Kirejtshuk 2019, sp. nov.

Pallodes nigroapicalis sp. nov.

(Figs 15–17, 41–42, 49, 53–54, 57)

Diagnosis. This species may be distinguished by the reddish-orange colour of the most of the dorsal surface with a contrasting dark patch at the apex of each elytron. There are a number of similar species in Queensland, and a complete diagnosis must await a species-level revision of this group in the Australo-Pacific region. The tegmen may be distinguished from that of P. beccarii by the slender cleft at the apex.

Description. Length = 2.15–2.90 (2.54 ± 0.24, n = 12) mm. Body broadly ovate and strongly convex; body length/elytral width = 1.24–1.31 (1.28); greatest depth/elytral width = 0.57–0.63 (0.60). Dorsal surfaces reddishorange with elytral apices dark brown or black; pygidium, undersurfaces, legs and antennal funicle yellow or reddish-yellow, antennal club dark brown or black. Dorsal vestiture very short and not visible under lower magnifications; vestiture of ventral surfaces varied, very short and fine on most surfaces, but thicker and darker on metanepisterna and denser at the apex of ventrite 5. Head 0.88× as long as wide, punctation very fine and sparse, obliterated posteriorly. Vertexal line absent. Eyes 0.31× head width. Temples 0.25× as long as eye, straight. Frontoclypeal suture distinct. Clypeus 0.35× as long as wide at base, sides converging for basal half, then subparallel; apex subtruncate. Labrum about 0.30× as long as wide; anterior edge truncate with small notch at middle. Antennal scape 1.36× as long as wide and 1.87× as long as pedicel; antennomere 3 about 1.67× as long as 4; club 0.97× as long as antennomeres 3–8 combined and 1.62× as long as wide; terminal antennomere 0.83× as long as wide. Mandible strongly, abruptly curved at apex, which is obliquely bidentate and dorsally serrate; mola well-developed with a number of transverse ridges; prostheca widest at base, narrowing apically, lined with hairs, which are longer at apical end; base of mola, ventrally with densely setose lobe. Apical maxillary palpomere about 2.5× as long as wide, widest near base with sides gradually converging to narrowly rounded apex. Mentum 0.5× as long at middle as wide, with apex broadly emarginate forming two rounded anterior processs. Apical labial palpomere about 1.5× as long as wide, widest near base, with curved sides and narrowly rounded apex. Genal ridges sinuate, but almost straight, extending to ends of temples. Pronotum 0.32–0.44 (0.36)× as long as wide, widest at middle; anterior edge distinctly emarginate; anterior angles broadly rounded; sides obliquely explanate; lateral margins narrow, not visible for their entire lengths from above; posterior angles more or less right and posterior edge strongly curved, unmargined, slightly sinuate on either side of very short, broad prescutellar lobe; disc very finely and sparsely punctate, the punctures usually separated by more than four diameters; interspaces lightly sculptured and shiny, the sculpturing consisting of very fine, transversely aligned ridges. Prosternum 0.56× as long as mid length of procoxal cavity, weakly carinate with small, acute, anterior projection; prosternal process 0.44× as wide as mid length of procoxal cavity, not curved behind coxae, with truncate apex and short vertical wall. Scutellar shield 0.40× as wide as pronotum, subacute at apex but with tip somewhat rounded; surface punctation similar to that on pronotal disc. Elytra 0.91–0.99 (0.95)× as long as wide and 2.64–3.29 (2.86)× as long as pronotum; sides steep and lateral edges not visible from above; apices broadly, independently rounded, usually exposing pygidial apex; disc with nine distinct rows of moderately large, closely aligned punctures with scattered, very fine punctures in between them; punctures in the outer row and two inner rows larger than those in remaining rows; interspaces not or very finely sculptured and shiny. Epipleura slightly oblique, broader anteriorly, gradually narrowed posteriorly and extending almost to posterior edge of ventrite 4. Anterior edge of mesoventrite (Fig. 53) on a slightly different plane than metaventrite, its anterior edge with short, low median carina, its posterior edge slightly elevated (in ventral view) and broadly emarginate to receive anterior process of metaventrite. Mesocoxae separated by 0.59× longest longitudinal diameter of mesocoxal cavity. Metaventrite moderately convex, shortest distance between meso- and metacoxal cavities 0.33× greatest width of ventrite; discrimen absent; axillary spaces (Fig. 54) large, extending posterior beyond middle of ventrite and lined with row of punctures; posterior edges of mesocoxal cavities joined by fine, anteriorly curved line at about middle of the anterior process of metaventrite, which is broadly rounded at apex. Metanepisternum 4.9× as long as wide, widest near anterior end and narrowed posteriorly Metacoxae separated by 0.50× mid length (shortest diameter) of metacoxa. Protibia slightly expanded apically, its outer edge densely lined with short serrations; outer apex rounded with six long spines. Mesotibia (Fig. 57) moderately expanded, 3.0× as long as wide, widest at apical third and rounded subapically, its outer edge lined with long spines; metatibiae not or barely expanded. Anterior edges of meso- and metatibiae each with longitudinally oblique setal row. Basal pro- and mesotarsomeres moderately expanded and lobed. Metatarsomeres simple and metatarsus almost as long as metatibia. Abdominal ventrite 1 with shallowly curved postcoxal lines sparsely lined with small oval pits; ventrites 2–5 each with transverse carina near anterior end. Abdomen with ventrite 1 at lateral third 0.86× as long as ventrite 2, with intercoxal process subtruncate at apex and with postcoxal lines broadly, gradually curved, extending to about middle of ventrite and located close to intercoxal process; ventrites 2–4 more or less equal in length, and 5 about 1.3× as long as 4; ventrites 2–4 each with a fine anterior transverse carina and a more prominent transverse carina closer to middle; ventrite 5 with two transverse carinae both near anterior edge and apex broadly rounded in female, very weakly biemarginate in male. Pygidium with straight basal carina, its apex broadly rounded in female and slightly truncate in male. Tergite VIII (anal sclerite) in male apically rounded. Tegmen (Fig. 41) about 2.4× as long as wide, widest near base, with sides converging to moderately broadly rounded, deeply cleft apex; sides and apex densely lined with short setae; anterior strut 0.25× as long as body of tegmen with subtruncate apex. Penis (Fig. 42) 0.63× as long as body of tegmen and 1.59× as long as wide, with anterior penile strut 3.3× as long as body of penis. Ovipositor (Fig. 49) 2.00× as long as wide, widest at base, flattened; paraprocts 0.81× as long as gonocoxites, which are 1.34× as long as their combined widths, widest near base and gradually narrowing to subacute, contiguous apices, with extremely small gonostyli at apex.

Variation. Some specimens collected in 1970 have darker dorsal surfaces (more or less fuscous with somewhat blackish elytral apices).

Type specimen: Holotype, ♂: “ McDonald Nat. Park, Tamborine Mtn. QLD, 29 Oct. 1983, S. A. Slipinski &, J. F. Lawrence colls, ex mushrooms” (ANIC type #25-014997).

Paratypes. QLD: Bunya Mts. Nat. Park (26.50S, 151.33E), 5 km NW of Mt. Mowbullan, Bunya pine forest, c. 3500’, 8.i.1970, in bracket fungus, Britton, Holloway, Misko (9, ANIC, ZIN); Bunya Mts. Nat. Park, 1000m, 10.vii.1982, SBP108, rainforest litter, S. & J. Peck (5, ANIC, CMN); McDonald Nat. Park, Tamborine Mtn., 29.x.1993, in mushrooms, S. A. Slipinski, J. F. Lawrence (13, ANIC, ZIN).

Distribution. Southern QLD.

Biology. Adults in mushrooms. Etymology. Derived from the Latin niger, nigra, nigrum, black and apex, apicis, tip, referring to the dark pigment at the elytral apices.